The following is a draft of the procedure
required by the Graduate School for approving
a graduate student as Teaching Assistant.
Graduate Teaching Assistant(GTA) Duties
and Responsibilities
We will have two types of GTA's:
Type 1: Lab GTA
A lab GTA will be responsible for 8 hours
of lab instruction per week. Lab GTA's
will grade and supervise the lab work
. The professor assigned to the course
will be responsible for final grading
of the course.
Type 2: Teaching GTA
A teaching GTA will be responsible for
6 hours of teaching/lab perweek. The teaching
GTA will be responsible for lecture/lab
and grading of the course(s) assigned
to him/her.
Lab GTA's will be assigned to monitor/teach
the lab portion of the service courses such
as 101, 115, 109, 111 and 165.
Teaching GTA's will be assigned to teach
any of our service courses.
Lab GTA's will attend 8 hours of lab,
will have 2 hours of posted office hours
and will spend 5 to 8 hours per week on
preparation and grading of lab assignments.
Teaching GTA's will have 6 hours per week
lecture and or lab responsibility, 2 hours
of posted office hours and 7 to 10 hours
preparation for the courses assigned to
them, as well as grading.
The students and faculty will evaluate
the GTA. In case of a lab assistant, the
professor who is in charge of the lecture
part of the course will be responsible for
evaluating the lab assistant. In the case
of a teaching assistant, the department
chair or his/her delegate will visit the
TA class at least once every semester and
prepare a written evaluation report.
The lab assistant will be trained by the
lab manager and the professor in charge
of the lecture at least a week before classes
start.
Teaching assistants will be asked to attend
a half-day seminar given by professors who
are in charge of coordination of the service
courses taught by the assistant. In addition
to this half-day seminar, new teaching assistants
will be given a prepared course syllabus,
lab and homework assignments, as well as
exams from the previous semester.
In addition to the evaluation procedures,
specified in part 6, the graduate director
will be monitoring the TA's work in the
classroom and lab and will provide the department
chair with his/her evaluation and progress.
Requirements for GTA
good oral and written communication
skills
graduate student standing
GPA of 3.0 or higher
for a teaching assistantship, preference
will be given to those who already have
a master's degree in a related field
Selection process
Candidates will be asked to apply for
GTA positions in the spring semester to
be awarded for the following year. The
applicant must provide the following:
the graduate application form approved
by the Graduate School
a vita
2 letters of recommendation stating
the applicant's ability to teach and
the applicant's oral and written communication
skills
a copy of the applicant's TSU transcript
the selection of GTA's will be consistent
with the University's fair practice
policies for non-discrimination
Some faculty in the department have grants which
provide research assistantships (RAs) to students.
At this point these positions are managed by
individual faculty and it is upto them to define
a selection criteria. The RAs and TAs both must
be approved by the graduate school and uses
same forms for processing.
There are other facilities which provide
financial aid to students. Academic computing
facilities, Library, Graduate school, and other
such departments also need student help from
computer science graduates. These positions
are managed by themselves and students can find
more information from graduate school and placement
office.
Admitted to the Graduate Program and
has completed all prerequisites to the
program.
Duties and Expectations
Students may be given half-time or
full-time lab assistantship position.
A half-time assistant is expected to
attend 4 hours of lab and have 2 hours
of tutoring in the lab each week. The
assistant is also to help grading lab
papers.
Duties for full-time lab assistant
will be 8 hours of lab and 4 hours of
tutoring per week, in addition to grading
lab papers.
Supervision and Evaluation
Professors who teach the lecture part
of the course will be the lab assistant
supervisor and solely responsible for
the student evaluation and grading.
At the end of each semester, students
in the course, as well as the professor
teaching the course, will evaluate the
lab assistant.
Courses for which lab assistants may
be used include:
COSC 101, COSC 109, COSC 111, COSC 236,
COSC 237, COSC 280, COSC 501, and others.
Compensation
Half-time Lab Assistant = 10 hours
per week
Up to 6 credit hours of tuition waiver
for each semester
$1000 stipend for each semester
Full-time Lab Assistant = 20 hours
per week
Up to 12 credit hours of tuition waiver
for each semester
$2000 stipend for each semester.
All assistantship candidates will
qualify for the Maryland in-state tuition.
Assistantships will be selected each semester.
The selection criteria will be based on
GPA, two recommendations and their communication
skills. Once an assistantship is given to
a candidate, it will be renewed automatically
each semester unless the student's GPA falls
below the graduate school requirements.
The students who are already awarded assistantships
will not enter into the new pool of applicants.
Only vacated slots of assistantships will
be filled each semester. Each semester,
the graduate program director will advertise
for the possible slots open in the department.
Department
of Computer & Information Sciences 7800 York Road, 4th
Floor
