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.
