The TAs would be required to hold office hours and section. Answering emails and newsgroup posts would also be necessary. I would ask for their input on creating homework assignments and test questions, but I would not require it. A weekly staff meeting would be required in which we would discuss various issues relating to the course. For labs (which would be rare), I would ask the TAs to be present to help the students, but I would also be available at this time.

I would like to have 2, 20 hour TAs as opposed to any 10 hour TAs so that there would be 2 dedicated people working for the students. If one of the TAs were experienced and the other not, I would ask the more experienced one to help the other in answering questions and designing sections. If both were experienced, I would just rely on their experience. If neither was experienced, I would try to offer advice from my experience as a TA. In all cases, none of the duties would be reduced or increased for anyone. We would all also discuss student questions, sections, and lectures in the weekly meeting.

If one of the TAs was eager, but inept, I would set up individual meetings with both of the TAs. We would review sections and answers given that previous week. I would try to help the TA develop more effective techniques. Both of the TAs would have individual meetings in order to make it clear that everyone is equal. It would not hurt if an able TA were to have review meetings as well.

If I had a TA who disagreed with me significantly, I would talk to him or her personally and try to reach an agreement. Hopefully, logic would appeal to them in that presenting two conflicting sides in an undergraduate class can be confusing and frustrating for the students. I would try to negotiate methods that we could both be happy with, but in the end, if no such arrangement could be made, I would ask the TA to do things my way.

I would ask the TAs to attend at least some of the lectures and give me pointers on my style and material. This forces them to analyze lecturing techniques and helps me as well. I would also ask them to videotape themselves during section and review it with them (and maybe the other TA). We could offer similar criticism to each other from both sides. I would not be present during their sections so that both the TAs and the students would feel comfortable.

This technique would probably work well enough with TAs who are not difficult, but I could imagine tension with a disagreeable TA.

The New CS301

The first change to CS301 would be to make it letter graded. At the moment, GSIs don't attach much importance to the class. While adding a letter grade won't solve this completely, it will get their attention.

The format of the class would also change. Each week the GSIs would have to prepare an assignment (which they could apply to their classes) and during the first half of the class, they would present their assignment in a small group. The second half would be a more lecture-like setting where the topic for the next class would be introduced.

The assignments would have a practical element so the students don't lose interest, but they would also introduce the GSIs to experimental techniques that could be controversial. Controversy could spark interesting discussions.

The syllabus would remain mostly the same except two new topics would be introduced: "Getting your students interested in going further with the subject." For lower division, they would help show how the current material is useful in upper division classes. For upper division, they could show how the material is relevant to industry and current research.

The second topic would be a TA evaluation form. There should be a class meeting during which the TAs take the perspective of students and write up an evaluation form that evaluates TA effectiveness on the lines of Overall Learning, Clarity, Presentation, Charisma/Presence. Each TA is asked to evaluate his/herself before section (using this form), and then another TA, who was assigned to sit in on that section evaluates the first TA. These results are discussed at the next week's meeting.