4  Best practices

Whether you are attending class with the instructor, leading a lab, or holding office hours, remember that you are a leader of students and representing the department. As a TA you are employed by the department, so you should treat your TAship with the same seriousness and professionalism as any other job or internship.

Below are best practices for a successful TAship.

4.1 Before Classes Begin

  • Technology: During training, you will be asked about your ability to use Gradescope for grading and Zoom for online office. For whiteboarding during online office hours, you can turn your cell phone into a document camera by aiming it at a paper or whiteboard. If your computer or laptop fails, please get in touch with the instructor immediately. If needed, the department has some emergency loaners so you can continue to succeed in the interim.

  • Books: You should never have to purchase a textbook for a course you’re TAing. Many courses now have electronic versions of the text available for free online or through the Duke Libraries. Additionally, the department has copies of textbooks you can borrow for the duration of your TAship. Please let the Undergraduate Coordinator know if you need to borrow a copy of the textbook for the course you’re TAing. Make sure to return the book at the end of the semester.

  • Canvas: Canvas is a university-wide course development and presentation platform known as a Learning Management System (LMS). You can access Canvas with your Net ID at https://canvas.duke.edu; however, your course faculty must manually add you to their course. Canvas allows faculty (and TAs if the faculty gives permission) to post course information such as lecture notes, assignments, announcements, assignment solutions, and other teaching materials you want your students to be able to access. Note that undergraduate TAs are not supposed to have access to the entire gradebook in Canvas; however, undergraduate TAs may be able to do anonymous grading. Canvas also offers features for sending emails to individuals or groups, hosting online discussions, collecting homework assignments, and posting and viewing grades. Canvas may also be used to organize Zoom meetings for office hours.

    For an overview of capabilities and various tutorials, go to https://go.canvas.duke.edu/training-materials/introduction-canvas/. Duke’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) also periodically offers Canvas training. Your required TA training may also include Canvas training. For any questions about Canvas, consult your course instructor or the Undergraduate Coordinator.

  • Course website: Many courses have public course websites that contain / link to course materials. Familiarize yourself with the course website.

  • Discussion and communication tools: Ed Discussions is a common choice for an online discussion tool, as it’s built into Canvas. Some faculty members may use tools not built into Canvas, such as Slack. Once your instructor has chosen a discussion tool, ensure you’re familiar with it or ask for training on the tool from your instructor or the Undergraduate Coordinator. Note that some courses use different communication tools for teaching team communication and communication with students. Note that some faculty might choose not to use an online discussion tool.

  • Gradescope: Gradescope is an online grading tool that can be integrated with Canvas. You can access it through Canvas for by directly logging on to the Gradescope website with your Net ID. Gradescope is used extensively in the department, and all TAs will be trained in its use. Discuss with your instructor if you have previously used Gradescope for grading and think it would assist your course duties this semester. Addtionally, if your instructor is using Gradescope, and you have not previously used it for grading, ask questions and ask for training to understand how best to complete your grading duties fully. If you or the instructor would like help with Gradescope, you may ask the Undergraduate Coordinator for course-specific training.

  • Copies: If your instructor asks you to make physical copies for the course, please email the Undergraduate Coordinator for access and instructions.

  • Supplies: Please inform your instructor of any unmet supply needs, such as chalk, dry-erase markers, red pens, etc., for instructional and grading purposes. If these items are missing in a TA office hours space, please let the Undergraduate Coordinator know.

  • Computing labs: Students are required to bring their own device for all undergraduate labs in the department. Large lower-level undergraduate courses often use OIT-provided Docker containers for computing. Graduate courses often use department servers. Graduate and experienced undergraduate TAs usually supervise the computing lab sections. In larger courses, undergraduate TAs might also be assigned as lab helpers. If you’re new to your courses’ computing environment, you should ask for help from the instructor and the Undergraduate Coordinator.

4.2 Labs

  • Meet with the instructor before courses begin and at least once a week during the semester to learn how the instructor would like the lab session run and discuss upcoming labs and any issues that arise.

  • During the first day of lab, do what you can to set the course climate and develop a rapport with the class. Get students to interact with you and their classmates either through introductions, small group discussions, or asking questions. Give information about yourself that helps establish that you are both credible and approachable. You will want students to leave after the first lab knowing why the lab sections are essential and what your expectations will be. After the first lab, you will want to leave knowing the students’ expectations and knowing they are engaged enough to begin expending the time and energy needed to do well in the course.

  • Ensure you have worked through the lab beforehand, leaving ample time to ask the instructor and Head TA for clarification. Make sure you understand the general learning objectives. Be ready to explain to students why they are being asked to do the exercise.

  • During the lab, walk around the room and engage the students. Please encourage them to explore and play rather than go through the motions. Ask them questions. Be receptive to their questions. Help them link the computing lab to what has been covered in the text and lectures.

