Session S4G 1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI 37 th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S4G-3 An Engineering Teaching Assistant Orientation Program: Guidelines, Reactions, and Lessons Learned from a One Day Intensive Training Program Matthew Verleger 1 and Juan Velasquez 2 1 Matthew Verleger, Graduate Teaching Assistant – Center for Instructional Excellence / Engineering Education, Purdue University, mverleg1@purdue.edu 2 Juan Velasquez, Graduate Teaching Assistant – Center for Instructional Excellence / Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, jvelasqu@purdue.edu Abstract - At Purdue University, an all-campus one day intensive training orientation for new teaching assistants has been in place since 2001 under the supervision of the university’s Center for Instructional Excellence. At Purdue, engineering teaching assistants serve a fundamentally different role than those in other disciplines. Recognizing these differences, in 2005 the training was divided into separate engineering and non- engineering training sessions. This was done to better meet the roles, responsibilities and needs that are unique to engineering teaching assistants. The work presented in this paper describes the all-campus and engineering training programs at Purdue and demonstrates, through attitudinal and follow-up survey responses, that the separate engineering specific training program elicits a more positive reaction from engineering teaching assistants towards their training. INTRODUCTION Today’s engineering teaching assistants are tomorrow’s engineering faculty members. In today’s publish-or-perish environment, new engineering faculty member’s schedule most likely won’t include “learn how to be a good teacher”. Training today’s teaching assistants functions as an insurance policy for tomorrow’s faculty. Despite the obvious theoretical benefits of training today’s graduate students to be better teachers, adequate training is limited. Two common approaches are discussed in the literature. One end of the continuum is a university-wide training program, providing a common generic training package to all graduate students irrespective of their discipline. Typically offered through the university’s teaching center, this type of program is economical, with only one set of resources being created and delivered. The problem is that it isn’t overly beneficial. “The duties of engineering GTA’s are often different from those in other disciplines.” [1] The fundamental differences found between engineering and other disciplines translate to similar differences in the roles of teaching assistants. For example, where liberal arts students are writing prose passages, engineers are solving differential equations. This directly translates to a significant difference in the necessary skills required for grading. At the other end of the spectrum is a discipline specific training program, having each individual discipline train their teaching assistants for their classrooms. While this approach can sometimes result in a highly valuable experience for the teaching assistant, it is very resource intensive, and results in wide variability in training, both in terms of what topics are covered as well as the instructional quality of that coverage. Some unique programs [2, 3] provide a well-rounded experience, but lack the ability to scale beyond a few select students. CENTER FOR INSTRUCTIONAL EXCELLENCE Purdue University’s teaching center is called the Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE). CIE’s mission is to “provide opportunities for development of faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and teaching staff; serve as a central point of information about teaching and learning; and promote the scholarship of teaching and learning at Purdue University.” [4] One of the primary vehicles for achieving that mission, as it relates to graduate teaching assistants, has been through a teaching assistant orientation program offered each fall. Since its inception in 2001, CIE’s teaching assistant orientation program has been held as a one-day intensive program each August during the week before classes begin. Offered to all departments for their graduate students, the program was originally the same for all students. In 2005, based on feedback from a number of engineering graduate students, CIE decided to develop an engineering specific version of the program while maintaining the existing non- engineering program. Working with a volunteer committee of graduate students and faculty members from various engineering disciplines, CIE reviewed the topics covered in the non-engineering program, removing those topics deemed less important for engineering teaching assistants while boosting coverage of topics which had previously been less heavily covered. During its first year, student feedback was overwhelmingly positive and the program was considered highly successful. Another revision cycle was made for the 2006 session based on feedback from that first year. What follows is a detailed description of the engineering program given in 2006. The highlights from the non-engineering program will also be