skip to main content
10.1145/1121341.1121358acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagessigcseConference Proceedingsconference-collections
Article

Through the looking glass: reflections on using undergraduate teaching assistants in CS1

Published: 03 March 2006 Publication History

Abstract

Over the last several years, there have been reports of many institutions using undergraduate students as teaching assistants (UTAs) in the classroom for CS1 as well as other courses in the curriculum. The literature has shown successes over a wide range of class sizes and UTA responsibilities. At University at Buffalo, we have been using undergraduates as teaching assistants in our CS1 course since Spring 2002, and have been impressed with the results. Throughout the deployment of the UTA program, the instructors of CS1 have observed that when UTAs are utilized in the classroom, both the students and the UTAs themselves benefit from their interactions. The UTAs have also become actively involved in providing feedback about the course design and have been suggesting improvements to assignments and in-class examples. They have also been involved in the process to hire new UTAs to replace those that are graduating. We have observed that such interactions have improved the UTAs sense of investment and ownership in the CS1 course.

References

[1]
Alphonce, C.G. and Ventura, P.R., Object orientation in CS1-CS2 by design, in 7th annual conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. 2002: Aarhus, Denmark. p. 70--74.
[2]
Alphonce, C.G. and Ventura, P.R., Using Graphics to Support the Teaching of Fundamental Object Oriented Principles, in OOPSLA 2003 Educator's Symposium. 2003: Anaheim, California.
[3]
Goldman, K.J., A concepts-first introduction to computer science, in Proceedings of the 35th SIGCSE technical symposium on computer science education. 2004, ACM Press: Norfolk, VA. p. 432--436.
[4]
Kay, D.G., Large introductory computer science classes: Strategies for effective course management, in Proceedings of the twenty-ninth SIGCSE technical symposium on computer science education. 1998, ACM Press: Altlanta, GA. p. 131--134.
[5]
Landavere, M. and Mateik, D., Training undergraduates to support technology in the classroom, in Proceedings of the 27th annual ACM SIGUCCS conference on user services: Mile high expectations. 1999, ACM Press: Denver, CO. p. 140--143.
[6]
Peckham, J., et al., A first course in computer science: The discipline is more than programming. The Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, 2002. 15(5): p. 223--230.
[7]
Reges, S., Using undergraduates as teaching assistants at a state university, in Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE technical symposium on computer science education. 2003, ACM Press: Reno, NV. p. 103--107.
[8]
Roberts, E., Kassianidou, M., and Irani, L., Encouraging women in computer science. SIGCSE Bulletin, 2002. 34(2): p. 84--88.
[9]
Roberts, E., Lilly, E., and Rollins, B., Using undergraduates as teaching assistants in introductory programming courses: An update on the Stanford experience, in Proceedings of the twenty-sixth SIGCSE technical symposium on computer science education. 1995, ACM Press: Nashville, TN. p. 48--52.
[10]
Urban-Lurain, M., Teaching FITness for conceptual understanding: A computer science course for non-computer science majors, in Presented at the annual meeting of the american educational research association (AERA). 2001.
[11]
Ventura, P.R., Wanted: CS1 students. No experience required, in Proceedings of the 35th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer Science Education. 2004, ACM Press: Norfolk, VA.
[12]
Walters, D., et al., Increasing learning and decreasing costs in a computer fluency course, in Proceedings of the 7th annual conference on innovation and technology in computer science education (ITiCSE). 2002, ACM Press: Aarhus, Denmark. p. 208--212.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Interrelation between Teaching Assistants' debugging strategies and adherence to sound tutoring practices during office hoursProceedings of the 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3699538.3699562(1-11)Online publication date: 12-Nov-2024
  • (2023)A Practical Strategy for Training Graduate CS Teaching Assistants to Provide Effective FeedbackProceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3587102.3588776(285-291)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2023
  • (2023)"A field where you will be accepted": Belonging in student and TA interactions in post-secondary CS educationProceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3568813.3600128(356-370)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. Through the looking glass: reflections on using undergraduate teaching assistants in CS1

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGCSE '06: Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
    March 2006
    612 pages
    ISBN:1595932593
    DOI:10.1145/1121341
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 03 March 2006

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. CS1
    2. undergraduate teaching assistants

    Qualifiers

    • Article

    Conference

    SIGCSE06
    Sponsor:

    Acceptance Rates

    Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

    Upcoming Conference

    SIGCSE TS 2025
    The 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
    February 26 - March 1, 2025
    Pittsburgh , PA , USA

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)32
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)4
    Reflects downloads up to 15 Feb 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Interrelation between Teaching Assistants' debugging strategies and adherence to sound tutoring practices during office hoursProceedings of the 24th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3699538.3699562(1-11)Online publication date: 12-Nov-2024
    • (2023)A Practical Strategy for Training Graduate CS Teaching Assistants to Provide Effective FeedbackProceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3587102.3588776(285-291)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2023
    • (2023)"A field where you will be accepted": Belonging in student and TA interactions in post-secondary CS educationProceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3568813.3600128(356-370)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
    • (2023)It's Never too Early to Learn About Code QualityProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569829(792-798)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
    • (2023)Student Expectations of Tutors in Computing CoursesProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569766(437-443)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
    • (2022)An Exploration of Student-Tutor Interactions in ComputingProceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 110.1145/3502718.3524786(435-441)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2022
    • (2022)Improving TA Feedback on In-Class Coding Assignments for Introductory Computer ScienceProceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 110.1145/3502718.3524746(421-427)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2022
    • (2022)Assisting Teaching Assistants with Automatic Code CorrectionsProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3501820(1-18)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
    • (2022)Undergraduate Course Assistant Autonomy in Course Development and TeachingProceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3478432.3499224(1065-1066)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2022
    • (2022)Designing TA Training for Computer Science Graduate Students: Remote and Self-paced Options for A Supported Introduction to Reflective TeachingProceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Volume 110.1145/3478431.3499342(752-758)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
    • Show More Cited By

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media