SPRING QUARTER 2009 — Information and Computer Science — UC Irvine
Advanced Teaching Assistant Seminar — ICS 398B
COURSE SCHEDULE AND INFORMATION
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Instructor: David G. Kay, 5056 Donald Bren Hall. Stop by any time, or send electronic mail to "kay".
Meeting time and place: Wednesdays 9:00 to 11:50 a.m., in room ICS 243. Since this is a two-unit course, we may adjust the times slightly or skip the occasional class meeting.
Course goals: In this course we will cover teaching computer science at the college level, from the instructor's perspective. This perspective is useful even for students, as consumers of instruction, but we presume that participants in this course have some (perhaps tentative) plans to teach computer science, whether through University Extension, Summer Sessions, or their own academic job. We will look at (and in most cases practice) designing and running one's own course, designing assignments and exams, setting grades, preparing teaching portfolios (records of your teaching for use in job applications and promotion cases), making curricular decisions, and other related issues.
Course requirements: This seminar is not designed to impose a large time burden on the participants beyond the class meetings themselve. Grading is satisfactory/unsatisfactory or pass/not-pass. But it is important that you attend the class meetings, participate in the discussions, and prepare for the various activities, which will include some readings and a variety of informal presentations leading towards your own complete design of a course. We know that as advanced graduate students, you may have travel obligations; we'll try to work around them, but it will be difficult if you anticipate missing more than two class meetings during the quarter.
Very approximate course schedule:
Week 1 |
April 1 |
Introductions and overview; planning a course |
Week 2 |
April 8 |
Clarifying curricular and pedagogical goals |
Week 3 |
April 15 |
Course design |
Week 4 |
April 22 |
Assignment design |
Week 5 |
April 29 |
Grading, plagiarism, managing graders |
Week 6 |
May 6 |
Exam design |
Week 7 |
May 13 |
Evaluation alternatives |
Week 8 |
May 20 |
Setting final grades |
Week 9 |
May 27 |
Curricular issues and teaching philosophies |
Week 10 |
June 3 |
Epilogue |