This Research Work in Progress paper presents a study on how teaching assistants (TAs) in introductory computer science courses experience their roles and responsibilities in programming lab sessions. Eight semi-structured interviews were performed with TAs who worked in different introductory computer science courses at a technical university in Sweden. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Four main themes were identified: uncertainty with assessing, lack of training and instructions, communication and students in focus. The most important finding is that TAs, even those with long experience of teaching, experienced uncertainties with the assessment of the assignments. Typically, the guidelines given to the TAs only included the functionalities of the program, but the TAs express that they also assessed whether the students understood the concepts and how their code worked. Noteworthily, the TAs had been offered none or little formal training and instead relied on informal mentorships and own experiences. Furthermore, the course structure and communication channels were also described as areas that could be improved. The TAs did, however, try to assist all their students, and tutor and support them from the best of their abilities.

This Research, Full Paper presents a study on the experiences of teaching assistants (TAs) in Computer Science (CS) courses. TAs are widely used in CS education, to reduce the workload of faculty. A way to allow smaller groups of students in tutorials and individual guidance in lab sessions, even though the numbers of students in the classes are increasing. The aim of this study is to describe the TAs, own experiences of their role, which work tasks they have and how they are carried out. Fifteen semi-structured interviews with TAs, who were themselves studying towards a bachelor's or master's degree, were carried out and analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicate that the TAs typically work alone with preparing the material for the tutorials and that they are given a high amount of freedom both regarding which examples to explain and which pedagogical approaches to use. During the lab sessions the students conduct lots of different tasks, related to assessment and tutoring. In the paper, we present a framework with the identified work tasks, with descriptions on how they were carried out. The thematic analysis resulted in six role descriptions; as a teacher, friend, tutor, grader, mentor and apprentice. Combining the roles as tutors and graders, can be experienced as tricky, especially if the instructions and grading criteria are lacking details. The TAs can also view themselves as both a teacher and a friend to their students, which could cause conflicts of interest to arise. The TAs could experience to be an apprentice to the course coordinator and senior TAs, but also to be a mentor for the students and more novice TA colleagues. The implications of this study could be of use for faculty who employ TAs in their courses or are conducting or planning TA training sessions. Based on the result, we have made some recommendations for TA training.

Teaching assistants (TAs) are heavily used in computer science courses as a way to handle high enrollment and still being able to offer students individual tutoring and detailed assessments. TAs are themselves students who take on this additional role in parallel with their own studies at the same institution. Previous research has shown that being a TA can be challenging but has mainly been conducted on TAs from a single institution or within a single course. This paper offers a multi-institutional, multi-national perspective of challenges that TAs in computer science face. This has been done by conducting a thematic analysis of 180 reflective essays written by TAs from three institutions across Europe. The thematic analysis resulted in five main challenges: becoming a professional TA, student focused challenges, assessment, defining and using best practice, and threats to best practice. In addition, these challenges were all identified within the essays from all three institutions, indicating that the identified challenges are not particularly context-dependent. Based on these findings, we also outline implications for educators involved in TA training and coordinators of computer science courses with TAs.

This Research, Full Paper presents a study of how engineering students, non-computer science (CS) majors, experienced the assessments during their first programming course (CS1). Naturally, we as instructors and course designers would like to facilitate learning among our students and make fair assessments. During the CS1 courses given for non-CS majors at our university, the students would be assessed on their programming skills and concept knowledge on multiple occasions. Typically, students need to complete 4-6 lab assignments, pass an exam, and complete an individual project. The instructor in charge of each course, the course coordinator, design all assignments as well as the grading criteria and is typically also responsible for the assessment of students' skills and knowledge. However, since these courses have a large number of students (similar to 200) the assessments are mainly done by teaching assistants (TAs). The purpose of this paper is to explore how students experience the assessment situations in CS1 courses. Eleven semi-structured interviews were performed with engineering students who enrolled in one of four CS1 courses. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. The results indicate that the students experienced the individual project to be authentic, a fair and reasonable way to assess their programming skills. By contrast, the exam was experienced as inauthentic and focusing on less important skills such as knowing syntax by heart. The students put lots of trust in their TAs, but experienced that the grading and amount of feedback they received, differed depending on the TA. The hierarchy, in which the course coordinator instructed the TAs on how to conduct the assessment, was not clearly visible and some students even viewed their TAs to be more qualified to grade their assignments than the course coordinators. It was, however, clear to the students that the course coordinator was also the course designer and the one who constructed the exam.

Contribution: This study evaluates the generalizability of previously identified perceptions among engineering students of assessments in introductory programming. The students' perceptions of their instructors' and teaching assistants' (TAs) roles in these assessments are also studied, and differences based on prior programming experience, gender, and course explored.

Background: Basic programming skills are desirable also for students who are not majoring in computer science (CS). Students' experience of assessments has not been fully explored.

