Graduate students must complete the New Teaching Assistant (TA) Orientation before or during their first academic-year quarter as a TA, or they will not be eligible to TA in subsequent quarters. Once the UCR Graduate Division New TA Orientation has been completed, the student will not need to take it again. 

All New TA Orientation components for the Academic Year 2024-2025 will be online via Canvas/eLearn. The orientation will be asynchronous, and students will be able to self-enroll; however, we expect each TA to complete the required training between the beginning of the quarter and the conclusion of Week 5. Per the terms of the collective bargaining agreement currently in place with the union representing graduate student workers, the required training elements (as mandated by the Academic Senate) should take approximately four hours to complete.

The new TA Orientation will cover mandatory sessions on basic pedagogy, TA rights and responsibilities, FERPA rules and regulations for TAs, a UAW presentation, teaching in a diverse classroom environment, and building rapport with students. Additional, non-mandatory sessions will provide resources for classroom and online teaching technologies, relevant campus partners, and best practices in pedagogy.

Graduate students working as TAs for the first time (who have not previously completed UCR’s New TA Orientation) must complete orientation during that same quarter.

The Teaching Assistant Development Program (TADP) has limited staff and resources, so if graduate students fail to complete the required training by the outlined deadlines, we cannot guarantee that everyone will be certified.

New TA Orientation is NOT offered over the Summer.

Spring 2025 Orientation

TA Orientation self-enrollment for Spring 2025 is now open! You can self-enroll using this link: https://elearn.ucr.edu/enroll/M9D7LX

A tutorial on how to self-enroll to the TA Orientation Canvas course can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CPkVz4LLD8RW27T9Bb5gmg6WZyy2c4zC/view?usp=share_link