# Undergraduate Student Instructors

## Overview

Undergraduate Student Instructors (UGSIs) provide teaching services to
support UC Berkeley\'s rapidly growing data science program. Working
alongside instructors, UGSIs are part of the scalable peer instruction
model of the undergraduate curriculum. The UGSIs help facilitate
collaborative team-based learning, near-peer instruction, and active
learning. UGSIs are highly-motivated to learn and to share their
knowledge. This model is a cost-effective resource that supports
peer-learning, provides mentoring, and iteratively enables the
co-creation of course materials alongside the professor.

Employing undergraduate students as instructors is a unique and
successful aspect of the program, and has helped the expansion of the
Data Science Undergraduate Studies over the past five years. On
occasion, departments within the College of Letters & Science may have a
shortage of applicants for Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) positions.
If no qualified graduate student from the appointing department or other
departments is available, a highly motivated and advanced undergraduate
may work in the GSI position. In this program, UGSIs must have previous
knowledge of the subject and complete domain-specific courses on
teaching Data Science.

## Target Audience

The target audience for the UGSI positions are undergraduate students
who have taken and excelled at the course for which they apply. This
includes students interested in skill development, leadership, and
education. In general, students are seldom able or allowed to become
UGIs until their second year at Cal. They often stay multiple semesters
and may choose to continue teaching a particular course with a specific
instructor.

Students may become a UGSI for one of two main reasons, reflecting the
two different types of employment available with the UGSI position.

1)  Undergraduates in the 8-hour position are often in direct contact
     with students because their work responsibilities include teaching
     student discussion sections directly, holding communal office
     hours, answering questions on Piazza, and prepping for their
     classes.

2)  Undergraduates in the 20-hour position may take on specialized
     leadership or logistical roles, including "Head TA" and "Head of
     Logistics." These UGSIs are offered fee remission, and for this
     reason, attract more students who are from out of state and/or
     interested in staying for multiple semesters.

Both UGSIs and instructors hold office hours. Moreover, there are
different types of study sessions such as "Homework Parties" and
"Midterm Reviews" that are run nearly entirely by student staff. Student
staff often prepare study aids for the students for these sessions, such
as worksheets and review sheets of practice problems for students to
work on. Additionally, there are "Tutors," another category of
undergraduate student course support who help out at office hours or
study sessions and are not paid. Students who begin as Tutors and
perform well for a semester or more have a better chance of obtaining
the UGSI job. There are a similarly large number of Tutors as there are
UGSIs.

## Goals

Undergraduate student instructors provide a more personalized and
refreshing experience for the students in data science courses. UGSIs
are able to relate and provide both professional and personal support to
students, often in a different way than GSIs and professors. First,
UGSIs have current knowledge of the course requirements and expectations
and are fully familiar with the course from a dual perspective of both a
student and teacher. Second, UGSIs can share the methods they have
already developed and honed to work through the course material. Third,
UGSIs remember their experience with the material for the first time and
are able to guide other students through the course, easily identifying
roadblocks to learning material as well as providing explanations
helpful to a student encountering the course for the first time. Fourth,
some students feel less intimidated and more comfortable asking for help
from a peer instructor rather than from a GSI or professor.

Becoming a UGSI is a path available to students who wish to pursue a
career in education or academia.

## Key Pedagogical or Curricular Strategies

The [[course
materials](https://github.com/sequoia-tree/teaching-cs/commit/6ce5e1b85a9006584b7baa9a2ca4567a185d4416)]
from Introduction to Teaching Computer Science includes written
reflection as a way that UGSIs can process and think about how to apply
concepts to their teaching.

![Graphical user interface, application Description automatically
generated](../media/image14.png)

Links to Key Cyber Resources and their Implementation

Notable key instructional support resources include Piazza and
Gradescope. For many assignments the autograder OkPy is used. OkPy
requires an assignment to be completed on datahub, then the data hub
submits to OkPy and can be viewed in submission format, and there is a
script to take the submission on Ok Py and export it to Gradescope. Many
courses in the data science department have an online textbook that is
kept up to date, which is useful for linking chapters in slideshows.
Data 100 has a separate data hub through which students can fetch and
submit their assignments through datahub, which includes all the
packages and dependencies so all students are working under the same
environment.

