Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) Information

Applications for the Fall 2024 are forthcoming. 

 

Upon successful completion of your application, you will receive an email confirmation. You can also double check if your application has been recorded by revisiting the application link. If you can fill out an application again, we did not receive it.

We cannot hire students who will be residing outside the country (this includes studying abroad) and we cannot accept anyone on a volunteer basis. You must be an enrolled student during the semester you are a UTA i.e., not on leave. Even if you have been a UTA previously, you must re-apply to be a UTA each semester.

For 101/201 -- If you choose one as a first choice and the other as a second choice, you will not likely be considered for the second-choice course, regardless of if you were a previous UTA for that course. For example, if you put 101 as your first choice and 201 as your second choice, you will not be considered for 201 because it is your second choice. This is only the case for 101/201 because of the number of applications we receive.

Applications can be submitted after that and will continue to be open throughout the first two weeks of the semester; however, we cannot guarantee full consideration, especially for courses that will hold interviews. Depending on which course(s) you applied for, you may receive separate emails with follow up surveys or questions. Students applying for 101, 201, 210, 230, & 330 will have to interview. Different courses have different timelines for UTA selections.

Contact the UTA Program Administrator, Jackie Okoh, uta-program@cs.duke.edu, if you have any questions about being a UTA or your application.

Overview

If you have taken a CompSci course previously, then you know there are many other people helping the professor to support your learning in that course, e.g., returning feedback about your assignments, reviewing concepts in a recitation section. Most of these duties are done by undergraduate students just like you! Here, you can get a chance to take part in a rewarding job, allowing you to help your fellow students out as they go through the same journey you once did.

If you're interested in being a TA, consider exploring the AiiCE Teaching Assistant Professional Development Course, which covers concepts that will help TAs contribute to a more inclusive and supportive learning environment.

Consideration

Ideally, you loved the course that you want to UTA for! You should have at least taken the course before or have the equivalent background experience in the course topics and programming languages or communicate with the professor that you feel confident that you grasped the materials covered in the course you would like to UTA.

If you have the time and expertise, you can indicate that you are willing to be a UTA for multiple courses (of your preferred choices). We will coordinate with you if we have such need.

Courses that need UTAs for Fall 2024

Course Expected Duties Consideration

CompSci 101: Intro to Computer Science (Velasco)

There are two types of TAs:

  • Lab TA
  • Grader TA

Note: While we aim to accommodate preferences for TA roles, assignments are not guaranteed.

Responsibilities for all TAs:

  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Assist with exam logistics
  • Grade exams, including the final

Additional Role-Specific Duties:

  • Lab TA:
    • Attend one lab training per week
    • Record a lab review (videos)
    • Lead a lab section
    • Grade labs
  • Grader TA:
    • Grade assignments
  • A technical interview is necessary for prospective new UTAs. 
  • Estimated time commitment: 4-6 hours/week.
  • While it's not mandatory to be available to lead a lab section, preference will be given to those who are.
     
CompSci 201: Data Structures and Algorithms (Astrachan)
  • Attend weekly meetings
  • Grade assignments
  • Lead discussion section
  • Hold office hours in the evening
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Grade exams and final
  • Must have availability to lead a discussion section, which are throughout F 11:45am–4:20pm.
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs.
  • Estimated 6-8 hours/week.
Compsci 210D: Intro to Computer Systems (Chase)
  • Attend a weekly meeting
  • Grade assignments
  • Lead discussion section
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs.
  • Estimated 6-8 hours/week.
Compsci 216: Everything Data (Stephens-Martinez)
  • Attend meetings
  • Grade homework and exams
  • Grade projects
  • Testing exams
  • Helping in lecture
  • Holding office hours
  • Writing autograder/scripts
  • Creating course content
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Strong preference for students who have taken CS 216 or proficiency programming in python and other statistics/data science experience at the 200+ level.
  • Estimated 5-7 hours/week.
CompSci 230: Discrete Math for CompSci (O'Hanlon)
  • Attend weekly teaching team meetings
  • Grade assignments in grading parties
  • Lead recitation sessions
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed
  • Grade exams
  • Min. requirement: CompSci 230 or equivalent. You should be able to handle the concepts the students work with in this course.
  • Recitation is various times on Mondays 10:05am-4:20pm.
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs
COMPSCI 240: Race, Gender, Class & Computing (Washington & Velasco)
  • Grade
  • Answer Ed
  • Hold office hours
  • Min. requirement: Completion of CompSci 240 with a minimum grade of a B. 
COMPSCI 250: Computer Architecture- (Sorin)
  • Attend weekly meetings
  • Grade exams and homework
  • Lead recitation session
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs
CompSci 316 D: Intro to Database Systems (Roy)
  • Attend weekly staff meetings
  • Hold evening office hours
  • Grade assignments and exams
  • Monitor the progress team projects and provide feedback on two project milestones
  • Attend demos/interviews for team projects at the end of the semester, and provide feedback on the final reports
 
