TA Responsibilities

About TA Responsibilities

Teaching Assistants are assigned a total number of hours over any given term. The rules governing the assignment of hours worked in any given week are defined in the Collective Agreement between the Graduate Teaching Assistant (Public Service of Canada) Union and the University of Western Ontario. The Collective Agreement requires the responsibilities to be defined with the Letter of Offer. Normally the Teaching Assistants and Course Instructor(s) meet at the beginning of the term to clarify the responsibilities of each individual.

Teaching Assistants are expected to be knowledgeable in the subject matter of undergraduate courses. They are expected to be punctual in attendance at their duties, and will be present for the full scheduled time with the possible exception of a short break as agreed to with the course instructor.

There is no obligation on the part of the Teaching Assistants to make themselves available to undergraduate students outside of scheduled laboratory or tutorial hours. However, Teaching Assistants may have assigned hours, counted as TA hours, to make themselves available for consultation. It is not recommended that Teaching Assistants offer consultation in their offices to undergraduate students but rather use the engineering cafeteria or arrange with the departmental office to book Room SEB 3035 for this purpose.

Teaching Assistants should endeavour to distribute their time in tutorials and in laboratories as equitably as possible, and to avoid spending an inordinate amount of time with a small number of individuals.

All Teaching Assistants are required to maintain Health and Safety training as provided by the University’s Department of Occupational Health and Safety. This includes introductory Health and Safety training for all new TA’s (and those who have not taken this previously) as well as more specialised training for TA’s demonstrating in laboratories.

Demonstrating in Laboratories

The Teaching Assistant must ensure that he/she thoroughly understand the apparatus and the principles on which the laboratory exercises to be performed are based. It is understood that this will in many cases require that the TA spend some of their allotted time outside of regularly scheduled laboratory hours preparing him/herself.

Time spent physically preparing laboratory equipment is counted as paid time.

During the course of the laboratory the Teaching Assistant must be visible and forthcoming so that the undergraduate students feel no inhibitions in requesting assistance.

Participation in Tutorials

The Teaching Assistant is expected to be completely familiar with the problem sets and to have studied each problem beforehand. All students' questions, no matter how trivial, are asked in good faith and should therefore be respected.

Marking of Assignments, Quizzes and Reports

All marking should be performed in a thorough, professional manner. The reasons for all mark deductions should be indicated in clear, unambiguous terms in ink. Grading should be done in the context of a scheme, which has been approved by the course instructor. The grading scheme should be made available to undergraduate students in all cases.

Normally, marking should be done within one week or as arranged with the course instructor. The Teaching Assistant is responsible for delivering copies of marks sheets to the course instructor on a regular basis.

Proctoring Duties

Teaching Assistants can be asked to proctor quizzes, mid-terms, or final exams. They shall be in communication with the Course Instructor before the quiz or exam to finalize the proctoring arrangements and should arrive at the exam room 30 minutes in advance of the scheduled quiz or exam to help with the room preparation, and remain up to 10 minutes after the quiz or exam is completed. Compensation for the time spent undertaking this activity (including the 40 minutes spent before and after the quiz or exam) will be part of the total number of hours assigned for the course.

Other Duties

Teaching Assistants may occasionally be asked to perform duties that do not fall within the previous categories. Only under exceptional circumstance may a Teaching Assistant be required to replace a faculty member as a lecturer in the classroom. Assignment to such duties requires prior approval by the Chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.


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Contact Info

Western Engineering

Spencer Engineering Building (SEB)
Room number 3005
Telephone: (519) 661-2139
Fax: (519) 661-3779
E-mail:  civilgrad@uwo.ca