Dear STA 447/2006 students,                             (March 22, 2020)

First of all, thanks to all of you for switching to the online version of
Midterm #2 last week, and for handling all of the resulting challenges and
surprises so well.  To be honest, I was nervous about whether everything
would work okay with the Quercus quiz interface and so on, but in the end
I think it went well.  The midterms are currently being graded, and we
hope to post results within about a week.  Meanwhile the midterm solutions
are posted on the course web page (http://probability.ca/sta447/).

As you know, there are still officially two weeks left in the semester.
Since our class's final exam was cancelled, you will NOT be evaluated any
further in this class.  And, we have already covered loads of great
material about Stochastic Processes, including all of the most essential
topics.  Plus, I know that you have lots of other concerns right now,
including your other classes and also dealing with all of the changes and
challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis.  So, at this point, it would
be perfectly reasonable and acceptable for you to simply move on from
STA447/2006, and just concentrate on your other courses and issues, and
that would be perfectly fine and understandable with no regrets at all.

However, some of you might still wish to learn some additional material
about Stochastic Processes anyway, out of interest and/or to help with
your future studies or employment.  So, for those who do, I will be
holding online virtual classes the next two weeks at our usual class time
(Thursdays at 6:10 PM).  If you wish, then at the designated time, you can
connect to these sessions on the "Bb Collaborate" tab of the course's
Quercus web page, where I will lead an online version of the class.

The style of these online classes will be somewhat different from our
usual lectures.  We will cover Poisson Processes (Section 4.3) this
Thursday (March 26), and then Continuous-Time Processes (Section 4.4) next
Thursday (April 2).  The plan is that you will follow along in your own
textbook at home, while I summarise the key concepts verbally while making
references to the book.  (I will use the convention that e.g. if I say
"page 113.6" then I mean about 60% of the way down on page 113, etc.)
Ideally, you should try to look over the corresponding section in advance,
before the class.  I will do my best to explain the material as we go, but
due to the different format I will not be able to describe everything in
complete detail.  The sessions are scheduled to finish in just two hours
(i.e., at 8:00), and actually we might end even earlier.  And since it
will be online, I cannot give you any treats. :-(

To summarise, we will have online discussion classes the next two
Thursdays at 6:10 PM on Quercus's Bb Collaborate, and IF you choose to
attend then you will follow along in the textbook while I summarise the
key concepts of Section 4.3 (this week) and Section 4.4 (next week).  And
you will NOT be tested or evaluated on this material in any way.  I hope
this makes sense and seems okay.  Email me if you have any questions or
suggestions or concerns -- or just to tell me that you will join in (since
I have no idea how many students will participate in this!).  Also, a
reminder that the STUDENT EVALUATION period is now open, so please provide
course ratings and feedback for us.  Most importantly, best wishes to all
of you as you deal with all of the sudden changes and challenges resulting
from the current cancellation of all in-person interactions.  I hope you
are all staying safe and healthy during this very difficult time.

Thanks to all of you for choosing to study Stochastic Processes with me.

Yours sincerely, Professor Rosenthal