Your TA Employment
Once TA Support received the signed contracts, you’re ready to go. In practice, this means that around mid-June / mid-December, you will be added to the ITU systems as a temporary employee and added as TA to the learnIT page of the course you will be TA’ing for.
Officially, your personnel manager is the Dean of Education and questions about personnel and non-course related matters should be directed to TA Support. You will refer to the Course Manager for the course(s) you are TA’ing for for all course-related matters .
Getting set-up in ITUs IT systems
As TA, you will need an ITU account to access ITUs systems and services. such as Teams, LearnIT, email, printers and network drives. You can find your username and email address in the welcome letter. You are expected to use your ITU email account for any TA related questions and communications from TA Support and ITU in general, so please check it regularly.
If you already have an active ITU username and email adress, this is the account you will use.
If you are new to ITU, you need to activate your ITU account by changing the password.
You can find an overview of ITUs systems, services and free software here, but three main things you should know is that,
- ITU encourages the use of MS Office for all students and staff and not e.g. Google Suite. Download here
- LearnIT is ITUs virtual learning platform and key to teaching at ITU. Use your ITU login to find your learnIT course page. Here you can also see the names of your fellow course TAs.
- ITU Student is ITUs intranet for students and a great place to start to learn more about ITU, the programmes, courses and learning environment.
Getting started as a TA
As a TA you can expect the Course Manager to invite you to one or meetings where you will meet the other TAs and where the Course Manager and the other teachers on the course, will bring you up to speed on what the course is about, what they expect from you etc. It is also a good possibility for you to manage expectations on your side and to clarify any uncertainties. It is a good idea to check out the course learnIT site before the first meeting.
In addition to the academic onboarding by the course teaching team, new TAs are also expected to participate in a mandatory TA Workshop conducted by SAP Learning Support. You will receive a direct invitation from Learning Support. The workshop for is an opportunity for you to meet your peers and get to know more about the TA position. The workshop focuses on concepts such as
- student-centered learning
- your role as a teaching assistant and your responsibilities
- teaching challenges you might face as a Teaching Assistant
At the workshop you will have the opportunity to discuss, reflect and ask the questions you might have before becoming a TA. Participation in the workshop is paid.
If you need to purchase a textbook for the course, you can buy this from Academic Books on KUA. Give Academic Books your ITU email address, tell them you are a TA on X course and ask them to reimburse ITU directly. Contact TA Support if you run into any problems.
Working as a TA
During the semester, the Course Manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of their TAs. You therefore let the Course Manager (or other appointed teacher) know if you are going to be out with a cold etc., of any concerns you have about what is being asked of you, any concerns about students in the class etc.. However, as you are not expected to sign in/sign out, you are strongly recommended to keep an eye on how many hours you are working yourself and let the Course Manager know if you have any concerns.
If you face longer-term illness or concerns about your employment, the tasks you are being asked to do or the relationship with the rest of the teaching team, please contact TA Support (acting on behalf of the Dean of Education).
At the end of your employment, you can expect to have a meeting with your Course Manager about the semester and some feedback on your contribution to the course.
TA resources and toolbox (work in progress)
This part will be expanded as the project is implemented, but please write ta-support@itu.dk with any suggestions you may have for things that may be nice to know or to get access to.
This is what we think could be useful,
- Presentation Skills
- Didactic Skills
- MS Teams
- LearnIT guides
Learning Support
The Learning Support team can help you if you f.ex. need help in setting up a quiz or another add-in to the learnIT course page, are unsure about the best way to form groups, or want to record a podcast. Contact Learning Support on learning@itu.dk
IT issues
Contact it@itu.dk or the IT Support Desk in 2C if you have any technical issues or need access to X for your TA tasks. Check also itustudent.itu.dk/Campus-Life/IT-Services.
Facilities Management
Contact fm@itu.dk if there is a problem with the teaching equipment in the classrooms. Ask Information Desk if you need post-its, whiteboard markers, stickers etc. for your TA tasks.
SPS
Some students receive guidance and help under the Special Educational Support scheme and study under special terms. If you as TA have questions about how to handle this or have concerns about a particular student, please contact the SPS Coordinators at SAP on sps@itu.dk.