In addition to planning meetings and office hours, UTAs commonly assist instructors with a variety of ongoing tasks such as creating course materials, managing the ELMS course site, and responding to student work on ELMS.
Creating Course Materials
UTAs and their instructors frequently find reasons to revise or create course materials throughout the semester to better meet student needs. The kinds of course materials are nearly limitless, as are the technologies–analog or digital–with which they are made. Possibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:
Presentations and Videos
- Presentations in PowerPoint, Prezi, Canva, etc.
- Recorded Presentations in PowerPoint Mix, Screencast-o-matic, VoiceThread, etc.
- Video Tutorials to walk students through a new tool like WordPress
Online Activities
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- Discussion Boards
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- A new group activity in Google Docs Collaborations
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- A series of Twitter assignments
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- Guided questions for a hypothes.is activity
- Quizzes (graded and ungraded) and Surveys
Face-to-face, In-Class Activities
Some of the most creative and effective UTA course materials are those designed for face-to-face, in-class activities. Many of these activities involve digital tools such as slides, music, and YouTube videos; many others use strictly analog tools: printed handouts, crayons, sharpies, post-its, candy, and so forth.
All of the above examples are based on materials and activities UTAs have submitted to 388V for the lesson plan requirement. More information about the lesson plan requirement in 388V is detailed in this syllabus. Full UTA lesson plans and learning artifacts can be found in the semester portfolios that several generous UTAs have given me permission to share.
ELMS Management
UTAs’ ELMS responsibilities vary in accordance with their instructors’ overall ELMS use. Blended and online UTAs tend to spend more time in their course ELMS sites than their 100% face-to-face peers, though this too can vary widely.
Typically, UTAs do a combination of the following administrative ELMS tasks:
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- Fix broken links
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- Update the home page
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- Send Announcements
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- Send messages to students
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- Add materials to Modules, Pages, or Files
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- Add new Discussions
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- Add new Assignments, including nongraded homework reminders
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- Add or modify Pages
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- Create new Quizzes
- Assist in Conferences, Chat, Collaborations, or WebEx
Return to What UTAs Do Out of Class
Image by Jo Szczepanska