Assisting in Courses

All master's and doctoral graduate students must serve as teaching assistants for either GENE 3000 or GENE 3200 for at least one semester of their graduate tenure, regardless of the nature of their financial support. Guidelines for TAs are found here. Students are encouraged to fulfill this teaching requirement as soon as possible in their graduate career. While this often is done during the second year, the departmental teaching needs vary from year-to-year and students will be informed of their teaching assignments by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Why put effort toward teaching?  It can make you a better researcher!

All departments must conform to the following guidelines to prepare graduate students, including laboratory assistants, who will have instructional responsibilities.

1. All new GTAs (graduate teaching assistants) and GLAs (graduate laboratory assistants) must complete the Center for Teaching and Learning’s TA Orientation training modules prior to or concurrent with the start of their first TAship. The CTL typically holds TA Orientation prior to the start of the Fall and Spring semesters.
2. GTAs and GLAs who have no prior teaching experience at the college level must enroll in GRSC 7770 (typically 1 credit hour), or an approved departmental equivalent, before or during the first semester in which they teach. International students who complete LLED 7769 satisfy the GRSC 7770 requirement.
3. International students whose native language is not English (i.e., those required to take the TOEFL) are required to take the TAST (TOEFL Academic Speaking Test), before being considered for a teaching assignment. If you do not have a TOEFL or IELTS score, you will need to take UGA’s International TA Test of English Proficiency (ITA-TEP). Students scoring 26 or higher on the TOEFL iBT speaking score (or 5.5 on the updated score scale), or 7.5 or above on the IELTS, may be assigned any teaching assignment after fulfilling conditions 1 and 2 above. Students scoring below these values must enroll in one or more language and cultural orientation courses and may need to retake the TOEFL iBT, depending upon their score, before being given teaching or laboratory assistantships. For more information see TA Policy.

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