Coursework involves both coding and written components. These usually
entail creating a visualization and interpreting it. Subsequently OkPy
autogrades the coding and Gradescope grades the written portion.

[[https://okpy.org/]](https://okpy.org/)

[[https://github.com/okpy/ok]](https://github.com/okpy/ok)

[[https://piazza.com/]](https://piazza.com/?)

[[https://www.gradescope.com/]](https://www.gradescope.com/)

Links to Key Documents:

[[https://github.com/sequoia-tree/teaching-cs]](https://github.com/sequoia-tree/teaching-cs)

[[https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Scheduling/CS/schedule-draft.html]](https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Scheduling/CS/schedule-draft.html)


## Other Key Inputs

There are several levels within the model of undergraduate staffing,
most of which are paid positions.

Academic Intern (AI)

-   Unpaid

-   Helping in labs each week

-   Often a stepping stone to becoming a TA or Tutor

Reader

-   Paid

-   Holding office hours with a UGSI present and grading

Tutor

-   Paid, at a higher rate than that of a Reader

-   Grading, holding office hours, and holding small group tutoring
     sessions

Undergraduate Student Instructor (UGSI/TA)

-   Paid, two options of either 8 or 20 hours/week (will change in the
     future)

-   Managing the students and work, split up into various teams with
     leads

All UGSIs must meet specific requirements to be considered and then
undergo training before teaching and continue to meet (usually weekly)
to discuss the course they are teaching.

As mentioned above, UGSI positions include:

8 hours/week (20%)

20 hours/week (50%)

All undergraduate candidates must:

1)  Be registered in the semester in which they are teaching

2)  Have upper-division (Junior/Senior status) when they begin teaching

3)  Have previously taken the course for which they are being appointed,
     its equivalent, or a more advanced course, with a grade of A- or
     better

Candidates for data science courses (which are cross-listed as stats
courses) must also:

1)  Be enrolled in no fewer than 12 units of course work

2)  Have an overall GPA of 3.1 or higher

The narrative regarding links between Component Goals, Pedagogical
Strategies, and Central Elements of the Program

The construction of the course is a combination of the professor aided
by the UGSIs. There is a pedagogy team for some of the larger courses.

## Best Practices for Variation Across Institutions

The most important aspects of the program are the branched hierarchy of
student staff that carries out delegation through a chain of command and
the incremental improvements the course material receives over the
years.

Critical TA Professional Development and Training

Within the Data Science program, there are several steps required for
training. To become a UGSI, students must take CS 370: Introduction to
Teaching Computer Science. This course covers methods for teaching,
including leading one-on-one practice tutoring. UGSIs often have weekly
meetings throughout the semester to go over material and announcements.

## Implementation for Specific Courses

Below are several popular courses that each have their own structure of
staffing depending on the age/iterations of the course, size of the
class, and professor's wishes. Course use and growth as a function of
student-instructor support has linearly expanded to include thousands of
students, in certain typically lower-division courses.

1)  Below are several popular courses that each have their own structure
     of staffing depending on the age/iterations of the course, size of
     the class, and professor's wishes. Course use and growth as a
     function of student-instructor support has linearly expanded to
     include thousands of students, in certain typically lower-division
     courses.

2)  As the data science department has expanded, the employed student
     base has expanded as well. Classes may hire a few students per
     semester or may have an entire hierarchical structure with set
     roles and titles.


