Teaching assistant job descriptions
- Tutors teach tutorial classes using materials provided by the course instructor.
- The tutor works together with the course instructor.
- It is necessary to report to the instructor at least once every two weeks for feedback and discussion; it is also good to attend some lectures.
- Based on the close contact with students, tutors are expected to help the instructor in the midterm.
- Tutors are also expected to help find instructional and practical problems to be solved in class.
- Instructs the students in the laboratory classes using the department facilities.
- Based on the safety training received, observes the safety regulations in the class.
- Before the lab, please, make the experiment by yourself using the available manual and posters.
- During and after the lab, please, record any feedback and suggestions arisen during the procedure. This information will be used when updating instructions and hardware.
- After the lab, lab report is to be evaluated and returned to the students before the next lab class.
- The manual is to include a short review of the related theory and is to provide enough information to be used independently.
- Manuals do not replace textbooks. 3-4 pages for an experiment are enough.
- It is highly recommended to use posters during the lab introduction (10 min) and short guidance at the workstations (manipulation-list) during the experiment.
- Also, a short quiz (10 min) before the lab introduction gives good results and motivation.
For courses with software (like CATIA, ANSYS, ARENA, etc.) the following order for each lab session is recommended:
- Before the class, carefully prepare an example to be solved in class. It should reflect maximum particularities and possibilities of the software tools with underlined practical orientation. The key solution steps are to be saved before the lab session. It is necessary to prepare a one-page command-list to be used during the class, and, later, for independent study.
- During the class (the lab session):
- show demos for accommodation and cognizance,
- explain the software tools, use a poster,
- together, with the class, slowly make the lab-solved case using posters and a command-list,
- give short directions for the assignments,
- record feedback, suggestions and your observations for future improvement of the procedure.
Generally, lab classes are quite independent from the lectures and tutorials. Therefore, lab demonstrators can substantially help in improving the labs, e.g., to cover new important phenomena in the mechanical / industrial engineering practice, etc. Such contributions are considered when assigning TA duties.