Effectiveness of undergraduate teaching assistants in first year design course

Abstract

This complete research paper focuses on the effectiveness of Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UGTAs) in a first-year college level design course. Engaging undergraduate students as undergraduate teaching assistants is a common practice in higher education. In a freshman level design course where creativity and open-ended problems are posed to students, we notice that our UGTAs are appreciated by students (from an end of semester survey) and have positive interactions. This study builds on previous work by investigating how and in what ways UGTAs are effective in the classroom. Through our study, we measured the perceived effectiveness of undergraduate teaching assistants (UGTAs) in the classroom using a survey and investigated what key strategies undergraduate teaching assistants use to impact the student experience using focus group data. The study followed a sequential explanatory mixed method format in which UGTAs teaching quality survey results were analyzed to find whether the UGTAs were valuable co-teachers in class. Qualitative data were collected in the form of in-depth focus group interviews to identify what made the students appreciate and value UGTAs in class and what it looks like to be effective in class. Quantitative data suggest that UGTAs are highly effective although student perception of the same UGTA varies across students and across sections. Qualitative data suggest four themes of highly effective UGTAs: they are easy to interact with, they are qualified, they immerse themselves in the work of their peers and they are overtly collegial with the instructor of the course.