Undergraduate Teacher Assistant for PSYC 317
PSYC 368 Internship in Psychology
As an undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA) for PSYC 317: Quantitative Methods, my responsibilities revolved around creating additional resources or providing myself as a resource in and of itself in order to enhance the course. Some of the resources I created included extra credit assignments, chapter outlines, and a comprehensive study guide. I also tutored students within the class who needed additional assistance and provided weekly review sessions. With the class being strictly online, I was initially worried that it would be difficult to make a difference in the class's experience. However, as I learned more about the unique needs of an online classroom, I found immense satisfaction in meeting these needs through my work as it made it possible for distance learning students to have an experience just as engaging as it would have been in a traditional classroom.
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You can download some of the assignments I credited here:
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4/13/17 - Leading an online review session for an online quantitative methods class.
My Internship Prepared Me For a Job
Despite this internship being an online position, I found that everything I had learned to be directly applicable in face to face situations as well. Specifically, my experience as a UTA cemented my quantitative methods knowledge, sharpened my teaching/tutoring skills, and equipped me with resources I still use today to help students. Thus, my internship directly prepared me for my current job as a PSYC 317 tutor, in which I tutor students face to face in the Math and Science Resource Center as well as online. I was able to start this position not only feeling confident in my abilities, but ready to make a difference in how students' were learning. While I had already tutored in my internship, I found myself explaining content more fluently than before. Many students also appreciated resources such as my chapter outlines or comprehensive study guide, which act as quick references that can be used to find information such as necessary formulas at a glance. I hope to continue applying these skills in future teaching positions, as teaching will be an integral facet of my future doctoral training.
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Learning to Work with Students Online
As this was an online class, in order to hold these tutoring and review sessions I had to learn how to use the software WebEx. Although the program is relatively intuitive and simple to use, troubleshooting issues when problems arose was somewhat of a challenge. Now that I have become quite familiar with the program, I know certain issues to be mindful of in the future, especially regarding internet usage. As the internet was spotty in my own home, causing some issues with WebEx, I had decided it was best to hold sessions from then on in a collaboration room in the library as to use the ODU campus internet. Although this may seem like a small adjustment, it helped me realize some of the technical challenges behind both teaching and taking an online class. While an online class may be more accessible to certain students in some ways, such as removing a potentially inconvenient or simply undoable commute, it’s reliance on internet requires more initiative on the student’s part when certain aspects of the classroom are harder to navigate or are not as easily in reach. This creates some difficulties on the professor’s end, in which further efforts to make resources more easily available may be necessary to ensure success. Fortunately, by being able to now identify these challenges, I am now more prepared to overcome them future related work.
