AC 2012-3165: PARTICIPATION IN AN UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIP: EXPERIENCES, INFLUENCES, AND OUTCOMES

For the past decade, the First-Year Engineering Program at a medium sized, Midwestern private institution has utilized undergraduate students as graders / teaching assistants for their Introduction to Engineering Systems course sequence. Anecdotally this has always been a wellfunctioning program in which students and faculty have a positive, mutually beneficial relationship that likely led to the selectivity of the program in its current form. The number of applicants has varied from year to year, but there have always been significantly more applicants than positions available and there is a high return rate (students continuing in the role over multiple semesters or years). For this reason, it was determined that a more formal assessment of the program was needed to better understand the factors contributing to its success both from the perspectives of the student assistant as well as the students they serve. This study data is from 2005-2011 and takes a dual approach of: (1) historical categorization of the demographics and performance of the student assistants and (2) qualitative assessment through open ended responses to a survey questions relating to their experiences and future plans. There were a total of 29 respondents that were a mix of: current student assistants, former student assistants (students that are still undergraduates but no longer student assistants), and post-graduate student assistants (students that have graduated from the study institution and are now working in industry or are in graduate programs). Results reveal that student expectations are met by the program and the majority of students self-rated their performance as good or very good. Student assistants indicated that working with first-year students either in class or outside of class was the aspect of the job they enjoyed the most and grading was the aspect they enjoyed the least. All respondents indicated some positive benefit from participating in the program, either direct or indirect in terms of listing it on a resume or discussing it in an interview. Candid feedback (good and bad) on the program is reported by both students that continued over multiple semesters and those that did not continue. Finally, plans for the future of the program and changes such as additional training and recognition are discussed.