  • Please avoid “didactic dictation”. One of the most frustrating experiences for a new coder is to have code quickly and sometimes inaudibly dictated to them by an experienced coder who talks too fast while typing in unreadably tiny font on a screen half the class can’t see and allows no time for correction, troubleshooting, or questions. Live coding should be done slowly, where you demonstrate something as you talk about it, and students code along. You don’t have to be perfect. It’s okay to make mistakes and correct them, modeling authentic coding for your students. If you make a mistake or get an error, model the process of troubleshooting by talking through finding the issue and making corrections. Demonstrate first, and then have students work on their code. Watch for frustration. Address it positively. Suggestions for how to do this incredibly well can be found here.

  • Wander around the classroom and check in with students (or teams of students) even when there are no questions. If there are many questions, establish a procedure you will use to answer them fairly and in some order. Students are more likely to reach out and ask a question if you’re physically closer to them than if you’re sitting in front of the classroom. Don’t just ask “Any questions?” Instead, ask, “what questions do you have for me?” or say, “I’ll take three questions now,” which are more effective ways to solicit inquiry.

  • If you have suggestions for improving the lab materials or find errors in the lab instructions, discuss them with your instructor. Be sure you understand how corrections will be made for later lab sections when an early lab TA discovers a needed correction.

4.3 Office Hours

  • Make sure you have read the text and class notes. Use the same notation, definitions, and perspectives as the text’s author and the class’s instructor.

  • Make sure to convey your interest in helping students. Sitting in the help room (or on Zoom) doing your own homework and not making eye contact with an entering student will often convey to the student that you are not interested in helping. Learn students’ names, and offer yours.

  • Avoid solving homework problems for students. Giving students the answer does not help them develop the problem-solving skills necessary for them to do well in the course. Ask guiding, probing questions, but get the student to think. Offer similar problems as examples to work through together. Your students should expect to have their questions answered, but they should not expect you to give them the answers to the homework questions. Never tell students their work is correct; this will lead to problems if you are wrong.

  • Students differ in their mathematical preparation, and for our undergraduate courses, students will often be very rusty on algebra or calculus, depending on the course. Be sure to work from the student’s level. If a student is having challenges beyond what you feel equipped to help, refer them to the instructor.

  • Make sure to speak clearly, slowly, and audibly in person or online. Do not assume your students know a particular theorem or distribution if it has not been used in the course. Speak respectfully and let them know the course is meant to be challenging, but success happens with practice and sufficient time spent on the work.

  • When you don’t know how to work to the answer, do not fake it. Be honest, and seek another TA or the instructor. Giving a student incorrect information will snowball into a more significant problem. If you promise to get back to them, write it down and follow it up. Share with your peer TAs or ask in a discussion forum on the TA training site.

  • Let the instructor know if you have students struggling with the material or not knowing where to begin. It’s hard for anyone to ask for help if they are not used to needing it. Be kind and patient with students who show up feeling panicked or anxious. But mostly, be kind. You were a beginner once, and the student may be lost or have not learned how to study in a statistics course. Kindness and patience are the best compliments in TA evaluations.

  • For online office hours, set up Zoom office hours with your Duke Zoom account via Canvas.

4.4 Grading

  • Before you begin to grade, go through solutions and double-check answers, points breakdown, etc. This is important – make sure that you understand the solutions. You should not start grading if you don’t feel 100% confident that you can solve the problem (even after seeing the answer key). Instead, review the content and discuss it with the instructor or other course TAs.

  • Grade like a human, not a machine. Use your judgment, and check in with the instructor or the Head TA if you’re unsure if a student’s solution is good enough, even if it doesn’t exactly match the key. Note that being able to do this appropriately and fairly requires that you have mastered the course content.

  • Understand the policies for partial credit, late assignments, etc., and apply them consistently.

  • For graduate TAs, find out from the instructor whether they expect you to make the solution key or grading rubric, including answers and a breakdown of how points will be distributed. Ask the instructor to review it before it goes live.

  • Grade by question, i.e., grade all of question 1, then all of question 2, etc. This will facilitate greater consistency. You may be assigned only one or a few questions from an entire assignment, particularly if you use Gradescope.

  • If you are sharing grading duties with another TA, calibrate for consistency. Students will be frustrated and angry if graders differ in their process of assigning points (and you will hear about it!).

  • Record grades per the instructor’s instructions, and always double-check your work.

  • Check with the instructor on how to enter missing grades, i.e., with a blank or a zero. Blanks can play havoc with scoring algorithms that require replacing minimums. This also depends on whether you are grading within Gradescope or in Canvas.

  • Finish all grading within one week of receiving the grading assignment unless otherwise instructed by your instructor. If an emergency or illness will prevent timely grading completion, inform the instructor as soon as possible.

4.5 Artificial Intelligence

  • Courses will have different policies regarding allowed use of artificial intelligence (AI) , so check with the instructor about the policy for that course. If you use AI when working with students, make sure it is alignment with the course policy. It can be confusing for students and potentially detrimental to their learning if you are showing them how to use tools in a way that is not allowed in the course.

  • If you use AI to help students (as allowed in the course), use the AI tools used in the course, if applicable, or those provided by Duke if no specific tool is used in the course. This ensures students are getting help based on AI tools available to all students (rather than niche or paid tools only available to some). As a student, you have free access to a suite of AI tools. Learn more at https://oit.duke.edu/ai-suite/