Tutor Training / Apprenticeship in Computer Science

CSE 95 is intended to prepare and support first-time CSE tutors.

Spring 2021

Remote Instruction

Instructor

Mia Minnes (minnes@eng.ucsd.edu), Office hours by appointment

Tutors

Rachel Lim (ral077@ucsd.edu) and Alexandra Michael (aemichae@ucsd.edu)

This course is part of the requirement for all new CSE tutors to complete their training.

When you successfully complete this course, you will receive 2 credit hours that may count towards lower division CSE electives.

In CSE 95, you will learn and practice skills related to assisting with CSE courses as a tutor, both with student-facing tasks and behind-the-scenes course activities with the rest of the instructional team. For example:

• How to help students effectively and how to clearly explain technical materials
• What are professional and unprofessional behaviors when working in a team
• How to learn from others and support one another

For CSE 95, you will be expected to:

• Attend CSE 95 class sections and participate in in-class discussions and activities. If you are unable to participate in a class section synchronously (e.g. for time zone reasons), it is your responsibility to complete the equivalent asynchronous assignment posted on Gradescope. We recommend that you coordinate with at least one other CSE 95 student to schedule a Zoom meeting where you discuss the content and complete the assignment: please reach out to the CSE 95 instructional team (see our emails above) for help connecting with other students in CSE 95 who may need to complete the assignment asynchronously. The expected time to complete this activity is 1 hour.
• Attend the lectures of the course you are tutoring for, along with its staff meeting.
• Complete an out-of-class activity related to the course you’re tutoring each week.

Syllabus

What is the workload for CSE 95?

For this 2-unit course, you can expect to spend up to 6 hours per week

• 1 hour per week attending and participating in CSE 95 lecture (or equivalent asynchronous component, if necessary)
• 3 hours per week attending and engaging with the course lectures for course appointed to tutor
• 1 hour per week attending and participating in staff meeting for course appointed to tutor
• 1 hour per week on CSE 95 out of class assignments

Time spent on the above activities is for-credit time, not for-pay time.

Schedule of Topics:

Each session of CSE 95 will address a key facet of tutoring. You will start to engage with the topic in the pre-class assignment and you should be ready to discuss your ideas in our synchronous Zoom sessions. If you would like advice about a topic before we discuss it in class, please reach out to your mentor to schedule a meeting (the mentor assignments are available on Gradescope).

	Topic   all class materials available here
Week 1	Getting started, imposter syndrome, and asking for help
Week 2	Communication: growth mindset, inclusion, remote engagement
Week 3	Office hour roleplay: meeting students where they are
Week 4	Grading and giving feedback: rubrics and reverse engineering student mistakes
Week 5	Experienced Tutor Panel
Week 6	Professionalism and ethics of tutoring
Week 7	Academic integrity
Week 8	Diversity and inclusion
Week 9	Learning from feedback and instructor-tutor interactions
Week 10	What will be different for in person tutoring?

Grading

This class is taken P/NP. We hope that every student will successfully earn a passing grade in this class. To do so, you need to meet or exceed the following minimum passing thresholds in each course component.

Surveys and forms

All required surveys and forms must be completed

Attendance

Any missed CSE 95 session is communicated to the instructor and tutors in writing and a plan to make up the missed work is proposed and carried out. Any missed class or staff meeting attendance must be communicated to the instructor for the class ahead of time and appropriate tasks must be agreed upon and completed in lieu of participation.

Assignments

All assignments must be completed thoughtfully and in a timely manner.

Diversity and Inclusion

We are committed to fostering a learning environment for this course that supports a diversity of thoughts, perspectives and experiences, and respects your identities (including race, ethnicity, heritage, gender, sex, class, sexuality, religion, ability, age, educational background and more). Our goal is to create a diverse and inclusive learning environment where all students feel comfortable and can thrive. We also expect that you, as a student in this course, will honor and respect your classmates, abiding by the UCSD Principles of Community (https://ucsd.edu/about/principles.html). Please understand that others’ backgrounds, perspectives and experiences may be different than your own, and help us to build an environment where everyone is respected and feels comfortable. If you experience any sort of harassment or discrimination, please contact the instructor as soon as possible. If you prefer to speak with someone outside of the course, please contact the Office of Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination: https://ophd.ucsd.edu/.

Academic Integrity

In this course we expect students to adhere to the UC San Diego Integrity of Scholarship Policy. This means that you will complete your work honestly, with integrity, and support a culture of integrity within the class for which you are tutoring. Some examples of specific ways this policy applies to CSE 95 include:

• Honesty about attendance (including punctuality, engagement, and illness) in class
• Completion of pre-class assignments individually and on-time
• Encouraging honest work among the students in the class for which you are tutoring
• Reporting suspected instances of academic dishonesty in this class, as well as in the class you are tutoring, to the instructor right away.

Outside Tutoring

Individuals are not permitted to approach students to offer services of any kind in exchange for pay, including tutoring services. This is considered solicitation for business and is strictly prohibited by University policy.

Students with Disabilities

Students requesting accommodations for this course due to a disability must provide a current Authorization for Accommodation (AFA) letter issued by the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), the Student OSD portal is at https://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/sso/osdsp/home. Students are required to present their AFA letters to Faculty (please make arrangements to contact me privately) and to the OSD Liaison in the department in advance so that accommodations may be arranged.

Class material and intellectual property

My lectures and course materials, including videos, assignments, and similar materials, are protected by U.S. copyright law and by University policy. I am the exclusive owner of the copyright in those materials I create. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own use. You may also share those materials with another student who is enrolled in or auditing this course. You may not reproduce, distribute or display (post/upload) lecture notes or recordings or course materials in any other way — whether or not a fee is charged — without my express prior written consent. You also may not allow others to do so. If you do so, you may be subject to student conduct proceedings under the UC San Diego Student Code of Conduct.

Similarly, you own the copyright in your original work. If I am interested in posting your answers or papers on the course web site, I will ask for your written permission.

Educational Research

This class is participating in research to understand an array of specific classroom and learning experience that students have in response to the pedagogical and curricular decisions instructors make and to address the following research questions:

• What pedagogies lead to better learning outcomes, and for which students?
• What educational practices increase the persistence and success of students, particularly those from underrepresented groups?
• What student practices lead to increased learning and success in real-world settings?
• Answers to these questions will inform teaching practice at UC San Diego, and also have the potential to contribute to the global knowledge base of how to improve student learning in a large university setting.

Specifically for this quarter, CSE 95 is participating in a project on teaching self efficacy.

Details on the project studying different types of assignments are in this document. In particular, if you consent to participate in this study, no action is needed. If you DO NOT consent to participate in this study, or you choose to opt-out at any time during the quarter, please submit this form online. Your instructor will not have access to the list of students who opted out until after grades are posted. Note that you must separately opt-out of the study for each course involved in this study.