• Working in groups helps students:

  • gather diverse information

  • learn from each other

  • foster creativity

  • develop industry material

• However group work can be time consuming and can result in a couple of students being stuck with all of the work in the group.

• As a TA, you should ask groups concrete questions about what they are working on to prompt useful responses that can help you gauge what they are struggling with and how much they have accomplished.

• Some methods to encourage student participation in group work and to monitor group progress are:

  • Define student roles (i.e timekeeper, notetaker, facilitator)

  • Create project milestones with due dates and concrete tasks

  • Have students submit a summary report detailing their progress and next steps at the end of each meeting

• Small groups allow students to have in-depth conversations about topics where every student can contribute to the conversation.

• In large classes, small groups can help the students

  • learn from each other

  • have engaging interactions

  • feel like a part of the class by connecting with other students

• As a TA, you may be responsible for designing activities or prompts for small groups. Additionally, you may be responsible for going around to small groups while they are working to answer questions and ensure students are actually holding discussions.

• In small enough classes, discussion with the whole class can allow students to build off of and learn from each other’s ideas and points.

• In larger classes, discussions with the whole class can be an effective way for each group to summarize what they discussed in their small groups so that the class as a whole can benefit from the discussions.

• Instructors and TAs can use discussions to:

  • Debrief from small group assignments

  • Have students teach content to other students

  • Have students provide examples relating to class material

  • Evaluate student's understanding of a topic

• As a TA, you may be responsible for designing discussion questions and/or leading discussions. When leading discussions, you should prompt students to speak and encourage new students to answer questions. Additionally, you should respond to students' answers with additional information where relevant or beneficial and gently correct incorrect responses.

• An interactive and alternative method of lecturing is to assign students a topic and ask them to create a mini lecture on that topic. Depending on the size of the class, this can be done individually or in small groups.

• Using this method, students become an expert in their assigned topic and the rest of the class is given the chance to learn from a different teaching style. Additionally, students often have creative or inventive ways of presenting or explaining material.

• Presentations can be recorded and uploaded for students to watch as prep work for the week, or they can be given at the beginning of class.

• As a TA, you may be responsible for helping students design content so that it is sufficient for instructing the rest of the class on the topic.

• Active learning classrooms often use tools to provide an engaging and interactive method trying concepts or assessing students' understanding of the material. As a TA, you should know how to use the tools used by your class in order to help students work through the material and troubleshoot any technological difficulties.

Examples of Tools for Activities and Assessments:

• Online Quizzes

  • Polleverywhere

  • Kahoot

  • Canvas

• Online Whiteboard or Mindmapping Tools

  • Miro

  • Google Jamboard

• Programming

  • Jupyter Notebook

• Online Grading

  • WebCat

• Active Learning classes use a variety of tools to teach concepts to students. Many of these tools guide the students in exploring concepts outside of class so that class time can be spent answering questions and working on applying concepts. As a TA, you should be familiar with the content before class so that you can answer questions and reference instructional material when helping students problem solve during activites.

Examples of Tools for Lectures and Discussions:

• Discussion Forums

  • Canvas

  • Campuswire

• Online Gathering Platforms

  • Gathertown

  • Zoom

• Online Lectures

  • Youtube

  • Kaltura

  • Canvas

• Online Textbooks

  • Zybooks

  • Realizeit