TEACHING ASSISTANTS ON THE FRONT LINES: A STUDY OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT'S PROGRAM

Abstract

The Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UGTA’s) Program within The University of Arizona’s Computer Science Department has been wildly successful over the past half decade. With more than 1200 undergraduate students, class sizes, especially at the introductory level, can be quite large. UGTAs are a crucial resource to both students and professors in these larger courses. However, the program faces challenges and has the potential to grow - most notably in its need for training the UGTAs when they are first hired and the need for more flexibility within the job. Improvements aimed at addressing these areas have been developed and launched in the past year. These improvements include a two day training program that newly hired UGTA would be required to participate in as well as a new position for experienced UGTAs to demonstrate growth and experience - both of which were launched in the Spring 2023 semester.