Establishing an Effective Teaching Assistant Program for Computer Science Undergraduate Education

Academic support services (e.g., teaching assistantship services, enrichment activities) can be beneficial and at times crucial, for the success of low income, first generation, underrepresented, motivated students with gaps in their academic preparation. In this paper, we describe the establishment and growth of a teaching assistantship (TA) program in the Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) program at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB), a primarily undergraduate institution and evaluate its effectiveness. Developing a strong TA program in the CSIT program is challenging. Firstly, being an undergraduate only program, our teaching assistants have to be selected from undergraduate students. Compounding this issue is the fact that significant portion of our students are underprepared for the rigors of college education. Therefore, to create a successful TA program we recruit top-of-the-class junior and senior students (TA scholars). To ensure good quality of the TA program, we organize weekly workshops on effective tutoring and mentoring techniques for TA scholars. The TA program is currently in the third semester of its implementation. Data collected during the Fall 2014 semester suggests that nearly 60% of surveyed students availed TA services. Additionally, approximately 85% of students who availed TA services rate the TA program highly.