Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences • UC Irvine

ICS Lab Tutor Program

Selected students may receive course credit for serving as tutors in lab sections of the new, Python-based introductory courses, ICS 31/32/33. For Spring 2013, lab tutor positions will be available for all three of these courses.

Why you should be a lab tutor:

• Helping your fellow students is fun. It's also a way to contribute to the success of the School of ICS.
• You never really learn a subject until you try to teach it.
• You get graded units for it (see below).
• Employers consistently tell us that the two qualities they want in a new employee, after technical knowledge, are good communication skills and the ability to work well with other people. Tutoring helps you build both of these.
• You get to work closely with instructors, who might become recommenders or employment references for you.

Application: The first step is to apply to be a tutor by filling out the application survey at EEE (available now through exam week for Spring 2013).

What's invovled in being a lab tutor: The ICS Lab Tutor program is based on longstanding programs in Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences, but ICS lab tutors will mainly be working in the lab, giving students "first aid" help as they work on their lab assignments. Since our program is new, its characteristics will evolve, but the basic expectations are as follows:

• Working in the lab for 4–6 hours a week, helping students and the TA. Ideally, this will be one lab section (e.g., MWF for a two-hour block), though some flexibility is possible to accommodate tutors' own classes and the actual lab schedules for the different classes. But once a tutor's schedule is finalized, we expect it to be the same every week.
• Attending ICS 193, Tutoring in ICS, once a week (see below).
• The highest level of professionalism: Reliably showing up when scheduled, actively helping students in the lab, regularly keeping the appropriate people informed (e.g., of changes in status or students' difficulties)

Selection and scheduling: Over the quarter break, when final grades are available, we will select the new quarter's tutors and make assignments to specific lab sections. So don't ignore your e-mail over the break; we will publish a survey of course and scheduling preferences and we'll need quick turnaround on it.

We expect tutors to have good academic records, especially in introductory computing courses, and to have good interpersonal skills and a strong interest in helping other students. We'll expect you to know some Python 3; familiarity with the School of ICS and ICS classes is a plus.

Receiving credit: Each quarter you're a tutor, you will enroll in ICS 193, Tutoring in ICS, which meets an average of one hour a week (more frequently towards the start of the quarter and less frequently towards the end) and helps prepare you to be an effective lab tutor (both with tutoring skills and Python tips). It offers two units of graded credit. (There are limits to tutoring for credit: A student may earn at most 10 units of graded credit from ICS 193; ICS 193 satisfies no additional degree requirements.)

For Spring 2013, ICS 193 has been scheduled to meet on Tuesdays from 2:00 to 3:20. Unfortunately, we do not expect this to be changeable, and all new tutors must be available to attend this seminar. If you have a conflict, we still love you and we hope you'll apply again for the fall. (If you have a conflict that might change, go ahead and apply now, indicating that your ability to participate isn't certain at this point.)

More information: For questions or more information, contact the ICS Lab Tutor Coordinators at tutors@ics.uci.edu.