BME PHD STUDENT HANDBOOK

Teaching Requirment

History

Johns Hopkins is an institution where both teaching and learning are valued. To be part of this community is to participate in both activities. Biomedical Engineering doctoral students have taught as long as the Program has been in existence. Since the advent of our undergraduate program, students have been required to teach in undergraduate courses. The BME committee considers teaching to be an essential part of advanced training in Biomedical Engineering.

Purpose

The teaching requirement fulfills two purposes. First, it provides our students with an opportunity to teach a truly outstanding group of undergraduates. Since the majority of our students assume academic positions upon graduation, this teaching not only provides them with important experience, but it may make them more attractive to future employers. Helping a faculty member with the details of organizing and/or running a course also brings students and faculty together in a collegial relationship which can, itself, be very rewarding.

Second, teaching assistants provide an important service to both the undergraduates and the faculty. Although our faculty is unusually accessible to our undergraduates, these students really appreciate the attention that our teaching assistants provide. Our assistants relieve the faculty of some of the labor of teaching. This relief translates into more energetic, enthusiastic, and creative teaching on the part of the faculty.

The Requirement

Students are required to assist in the teaching of two semesters of courses during their tenure in the Ph.D. Program. One TA assignment is in a core course (chosen from 580.221 Molecules and Cells, 580.222 BME Signals and Systems, and 580.421-422 Physiological Foundations). The second is in another BME course. Matching of students to courses is done by the TA Committee, a committee with both faculty and student members. The Committee takes each students' interests and knowledge into account in making assignments. Students provide the TA Committee with a priority list for when and which course they would like to TA.

In core courses, TAs handle section meetings and office hours. They also do some grading. In other courses, the TA assignment varies, but will include some combination of grading, teaching, office hours, and a preparation of materials.

Student Responsibilities

The following guidelines were issued by the TA Committee on 08/21/02.

The teaching requirement is an essential part of the training and experience provided by the BME program to PhD students. At the same time, TAs are an essential component of the BME Department's teaching staff. Usually TAs is the first instructors to whom students go for help with course material and assignments. The success of the Department's teaching depends on the cooperation and spirit shown by graduate students in meeting the TA requirement.

The following guidelines were prepared by the TA Committee. They are intended to provide a general framework for TA assignments in the BME Department. They are not intended to be hard and fast rules, but rather to serve as a basis for allocating responsibilities between student and faculty.

Course materials: Generally, faculty is responsible for generating course materials. This includes lectures, homeworks, examinations, course notes, laboratory assignments, etc. Faculty is also responsible for producing answer keys or problem solutions. Faculty should consider the lead time necessary to copy materials, post them on web sites, prepare for section meetings, etc. and provide materials to TAs in a timely fashion. If TAs are given the responsibility for preparing course materials, the course director must take into account the time required for this activity when assigning work to TAs.

TA responsibilities: TAs is expected to behave professionally in doing TA tasks and to carry out their duties in a timely and responsible manner. Specific responsibilities vary with the course and should be worked out in advance with the course director. The responsibilities can include grading, conducting section meetings, conducting office hours, attending class, copying and distributing course materials or posting them on the web, and other assignments. TAs is responsible for preparing themselves to conduct these tasks. This can include attending lectures, reading, and working out problems in advance.

Time spent: As a rule of thumb, a TA assignment should correspond to about 20 hours per week, averaged over the semester. This includes classroom time, preparatory time, time spent grading, and time spent in office hours, but not travel time. The TA Committee expects that student's will sign up to TA courses that they are prepared to teach. Extra preparatory time beyond the 20 hours may be required if a TA is unfamiliar with the course material.

Naturally, the amount of time required in a particular course will vary. The TA Committee endeavors to adjust the numbers of TAs assigned to particular courses to keep the effort uniform, but everyone must realize this is an inexact process. If a course requires time significantly in excess of the guidelines, its TA responsibilities should be adjusted downward by the course director.

Course mechanics: The TA Committee strongly encourages that the faculty and TAs in a course should meet before the course begins to discuss the organization of the course, plan its implementation, and agree on responsibilities, deadlines, etc. It will also be helpful for them to identify periods during the semester of unusually heavy workload. The committee also recommends that faculty and TAs meet regularly during the semester to discuss problems, monitor progress, and stay up to date.

Problems: If TAs has problems with the way a course is being run, they should discuss those problems with the course director. If the problem cannot be resolved in that way, then the TA can bring the problem to the TA Committee. Examples of problems which might arise include excessive time demands on the TA, inadequate lead time from the faculty in preparing materials and problems with particular students in the class. TAs should not take on the responsibility of dealing with cheating, inappropriate behavior, or other problems posed by students in the class. Such issues should be referred to the faculty immediately. If a course director feels a TA is not carrying out his/her duties responsibly, they should meet to discuss the problem. If the problem cannot be resolved, the matter should be referred to the TA Committee.