Tutor Training in Computer Science

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

Spring 2022

In person! CSE building (EBU3b) 1202 Wednesdays 1pm-1:50pm

Instructor

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

Tutors

Andrew Oabel (aoabel@ucsd.edu) and Serina Khanna (skhanna@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 earn 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 create an inclusive learning enviroment
• 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:

• Read or watch assigned resources related to the science of learning and teaching practice.
• Complete pre-class preparation activities connecting these resources to your experiences as a student and a tutor .
• Attend CSE 95 class sections and participate in in-class discussions and activities.
• Once during the term, observe an experienced tutor and be observed by one of the CSE 95 tutors:
  • First, choose an experienced (not first time) tutor you would like to learn from. Ask them if they would be willing for you to observe them performing an hour's worth of tutoring tasks (e.g. lab hours or grading). During your observation, write down decisions that the experienced tutor made, imagine what alternate choices they might have considered, and try to predict the rationale for why the experienced tutor made the choices they did. After your observation session, share these notes with the experienced tutors and check whether they agree with your predicted rationale.
  • Next, schedule a time for one of the CSE 95 tutors to observe your tutoring.
  • Once you've completed both of these observation steps, write a brief synopsis and reflection that includes: Who did you observe? What was the context (class name and number, activity, main topic)? What was effective about what the experienced tutor did that you would like to incorporate in your own teaching? How close were your predictions for the rationale behind tutoring choices? Who observed you? What was the context (class name and number, activity, main topic)? What did you choose to focus on for your observation? What feedback did you receive? How will you incorporate it into your future teaching?
  • Upload your synopsis to Gradescope by Friday of Week 5. Note that you will need to plan ahead to schedule the two parts of the observation session early enough for you to have time to write up your synopsis.
• End of quarter paper: Due Friday of Week 9. Pick one of the following topics
  • Course improvement. Propose specific changes to the content, assignments, and/or flow of the course you are tutoring. For each proposed change, include (1) the motivation for the change (2) the anticipated impacts to students and/or to our overall educational mission (3) anticipated impacts to the course instructional team workload. For each proposed change, also include any risks you can think of: what might make the change fail?
  • What I wish I had known about tutoring...but nobody told me (or they did but I didn't understand in advance). Reflect on your TAing experience and note what you had to learn the hard way, what you still haven't learned, and what advice or training you wish you had received before you started.
  Upload your paper to Gradescope. (Credit: Luther Tychonievich UVA TA Practicum assignment).

Syllabus

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 in-class 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).

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

Weekly engagement

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. If you are unable to participate in a class section synchronously due to an extenuating circumstance in some week, 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.

Assignments

All assignments must be completed thoughtfully and in a timely manner. At the discretion of the CSE 95 instructional team, assignments that are not sufficiently thoughtful may need to be revised for credit. There will be two assignments: (1) Peer observation and (2) End of quarter paper. Details about the assignments are above. Upload your submissions for these assignments to Gradescope.

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.

Material in this course is curated from a wide range of sources, with attribution and permission. We endeavour to give credit for ideas, suggestions, and .We encourage you to similarly acknowledge the contributions to your own learning from your peers and others.

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.