The Use of Undergraduates to Support Instruction
With proper supervision, undergraduates may be employed to assist the instructor of a Yale College course in photocopying course materials, preparing laboratory materials, gathering information for recommended reading lists, giving technical assistance at computer terminals, mounting materials on Web sites, and similar tasks. In these instances, the undergraduates should be employed by arrangement between the department or program office and the Office of Student Employment, 246 Church Street, 432-0167. Instructors should closely monitor student workers to be sure that appropriate precautions are taken to safeguard the integrity of course materials.
On rare occasions, and only when no graduate student is available in your department or in any related program for this duty, an instructor may, with your support, request permission from the Yale College Dean's Office to hire an Undergraduate Course Grader to assist in the scoring of objective course assignments. This excludes any participation in the grading of final examinations, but may include scoring objective tests and problem sets that might contribute toward a student's overall course grade. It is not appropriate under any circumstances for an Undergraduate Course Grader to evaluate essays, essay questions on examinations, or any other work that calls for subjective or individual judgment. Undergraduate Course Graders should be selected with special care. Only those undergraduates who have demonstrated sufficient expertise and complete trustworthiness should be considered for this important responsibility. Requests for permission to hire Undergraduate Course Graders should be directed to Dean Judith D. Hackman, 139 HGS, 432-2757.
In making a request for permission to hire an Undergraduate Course Grader, you and the instructor must attest to all of the following stipulations: that no graduate student is available for these responsibilities; that no graduate student will be performing the exact same set of tasks for this course as an undergraduate grader; that the faculty instructor—not a teaching fellow, a Part-Time Acting Instructor, or other graduate or professional school student—will be training and supervising the undergraduate grader; and that the faculty member has put in place a system to preserve the anonymity of the students whose work is being scored by the undergraduate grader and to ensure the integrity of the grading.
Instructors in science and quantitative reasoning courses may find it helpful to have available Course-Based Peer Tutors in addition to the other resources (such as faculty and teaching fellows) associated with the course. Course-Based Peer Tutors are undergraduates who in most cases have previously taken the course in which they will be tutoring. They attend lectures or laboratories and are available to students in the course for one-on-one and small-group tutoring, closely overseen by the course instructor. Requests for authorization to appoint a Course-Based Peer Tutor should be addressed to Dean William Segraves, on behalf of the Science Council or the Quantitative Reasoning Council, 20 SSS, 432-1037.
