There are two major changes:
Firstly: you will have a
(Undergraduate Teaching Assistant) (UTA)
to mark the
lab exercise and take the weekly PMT meeting.
Secondly: the PMT marks will be zero weighted this year.
Apart from the above changes the general running of the PMT system will be the same as last year. The PMT exercises will be set by the various course lecturers and the system will be run by the First Year Co-ordinator Duncan GilliesUndergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTAs) are third and fourth year undergraduates (and in some cases PhD students) who have offered to help with teaching and marking of first year work. They have been recruited from students who are known to be excellent programmers. They are required to have an 'A' overall on their degree so far and an 'A' in first year programming. In addition they will have an 'A' in Logic, Reasoning About Programs and Discrete Maths in the first year.
The UTAs will be given some initial training at the beginning of term and they should be broadly familiar with the way the PMT system works. They will also have a monthly meeting with the UTA Organiser Peter Cutler to review their work and discuss any problems they may have. As a PMT you will be mentoring and supervising your UTA. You will also be signing-off their payment claims via the Tutorial System. The UTAs will be paid 3 hours per week in the Autumn term and 3 hours per week in the Spring term. This will involve one hour for the PMT meeting and the rest for marking and preparation.
If possible we have selected a UTA who was in your PMT group when he/she was a first year student. If you weren't a PMT before or there was no UTA suitable we have assigned a UTA from the pool of possible helpers.
The role of the UTA is:
Firstly: to do the marking for your PMT group and
enter the marks into CATE.
Secondly: to help you run your PMT meeting and enter the attendance into CATE.
CATE will be modified to allow the UTA to download the course notes. If this is not ready I will provide the students with copies.
CATE will be modified to allw the UTA to download the In the meantime I will provide the students with sample solutions.
You will still have the overall responsibility for running
the PMT group but you will have the assistance of a UTA
who will mark the lab submissions, enter the marks and attendance
into CATE and help you run the tutorials.
You will have help with the less
interesting but time consuming part of the task.
Your UTA will be developing his/her skills in teaching
and communication while he/she is helping you to run the PMT group
and you will be mentoring and supervising him/her.
You should agree a marking methodology with your UTA
and supervise his/her marking to ensure that it is
consistent and contains sufficient helpful feedback.
You should attend every PMT meeting but you can let the
UTA take an active role.
Before the PMT meeting you should discuss the teaching strategy
with your UTA and then review the progress of the meeting
afterwards.
Although the UTA will be partially taking over your PMT
duties you will still ensure the smooth running of the PMT
group and pastoral care of the individual students.
You will need to take decisions about whether late submissions
are accepted, what to do about a student who is
falling behind or whether to refer a student to the Senior
Tutor Margaret Cunningham etc.
You will also be supervising the work of your UTA helper.
CATE has been modified to accept submissions up to a week late
without the student requesting an extension in advance.
We can mark work that is a few minutes late without asking
for an explanation from the student involved.
However in all other cases we will want the student to contact either
their PMT or the Senior Tutor (Margaret Cunningham)
to explain why their submission was handed in late.
We have no obligation to mark late submissions.
As the PMT has overall responsibility for the PMT group and
has more detailed knowledge about their PMT students any
decision about whether to mark late submissions is for
them to make in cases where he Senior Tutor is not involved.
Each individual case should be dealt with on its merits.
Although it is important that students don't fall behind with their
programming it is also important that students don't get into
the habit of making late submissions.
Hence students should always have to explain why their work was
submitted late and understand that they should ensure that
they submit their work on time in future.
We hope that all PMT helpers will stay for the entire year. It will good for everyone concerned to have continuity. For this reason we would like to make helping with the PMT system a positive experience for UTAs.
The "look and feel" of the assessements will be similar to
last year. The students will receive their previous submission
at each PMT meeting marked out of 5.
The change from previous years is that the lab marks will be
zero weighted. This means that the PMT marks are not counted into the
first year totals.
The PMT marks should give a clear indication of how the students
are expected to do on any courseworks, tests and in the final exams.
The students do need to pass these to continue to the second year.
The PMT students will still required to submit
every lab exercise and attend every PMT meeting.
PMT students are expected to do their PMT exercises
well and will be at risk of failing their final exams and
hence the first year if they don't.
Most students want to do well in the labs and take the feedback given with the marks and at PMT meetings seriously. They should be aware that logic and discrete maths is a core skill and that the labs play a vital role in helping them become Computer Scientists. PMT students are expected to attend every PMT meeting and submit every lab. Any student who misses a PMT meeting or submission should be reported to the the Senior Tutor Margaret Cunningham
It is important that students who fall behind with the PMT exercises seek help as soon possible. Students can get help from a variety of sources at the moment such as the PMT meeting, the course tutorials etc.