Teaching Experience Requirement
The faculty of the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Group (BMEGG) endorse the requirement for a Teaching Experience by all Ph.D. students in order to broaden the student’s training in biomedical engineering. The teaching experience provides an opportunity for students to gain exposure in directing or leading a course. This experience will enable students to increase their familiarity with the academic requirements of faculty at teaching and research institutions, gain appreciation for different learning styles, and provide valuable time management skills. We recognize that teaching takes on many forms, but there is an expectation for students to gain a minimum experience as defined below.
- Ph.D. Students must register for BIM 396: Teaching Assistant Training Practicum, under the instructor of record (IOR) who will be evaluating the student.
- The Teaching Experience is not part of employment as Teaching Assistant (TA), although these experiences can be successfully combined. The effort applied to BIM396 must be carefully defined and understood by the student and IOR.
- Students can satisfy the Teaching Experience by a number of opportunities including, but not limited to the following:
- Mentored didactic instruction. It is critical that students receive feedback from the IOR on the content and delivery of lectures. It is desired that this be an iterative process, thus providing students an opportunity to improve their abilities.
- Holding independent office hours or leading discussion sections to complement lectures.
- Managing laboratory sections to troubleshoot experiments with students and facilitate completion of the academic exercise.
- Assisting students with project development and progress.
- Regardless of the method, it is important that students have regular interaction with students
At the end of the term, students will prepare a 2-3 page written description of their activities during BIM 396 for review, evaluation, and approval by the IOR. This description should contain a discussion of the activities undertaken, how the student was evaluated, the challenges and successes experienced by the student, and an overall assessment of the experience. The approval of this document will constitute a grade of PASS for BIM 396.