Augmenting Computer Science Undergraduate TA Training Programs to Benefit Recruitment, Refinement, and Retention

Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (TA) can be a dynamic resource for any Computer Science (CS) program. However, increasing the TA pool size is often the primary method explored when investigating department TA improvements, but budgetary restrictions frequently negate that possibility. Additionally, undergraduate students applying to TA for classes do not typically come from an educational background or have teaching foundations. With the expected natural turnover of graduation and other life or academic factors, TA retention is always an issue, but our institution has encountered abnormally low TA retention (34% 2021 to 2022), indicating other factors may be contributing to attrition. We investigate alternative ways to improve TA skill sets to benefit the department in TA recruitment, refinement, and retention. Our modules aim to directly impact TA refinement while indirectly impacting TA recruitment and retention. Building upon established research and drawing inspiration from existing programs at several North American universities, we cultivated four interactive modules for undergraduate TA training programs in CS that aim to improve TA skill sets and self-efficacy. We provide rationale and details for each module alongside an example implementation to ease external adoption of ours or similar modules targeting localized needs.