(561) THE BENEFITS OF UNIFYING GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT TRAINING FOR ONLINE TEACHING

摘要

The Online Learning Council's (OLC) purpose is to improve and enhance the academic experience atDrexel University through better use of technology, assessment, innovative teaching approaches,collaborative course reviews, and professional development. The OLC has grown to 100 membersfrom across the University and includes faculty, administrators, technical instructional design staff andteaching assistants. Teaching assistants (TA's) are generally doctoral students who assist professorswith teaching in exchange for tuition and mentoring. The University has approximately 2,000 teachingassistants. Teaching assistants provide essential course delivery services to undergraduate studentsand are an important interface between the undergraduate student and the department. The focus ofthis paper is to address the benefits of integrating TA's into Drexel's initiatives related to online coursequality. We describe the benefits of integrating TA's to students, faculty, programs and the Universityas well as to the TA.