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===== Teaching Assistant Allocation =====

The allocation of Teaching Assistants to courses can be guided, but not dictated, by formulae and rules.   The guidelines used at the School of Computer Science are designed to provide adequate TA support and to ensure that the support is greatest where it is most needed, but with the goal of keeping costs for TAs as low as possible.

Given that the SOCS TA budget is tightly stretched,  the focus is on providing TA support for grading and labs/tutorials.  Allocation of TAs based soley on the number of students in a course results in some courses being over-resourced (those that have fewer graded items, no tutorials/labs) and some being under-resourced (those with more graded items and heavy lab components).

The Guidelines used are outlined here and described more fully following the list:
  * TA estimates are calculated based on the number of students enrolled in the course after the add period and on the Course Description document that is created by the course instructor (See [[Grading Procedures, Resolution 4, Part A |https://www.uoguelph.ca/registrar/calendars/undergraduate/current/c08/c08-grds-proc.shtml]] of the undergraduate calendar)
  * TA estimates are based on the following
      * The number of graded assignments
      * The number of graded labs
      * Midterms that must be graded by TAs
      * Grading of the final exam
      * The number of lab/tutorial sections and their length
      * Student projects
      * Weekly meetings and consultation time
  * The estimates for grading times are based on reports from TAs for different courses and estimates provided by faculty members.   Instructors whose evaluated items are more difficult to grade can provide alternate time estimates.  Our working estimates are:
      * Assignments take 10 minutes  to grade for first and second year course, 15 minutes for 3rd and 4th
      * Midterms take 10 minutes/student of TA time to grade
      * Final exams take 15 minutes/student of TA time to grade
  * Consideration is given to the following 
      * First and Second  year courses may need more TA support than upper year courses. Upper year students are usually more self sufficient.
      * Sessional instructors, especially new ones, may need additional TA support.
      * Instructors who are teaching a course for the first time may need additional TA support.