TA Supervision & Feedback Overview

Click here to access the the Digital TA Class Observation Form

The Graduate School has developed a digital form for this purpose, the Digital Class Observation Form, which we recommend using to document the observation of the class. (A PDF preview of the entire form is available at the bottom of first screen.) The observer will be asked to enter the TA’s email address, and, once the form is submitted, a copy of the observation will automatically be emailed to both the observer and the TA. The TA is encouraged to respond to the observation, and a follow-up meeting is suggested. 

Additionally, the form allows the observer to carbon copy up to three email addresses. This allows the observer to copy the Director of Graduate Studies, the Department Chair, the Department Administrator, the TA’s Supervisor, or whomever in the department maintains a file on the TA, in which a copy of this form should be saved. No matter who is carbon copied on the form, documentation goes to The Graduate School immediately upon submission. 

In addition to the digital form, we still offer the older PDF forms, although we are phasing these out and highly encourage observers to use the above digital form if possible. If the department, or individual observers within the department, choose to use one of the PDF forms, these forms should: 

1. be either physically or digitally signed by both the observer and the TA
2. collected by the department
3. combined with the End-of-Semester Evaluation Forms
4. alphabetized
5. saved as a single PDF
6. emailed to Chad Gilpin by the submission deadline 

Two PDF Observation/Feedback Forms are available below for use. Departments may also use these as templates to design their own form, provided it focuses on a single class or lab session. 

• PDF Observation/Feedback Form - Option A
• PDF Observation/Feedback Form - Option B 

Click here to access the Digital End-of-Semester Evaluation Form

The Graduate School provides a digital form, the Digital End-of-Semester Evaluation Form, which we recommend for the purpose of documenting a TA’s overall performance. (A PDF preview of the entire form is available at the bottom of first screen.) The evaluator will be asked to enter the TA’s email address, and, once the form is submitted, a copy of the evaluation will automatically be emailed to both the evaluator and the TA. The TA is encouraged to respond to the evaluation, and a follow-up meeting is suggested. 

Additionally, the form allows the evaluator to carbon copy up to three email addresses. This allows the evaluator to copy the Director of Graduate Studies, the Department Chair, the Department Administrator, or whomever in the department maintains a file on the TA, in which a copy of this form should be saved. No matter who is carbon copied on the form, documentation goes to The Graduate School immediately upon submission. 

In addition to the digital form, we still offer the older PDF End-of-Semester Evaluation Form, although we are phasing this out and highly encourage evaluators to use the above online form if possible. If the department, or individual evaluators within the department, choose to use one of the PDF forms, these forms should: 

1. be either physically or digitally signed by both the evaluator and the TA
2. collected by the department
3. combined with the Observation Forms
4. alphabetized
5. saved as a single PDF
6. emailed to Chad Gilpin by the submission deadline 

Departments may also use this form as a template to design their own form, or they may also choose to provide a narrative instead of the form. In either case, these documents should be collected by the department and combined with the other forms following the procedure above. 

If a TA’s assignment is TCE eligible (Types 1 and 2 are required; Type 3 is optional), please make sure that the TA receives a TCE and a copy is kept in the departmental file. 

TCEs should be enabled via SAP/Course Instructor Management when you are assigning TAs to their courses. Further information and instructions on TCEs can be found here. 

While The Graduate School strongly suggests copies of TAs’ TCEs be kept in a departmental file along with Observation and Evaluation Forms for the purposes of SACS scrutiny, we do NOT require TCEs be submitted to us. 

Continuing TAs are required to attend departmental or college-level professional development activities each term they are employed, at least one of which should be held at or near the beginning of the term. TA Coordinators may ask the most experienced TAs to present on their own pedagogical experiences or best practices in the classroom, if they have been guided by faculty in that project. Coordinators may also combine this activity with other departments in related disciplines or with similar pedagogy. If your College is small, you may hold a College-wide activity. For Spring term, you can make this a 2-3 hour workshop for all TAs. The course organization meetings for multi-section courses would serve as such an activity if they have a pedagogical component and if all TAs are required to attend and attendance is recorded.  Each TA, new and returning, is required to attend.

The beginning-of-semester in-service activity should be held separately from the department’s or college’s New TA Orientation.  These activities usually occur consecutively and should be scheduled to coordinate with the dates of the University-wide TA Orientation conducted by The Graduate School.         

In addition to the beginning-of-semester activity for all TAs, each program is required to hold at least one mandatory in-service training event for TAs—continuing and new—during the semester.  Attendance should be required and recorded. For in-service training, some current practices will work, for example:

• special one-to-three-hour pedagogy courses, where they exist
• ongoing course meetings which give guidance in pedagogical problems (for all TAs, not just multi-section courses)
• one departmental event on teaching practices
• presentations by TAs themselves about their work, if faculty are present and have guided them in the presentation
• required attendance (required by the department) at two or more of the scheduled teaching-related workshops held by CELT, The Graduate School, or Presentation U. (We will provide attendance reports if requested in advance of the events.)