CompSci 330: Design/Analysis Algorithms (Munagala)
  • Attend regular grading parties
  • Hold office hours
  • Grade exams
  • Run recitation sections
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs.
CompSci 334: Mathematical Foundations (Rodger)
  • Grade problem sets and exams
  • Hold office hours
  • Completion of CompSci 334 of equivalent
CompSci 356: Computer Network Architecture (Gorlatova)
  • Grade exams and homework
  • Grade labs
  • Hold weekly office hours
  • Answer Ed
 
CompSci 371: Elements of Machine Learning (Tomasi)
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed queries
  • Help grade assignments and exams (grading parties with Gradescope) 
  • Help lead recitation sections
  • Minimum requirements: Completion of COMPSCI 371D or COMPSCI 571 or COMPSCI 671.
CompSci 671: Statistical Machine Learning (Rudin)

Some subset of this list, depending on preference:

  • Leading discussion
  • Design of materials (hw, tests, kaggle competitions)
  • Grading
  • Office hours
  • Webmaster
  • Answer Ed
 

Duties and Commitment

Being a UTA is a serious obligation that requires a firm and substantial weekly commitment on your part. It requires timely checking and responses to communication (e.g. email, Slack, Ed). It is a semester-by-semester job that extends from the first day of classes through the end of final exams. You must re-apply each semester.

All UTAs will be required to attend a training session at the beginning of the semester.

Duties will vary between classes, but you can generally expect to do some of the following:

  • Grade – Responsibilities range from students’ assignments or in upper-level courses, projects. Sometimes a professor may have UTAs grade student exams.
  • Hold office hours – Most courses will have office hours in the evening. Office hours are used to answer student questions about topics covered in lecture, homework problems, etc.
  • Lead a recitation/lab – Lower-level courses such as 101, 201, 230, etc. have a discussion section where students will get more application problems on topics covered in class. UTAs will lead students through the problems and facilitate collaboration and discussion among students about the topic. UTAs will have to prepare beforehand by attending a lab meeting, and/or looking over the material, and/or doing the problems beforehand so that they can come prepared for answering questions.
  • Answer ED questions – Most courses use ED as a tool where instructors can post course announcements and communicate important information to students. Students can use this platform to ask questions about logistics of the course, get clarification on the homework, or a study problem. The professor cannot answer all questions in a timely manner, so UTAs will also respond to questions that students may have.
  • Attend planning meetings – Faculty will arrange a regular meeting to gather all their UTAs so that they can prepare UTAs for the upcoming week or address questions and concerns that UTAs may also have.
  • Meet with student groups – Some project-based courses such as 308 or 316 will require that UTAs independently meet with the group of students that they are assigned to.
  • Administrative duties - If you are a Head UTA, you may have to send out emails and organize various UTAs for specific duties. The professor will be in close contact and instruct you.
  • Attend lecture - Some faculty need UTAs during regular class time because the course is structured like a lab.

Compensation

The pay begins at $15.75 per hour with opportunities for increases annually. You must detail your hours biweekly on the CS UTA app as well as fill out a timecard on time at Duke@Work.

Work Study

Work study is not required for this job, but it is encouraged. You do not have to be on financial aid to be on work study. Please see the Duke Financial Aid Work Study section for more information on how to sign up for work study.