Faculty and TA Supervisor Survey

At present the University has no campus-wide TA or professional training requirements, even in basic policies and procedures. While the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) offers TA training that is open to all graduate students, and many academic units also train their own TAs, these and other efforts have been largely discrete and on the basis of voluntary time, interest, and inclination. Recently, several units have expressed interest in scaling up these training efforts as a means to improving and enhancing undergraduate learning, preparing graduate students for the job market, meeting the demands of the accreditation process, and informing TAs more fully about University policies and expectations. In order to make that work fully meaningful, the first step in this effort is undertaking a university-wide needs assessment.

This needs assessment is a way to determine what is working, what is not, and what faculty and TA supervisors would like to see, if anything, from an expanded TA training program. The administration and graduate students are being surveyed as well.

All information collected through this needs assessment is, and will remain, anonymous. Questions about the survey or its processes should be directed to Tamara Fish.