Large Course Assistant Guidelines
The A&S Dean’s Office offers teaching assistant funding to faculty who provide justification for teaching more than 30 students in their Exploratory Core course. Below are the guidelines for selecting, overseeing, and developing graders.
Criteria for Support
- 31-60 students: 1 grader (9.5 hours per week)
- 61-99 students: 2 graders (19 hours per week total)
- 100+ students: 3 graders (28.5 hours per week total)
Duties
Graders may assist in the following ways:
- Grading
- Breakout sessions
- Recitations
- Office hours
- Facilitating instructional technology
Recruiting
Departments with graduate students should recruit from their own students as much as possible. Departments without graduate students should reach out to DGSs in adjacent departments to find graduate students with the appropriate background. Undergraduates may serve as graders. Departments that request them should be sure of their qualifications and should use good judgment regarding what they are asked to do.
Compensation
Graduate students will be paid $15 per hour. Undergraduates will be paid $12 per hour.
Finance and Administration
Graduate students on stipend employed for grading at an hourly rate will not receive a contract; department AOs and SAOs will process their payment, and it will be added to their paychecks. Graduate students not on stipend employed for grading at an hourly rate will also not receive a contract, they will simply receive a paycheck that reflects the hours worked. Departmental AOs and SAOs will process this. Recent VU doctorates who are employed for grading will receive a part-time, non-tenure-track lecturer contract from the Dean's Office that stipulates their hours and pay.
Teaching Assistant Development
Teaching Assistants perform best when they know their roles and responsibilities, ethical guidelines, and the learning goals and methods of a course. Once hired, we suggest that you have regular communications about the course, your learning goals, how the TA can best support your students, and ethical guidelines of their work, particularly FERPA. To help with in this orientation, please have your TA sign up for TA Orientation or related programs with AdvancED.
Request
Faculty whose courses meet the above criteria and wish to have a teaching assistant appointed can submit their request by filling out this form.