Research Questions: 1) How do engineering students experience the assessment (lab assignments, midterm exam and project) in their CS1 courses? 2) What are the students' perceptions of the TAs and instructor in relation to these assessment situations? 3) What significant differences can be found based on students' prior experience in programming, legal gender, and course?

Methodology: Previously identified themes from an interview study worked as a framework for the formulation of 25 statements used in a survey among 137 students in six CS1 courses (second part of a mixed-method study). Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U Test and Kruskal-Wallis tests with Bonferroni corrections, were used to analyze the data.

Findings: Lab assignments were experienced as an opportunity to learn while the exams were viewed as predictable. The projects were perceived as authentic, although varying in difficulty, and as a huge leap from the lab assignments. Students perceived the instructors to put their touch on the course but viewed their TAs as carrying out the assessments, and experienced variations between TAs. Female students experienced these variations to a larger extent and perceived received feedback as less useful.

Assessment plays an important role in education, and can both guide and motivate learning. Assessment can, however, be carried out with different aims; providing the students with feedback that supports the learning (formative assessment) and judging to which degree the students have fulfilled the intended learning outcomes (summative assessment). In this study, we explore the instructors’ perspective on assessment within the context of introductory programming courses offered to non-computer science majors at a public tuition-free state-funded university in a Nordic country. These courses are given to a large number of students and also employ several teaching assistants (TAs). We used constructivism as a basis for our study and investigated how instructors implement formative and summative assessments, how they view their role, and what expectations they have of their TAs in these assessments. We interviewed seven course coordinators (main instructors for introductory programming courses with additional administrative duties but without formal responsibility of the grading) and analyzed 205 course artifacts, such as syllabi, lab assignment instructions and course material from the cross-department TA training course. The results showed that course coordinators use formative and summative assessments both separately and within the same activity. They view themselves as responsible for the assessments, as the planners and material developers, as the organizers and administrators, as well as monitors of the assessments. However, the results also showed that these course coordinators delegate much of the responsibility for the assessments to their TAs, and expect TAs to both grade the students and provide them with feedback and guidance. In addition, the TAs are also expected to act as informants about their students’ performance. The course coordinators’ role entails many different aspects, where communicating through instructions to both students and TAs are essential. We see that this implementation of assessment, with lots of responsibility distributed to the TAs, could be difficult to manage for a single faculty member who is not necessarily responsible for the grading. Based on the results, we outline some recommendations, such as offering TA training.

Teaching assistants (TAs), students who assist the faculty, are widely used in computer science (CS) courses. Previous studies have, however, shown that TAs could be poorly prepared and need training. Particularly, an interview study has shown that one of the areas where the TAs experience uncertainty is when assessing students’ oral presentations of their lab assignments. Based on that result and by interviewing course coordinators, we have developed and offered training workshops about assessment in CS. We invited our TAs in the introductory CS courses to participate on a voluntary basis. By distributing pre-workshop surveys at the beginning of each semester, and post-workshop surveys at the end of the semesters, to both workshop attendees (50) and non-attendees (44), we studied how the TAs conducted the assessments and what impact the training workshop had on their self-reported practice.  Both surveys had 11 identical statements that the TAs were asked to rate on a 7-point Likert scale. We also conducted interviews with four workshop attendees and three non-attendees. The results showed a significant difference between the two groups in the post-workshop survey: workshop attendees disagreed more with the statement “I try to assess students' understanding rather than the program”, which is more in line with the instructions given. In addition, when comparing pre- and post-workshop answers, the workshop attendees stated that they were less inclined to ask for help, experienced that the lab instructions were not detailed enough, and were more inclined to ask questions that convinced them that the students had written the program themselves. In the control group, no significant differences between pre- and post-tests were found.

Teaching assistants (TAs) are often used in computer science (CS) courses to conduct tutorials in smaller groups and to be able to provide students with one-to-one help sessions. TAs can also assist with the assessment, which can be time-consuming in large classes. Previous research does, however, indicate that TAs can be poorly prepared for their work tasks. In this experience report, we present a TA training course that addresses this issue and prepares new TAs for their responsibilities. This includes conducting tutorials, tutoring and providing students with useful feedback in lab settings, and conducting assessments. In addition, we also aimed at creating a safe space for our TAs to discuss challenges and fears that they foresee or have already experienced as TAs. To do this, we developed an introductory course consisting of five modules, that are based on previous research on TAs in CS and in the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. The modules are: HR questions, classroom teaching, helping and supervising in lab sessions, assessment, and reflection and discussion. The course is given in a blended learning format, where the first three modules are student-paced online modules, while the last two are synchronous meetings. To evaluate the training, we present course evaluation results from 53 TAs who enrolled in this 6-hours course during the 2020/2021 academic year. We conclude that this TA training course has been well appreciated by almost all the participants, discuss lessons learned and future plans.