TAs are usually current students at ITU or recent graduates who support teaching and learning on courses or Study Lab.
In addition to the specific TA tasks, you can also expect to be an integral and valuable part of a teaching team and gain relevant job experience.
The TA role
Exactly what the TA role entails, depends on the type of course, the preferences of the teachers, and to a certain extent the size and composition of the student cohort you will TA for.
Typical TA tasks include,
Teaching and Exercises
- being present at exercises for Q&A, help and instructions for example,
- carrying out quizzes or polls
- making small presentations
- giving feedback or instructions to students
- facilitating reading groups
- leading small group discussions or activities
Communicating with students
- be the go-betweener between students and teachers
- answering and forwarding questions from students after class
- facilitating feedback to students and from students to the course teachers
Course Administration
- undertaking various course administrative tasks, f.ex. updating LearnIT, organizing supervision schedules or collect background data about students’ skills to help teachers plan content and progression
- conducting group formation or assign groups
- print handouts, organise supplies
Assignments
- Supervising student group project collaboration
- Coaching students on individual assignments
- Correcting assignments
- Checking mandatory activities in cases where the mandatory activities have a right or a wrong answer (which is predefined by the course teacher) and answers are qualified by the teacher
- Facilitating peer-to-peer feedback processes but must be properly instructed by the course teachers.
- TAs are never allowed to assess exams.
As a TA, you can also expect to
- participate in regular meetings with teaching teams
- participate in TA workshop run by Learning Support (mandatory for first-time TAs)
- be asked to be present at lectures
- redirect group conflicts to Course Manager, other teachers on the course and/or refer students to the Study and Career Guidance team
- redirect questions about study activities, course registrations or other administrative questions regarding studying to SAP.
What is a good TA?
What defines a good TA differs again from course to course.
Generally speaking, you should be interested in helping other students, be a good communicator and not be afraid of speaking to people and take action where required but also know when to pass the ball to others.
In addition to your interpersonal skills, some courses also require that you have good grasp of specific academic or technical skills, for example quantitative methods, certain programming languages, academic writing etc. You need not necessarily be an expert, but you should be able to communicate your knowledge.