## Other Implementation Notes

Info to use as writing up :
[[https://grad.berkeley.edu/appointments-handbook/]](https://grad.berkeley.edu/appointments-handbook/)

Undergraduate GSIs

Generally, undergraduate students may not be appointed as GSRs or GSIs,
but they can be appointed as Readers or Tutors and are not eligible for
the fee remission program (please refer to Article 11 of the UC-UAW
contract). However, if a department is unable to recruit any qualified
graduate students or hire a lecturer to fill an essential GSI position,
the department may submit a written request of exception to the Graduate
Division. In such cases exceptions are allowed for undergraduate GSI
appointees but under NO circumstances can undergraduate students be
appointed as GSRs.

The Dean of the Graduate Division has delegated authority to the deans
of the College of Letters and Science and the College of Engineering to
approve undergraduate GSIs.

If the department or hiring unit is not in College of Letters & Science
or College of Engineering, please complete the Request to Appoint
Undergraduates as GSIs Form (XLS) and provide an explanation of why
undergraduates must be hired to gradappt\@berkeley.edu.

Requirements for Undergraduate GSIs:

-   Registered in the semester in which they are teaching and remain
     registered through the end of the semester.

-   Enrolled in no fewer than 15 units of course work.

-   Summer Sessions UGSIs must be continuing students. (A continuing
     student during the summer was enrolled in the Spring semester and
     is enrolled for the Fall semester).

-   If the Summer Sessions UGSI is graduating with his/her terminal
     degree in August, they may use UGSI during that summer prior to
     their Summer graduation. (Please refer to the Office of the
     Registrar's section on Diplomas and Graduation).

-   Upper Division status when undergraduate begins teaching.

-   Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher.

-   Previously taken the course for which an undergraduate is being
     appointed, its equivalent or a more advanced course, with a grade
     of A-or better. (If it is a course equivalent or more advanced
     course, please point that out on the form when submitting the
     request.)

-   Adhere to the same criteria of eligibility required for graduate
     student GSIs. If the undergraduate appointee does not speak
     English as a native language, they must pass the English
     Proficiency requirement before they can teach (please refer to the
     GSI Teaching & Resource Center for more information).
     Departments/hiring units are responsible for making sure the
     student has passed the English Proficiency requirements prior to
     requesting approval for the UGSI appointment. Please contact
     langpro\@berkeley.edu with questions about a student's English
     language proficiency eligibility.

If serving as a first-time GSI, departments/hiring units are responsible
for ensuring that the UGSI fulfills the following requirements:

-   Attend the New ASE Orientation.

-   Attend the Teaching Conference for first-time GSIs.

-   Complete the online Professional Standards and Ethics Course. Please
     note, per the May 2, 2016 revised Graduate Council's memo on
     Appointments and Mentoring of Graduate Student Instructors \[move
     from dashboard to web\], every first-time GSI must successfully
     complete the online course Professional Standards and Ethics for
     GSIs before they interact with students (in person or online) in
     their role as an instructor.

-   Complete the 300-level semester-long pedagogical seminar on
     teaching.

-   Undergraduate GSI appointees are eligible for fee remission per the
     UC UAW contract. Undergraduate GSI fee remissions are not
     processed by Graduate Division; departments are responsible for
     remissions associated with Undergraduate GSI Appointments. Please
     refer to EVCP Breslauer's memo dated March 10, 2008 for
     information.

Additional Guidance for Implementation

It must be noted that the current UGSI staffing model may undergo
changes starting 2021 because of a multi-million dollar lawsuit settled
in January 2020 between the student workers union and the institution
regarding scheduling hours and tuition remission.

Recommendations

The program may benefit from including universal design or other access
features. This may include key diversity and inclusion practices and
strategies.

Sources

1. [GSI and Reader Statistics](https://statistics.berkeley.edu/employment/gsi-and-reader)

2. [Faculty Personnel and Budgetary Information](https://ls.berkeley.edu/faculty-and-staff-resources/faculty-personnel-and-budgetary-information/gsi-postdoctoral-0)

3. [UC Berkeley Student Workers Awarded Back Pay](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uc-berkeley-student-workers-awarded-millions-back-pay-n1117466)

4. [CS 20-21 Courses](https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Scheduling/CS/schedule-draft.html)