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Scaling Introductory Courses Using Undergraduate Teaching Assistants

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Mehran SahamiAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Pages 657 - 658

https://doi.org/10.1145/3017680.3017694

Published: 08 March 2017 Publication History

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Abstract

Undergraduates are widely used in support of Computer Science (CS) departments' teaching missions as teaching assistants, peer mentors, section leaders, course assistants, and tutors. Those undergraduates engaged in teaching have the opportunity to deeply engage with CS concepts and develop key communication and social competencies. As enrollments surge, undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) play a larger role in student experience and outcomes. While faculty and graduate student instructional support does not necessarily increase with the number of students in our courses, the number of qualified undergraduate teaching assistants for introductory CS courses should scale with the number of students in our courses. With large courses, the significance of the UTAs' role in students' learning likely also increases. Students have relatively little interaction with the instructor, and faculty may have more challenges monitoring and supporting individual UTAs. UTAs have a major role in affecting climate in computer science courses. The climate in large courses has substantial implications for students from groups traditionally underrepresented in computing. This panel will discuss how undergraduate teaching assistants can serve as a scalable effective teaching resource that benefits both the students in the course and the UTAs themselves.

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Cited By

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Deshpande GCheekati SPatel SRaj PSingh MPindur MAl Soghyar NZhao BBabolhavaeji PTaher MNathan KSpaeth WRoozbahani MJoyner DKim MWang XXia M(2024)Transforming CS Education with DevOps: Streamlined Assignment Validation and Delivery @ ScaleProceedings of the Eleventh ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale10.1145/3657604.3664676(259-264)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3657604.3664676
Malik AWoodrow JWang CPiech CMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)TeachNow: Enabling Teachers to Provide Spontaneous, Realtime 1:1 Help in Massive Online CoursesProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3649217.3653629(708-714)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649217.3653629
Akhmetov IAhmed SAyuno KStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)How We Manage an Army of Teaching Assistants: Experience Report on Scaling a CS1 CourseProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630871(32-38)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630871
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Index Terms

Scaling Introductory Courses Using Undergraduate Teaching Assistants
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
        CS1

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Published In

SIGCSE '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 2017

838 pages

ISBN:9781450346986

DOI:10.1145/3017680

General Chairs:
Michael E. Caspersen
Aarhus University
,
Stephen H. Edwards
Virginia Tech
,
Program Chairs:
Tiffany Barnes
North Carolina State University
,
Daniel D. Garcia
University of California, Berkeley

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 08 March 2017

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SIGCSE '17

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SIGCSE

SIGCSE '17: The 48th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 8 - 11, 2017

Washington, Seattle, USA

Acceptance Rates

SIGCSE '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 105 of 348 submissions, 30%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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SIGCSE Virtual 2024

Sponsor:
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1st ACM Virtual Global Computing Education Conference

December 5 - 8, 2024

Virtual Event , NC , USA

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Cited By

View all

Deshpande GCheekati SPatel SRaj PSingh MPindur MAl Soghyar NZhao BBabolhavaeji PTaher MNathan KSpaeth WRoozbahani MJoyner DKim MWang XXia M(2024)Transforming CS Education with DevOps: Streamlined Assignment Validation and Delivery @ ScaleProceedings of the Eleventh ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale10.1145/3657604.3664676(259-264)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3657604.3664676
Malik AWoodrow JWang CPiech CMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)TeachNow: Enabling Teachers to Provide Spontaneous, Realtime 1:1 Help in Massive Online CoursesProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3649217.3653629(708-714)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649217.3653629
Akhmetov IAhmed SAyuno KStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)How We Manage an Army of Teaching Assistants: Experience Report on Scaling a CS1 CourseProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630871(32-38)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630871
Kristiansen NNicolajsen SBrabrand C(2023)Feedback on Student Programming Assignments: Teaching Assistants vs Automated Assessment ToolProceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3631802.3631804(1-10)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3631802.3631804
Akhmetov IAhmed SDoyle MStephenson BDorn BSoh LBattestilli L(2023)Managing an Army of Teaching AssistantsProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3545947.3576317(1373-1373)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2023
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Goletti OMens KHermans F(2022)An Analysis of Tutors’ Adoption of Explicit Instructional Strategies in an Introductory Programming CourseProceedings of the 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3564721.3565951(1-12)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2022
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Riese EBälter O(2022)A Qualitative Study of Experienced Course Coordinators’ Perspectives on Assessment in Introductory Programming Courses for Non-CS MajorsACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/351713422:4(1-29)Online publication date: 15-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517134
Blank AAlvarado CGarcia DDodds ZMerkle LDoyle MSheard JSoh LDorn B(2022)Undergraduate Course Assistant Autonomy in Course Development and TeachingProceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3478432.3499224(1065-1066)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2022
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Riese EKann VMerkle LDoyle MSheard JSoh LDorn B(2022)Training Teaching Assistants by Offering an Introductory CourseProceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Volume 110.1145/3478431.3499270(745-751)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
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Riese ELorås MUkrop MEffenberger TSchulte CBecker BDivitini MBarendsen E(2021)Challenges Faced by Teaching Assistants in Computer Science Education Across EuropeProceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3430665.3456304(547-553)Online publication date: 26-Jun-2021
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