Description:

The Teaching Assistants’ Competencies (TAC) Certificate provides the essential concepts required for teaching in higher education, whether in person or online (synchronous, asynchronous, or hybrid), in post-secondary or other types of programs. Taking a learning-centered approach to teaching, you will learn the essential elements you need to begin in your teaching assistant (TA) role. Further, you will be introduced to educational terminology and how to teach a diverse community of learners.

Throughout the asynchronous certificate, you will be assessed through online quizzes and assignments that you will upload. To attain the certificate, you must pass all quizzes at 100%. You may retake quizzes as many times as needed to attain a pass. For all assignments, you will receive feedback from Dr. Cynthia Korpan. All materials required to successfully complete the course are provided through the learning management system (LMS).

Duration

The certificate is self-paced, mastery and outcomes based, designed to be completed in 30 hours, but you will have six months to complete so that you can proceed through the certificate at the pace comfortable for you.

Recognition

Once you have satisfied all learning outcomes required to successfully complete this certificate, you will be issued your certificate of completion and a letter outlining the competencies and learning outcomes you achieved. These will be invaluable documents to submit for any teaching position.

Who is the certificate developed for?

All undergraduate or graduate students who are currently or will be in a teaching assistant role, whether in higher education or other types of programs, online or in person. It is imperative and an ethical responsibility, that those who teach have training in the theory and practice of teaching and how people learn before they teach.

What you will learn:

Upon completion of the certificate, you will achieve these competencies.
You will demonstrate your ability to bring the following to your teaching assistant (TA) work:

• Skills and attributes from previous work and disciplinary experience  
• Your personal teaching identity
• Discipline specific content knowledge related to the course assigned
• Pedagogical knowledge and teaching strategies suitable to duties assigned
• A learning-centered approach
• Knowledge of what is required to perform duties assigned
• How to navigate challenges
• Demonstrate professionalism
• Develop strategies for effective interpersonal communication 

Certificate Learning Outcomes (CLO)

By the end of the certificate, you will:

1. Be more confident and clearer in your teaching assistant role.
2. Recognize the disposition and characteristics you bring to your teaching.
3. Identify strategies for implementing active learning and responding to students’ questions appropriately.
4. Exercise strategies to assist you in setting up the conditions necessary to develop an inclusive learning-centered classroom.
5. Practice strategies for providing effective formative or summative feedback, designing and incorporating a grading rubric, and efficiently managing your time when grading.
6. Recognize best practices for flexible learning environments to support student learning.
7. Intentionally cultivate and expand your teacher identity through reflection, resources, and other aspects of the certificate.

Lesson Learning Outcomes

Lesson 1: Once appointed as a TA…

By the end of this lesson, you will:

1. Clearly describe how the values and goals of your discipline will inform your approach to TA work.
2. Recognize your teaching related experience and the associated skills that you bring to the TA role (for example, from being a swimming instructor or tutor).
3. Identify successful teaching strategies that you encountered during your undergraduate/graduate degree and previous TA experience (if applicable).
4. Critically examine your underlying beliefs, assumptions, goals, conceptions, and pedagogical approaches to teaching and student learning.
5. Fully recognize the difference between teacher-centered/content-oriented teaching to learning-centered teaching.

Lesson 2: Knowledge seeking

By the end of this lesson, you will:

1. Clearly recognize how context, the learning environment, and students’ prior knowledge impact student learning.
2. Identify the value of developing learning outcomes at the lesson level.
3. Purposely develop different types of instructional strategies that align with your learning outcomes to support student learning, whether in person or online.
4. Adeptly manage the many components associated with assessment.
5. Effectively guide student expectations so that you do not encounter adverse challenges in your work.

Lesson 3: Professionalism

By the end of this lesson, you will:

1. Be professional, confident, sensitive, and resilient with your interactions with everyone you work with.
2. Develop lifelong learning habits and engage in reflective practice about your work and teaching.
3. Develop strategies for effective interpersonal communication.

Assessment:

Besides the online quizzes, you will upload various assignments throughout each lesson.

Cost:

In order to keep this certificate affordable for students, it is valued at $150.00 USD or $200.00 CAD.

Registration:

To register and pay for this certificate, please go here.

Testimonials:

Your instructor

I have over 20 years experience in Educational Development in Higher Education and over 35 years related to workplace learning. As the former Director of Teaching Excellence at the University of Victoria, I garnered significant experience in developing programs and courses, teaching undergraduates, graduate students, and professors, and mentoring many about learning and teaching in higher education. I designed programs to support undergraduate and graduate students in the teaching assistant duties, which included campus-wide programs, bi-annual conferences, and certificate programs. I was pivotal in the design and implementation of a two-year graduate course titled, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LATHE). In 2017, I was honoured with the Educational Developers Caucus Leadership Award for my national work related to teaching assistant and graduate student educational development. My research focuses on early career academics’ first teaching in the academic workplace. My PhD research looked specifically at TAs first learning how to teach in academia. This work and my expertise has been and continues to be shared with institutions around the world, such as Canada, the United States, China, Uganda, Pakistan, and Ghana.