TA Training/WiZiQ : TA Training/WiZiQ Welcome NEW FQ110 TAs
What is the Role of the Teaching Assistant? : What is the Role of the Teaching Assistant? Your role is to facilitate student learning as much as possible.
Ways you help students include:
Answering student emails
Posting threads on the forums
Checking in on student progress (especially on the final project) to make sure no one is falling behind
Mediate disputes between students
Grade assignments
Your Status as a Teaching Assistant : Your Status as a Teaching Assistant When placed in a position of authority such as a teaching assistant, you must remember that you are representing al-Baseerah, the dawah, and Islaam at all times.
You must be unassailable at all times.
You must have your personal life in order.
You must conduct yourself appropriately in front of the students.
General Code of Conduct with Students : General Code of Conduct with Students Most importantly, we need to preserve gender separation as much as possible. In general, brothers communicate with brothers and sisters with sisters.
One of the goals of this project is to train the students to become self-sufficient learners. You must use a stern, loving hand.
The students are adults and we should treat them as such. We should encourage their independence and not baby them.
Pre-Class Preparation : Pre-Class Preparation Print out a copy of the transcript of the lecture to review and follow along with the class.
Review the accompanying PowerPoint slides in advance in case you are asked a question about a specific slide.
Prepare the opening and closing messages for the room.
Review the pre-class announcements in case you have questions for sister Um Musa.
Confirm your microphone and speakers are working properly.
Log on to Google Talk using your al-Baseerah Gmail account.
Scheduling a WiZiQ Class : Scheduling a WiZiQ Class One TA is responsible for launching the WiZiQ class.
Go to www.WiZiQ.com
Username: live.albaseerah@gmail.com
Password: 123live123
To schedule a new class select “Schedule New Class”
Set the appropriate date and time
Under Class Type ? “More Settings” select “Audio” and “Allow Use of Private Chat”
Set duration to 120 minutes
Set Privacy to “Private”
Launching the Class : Launching the Class Login as the al-Baseerah Moderator using the email live.albaseerah@gmail.com
Select “Upcoming Classes” and find the appropriate class. Click “Launch Now”
As soon as you launch the class, your microphone will be enabled. Remember to mute it right away.
WiZiQ Session : WiZiQ Session Attendees List Chat Area
Upload New Content : Upload New Content
Add the PDF of the PowerPoint Slides : Add the PDF of the PowerPoint Slides
Broadcasting : Broadcasting One person will be assigned the responsibility of broadcasting the recorded lecture, and one person will be the backup.
Before each class, the person responsible to broadcast should listen to the entire lecture and check to ensure the recording is clear.
If there are any problems, you should bring this up to the other OIC TAs so alternate arrangements can be prepared.
Confirm microphone setup is working before coming to class
Pre-Class Announcements : Pre-Class Announcements Room Guidelines
Restrict text in the chat area
Do not post outside links
Contact TAs using email or private message
Attendance
Taken during first 20 minutes of class
OIC name must match WiZiQ name
Review assignments for the week
PowerPoint Slides : PowerPoint Slides The slides for the lecture are there as a guide for the students and are not something they need to copy down word for word.
Students are not allowed to take screenshots of the slides or make their own copies.
The slides are posted on the OIC site after the quiz and review questions for that week.
Sometimes after a lecture the TAs have the prerogative to go through the slides again for students to write down what they may have missed.
This is optional.
If this is done, each slide should not be shown for more than 2 minutes.
Question & Answer Session : Question & Answer Session The most important thing to remember is that you are not a scholar, and no one expects you to be one.
Concerning questions that extend beyond what is presented in class, defer them until the live session with the shaykh.
The question and answer session should be kept short. If students are trained to expect instant feedback, they will be disappointed later if the same pace is not maintained.
Have the transcript of the lecture next to you and a copy of the lecture’s PowerPoint slides open on your computer in case you receive questions on the material (e.g. citations)
Question & Answer Session Rules : Question & Answer Session Rules Students must have their question pre-typed and ready so that when you call on them, they can send it immediately.
To ask a question, students MUST raise their hands. Out of order questions are strictly NOT answered.
The question must be pre-typed before raising their hand.
Students are limited to one question each.
Students are encouraged to keep their questions simple and concise to prevent confusion.
Team Project : Team Project All students are assigned to a team and must complete a final project.
Students are not assigned to teams until they have submitted their biography on the thread.
When assigning teams, I would read the biographies and assign members based on who I thought would be a good mix.
Avoid assigning friends to the same group
Teams should contain a mixture of old and young members, reverts and those raised Muslim, knowledgeable and newer students.
OIC Forum : OIC Forum Threads that should be created before the class start are:
Biography thread
Help thread
Questions for the shaykh
Team agreement worksheet thread
Your responsibility on the forum is to:
Monitor the threads for student questions
Create threads for the final project teams after they have been assigned.
OIC Forum Responsibilities : OIC Forum Responsibilities For the first couple of weeks of the course, you will need to do extra monitoring to make sure everything is running smoothly. You should check the forums at least once a day at the beginning.
If things are running smoothly, you can scale that back to 2-3 times a week later.
The most common thread you will check is the help thread. You should also ensure student input meets our expectations
Examples: Format of questions for the shaykh and the team agreements worksheet.
Grading : Grading TAs are responsible for grading all review questions and the final projects.
For review questions, a single TA is assigned to grade all of the questions for a specific week.
Comments should be left for students that are encouraging and correct any mistakes
We are still working out a plan on how to grade the final project.