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Teaching Assistant Orientations

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At Caltech, all Teaching Assistants (TAs) must complete a TA Orientation program prior to or at the start of their first appointment. TA Orientation consists of two parts:

a) Online component through Caltech MyLearn training portal

b) In-person component through the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach (CTLO)

First-year graduate students entering Caltech in the Fall are automatically assigned to the online component and registered for the Teaching Conference, which serves as the in-person component, as part of their orientation week. For the current year's teaching conference RSVP link, schedule, session descriptions, and details, please visit: /teachingconference.

Undergraduate TAs and others needing the in-person teaching orientation may participate in one of the quarterly sessions and need to please do the following:

  • Self-enroll and complete the online component (instructions below)
  • For an in-person (Zoom) session, please check the Announcements on our main page for available dates and times
  • Attend and actively participate in the in-person (Zoom) session.

Instructions to self-enroll in Online Policies Module: Using Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer, with pop-ups enabled, log-in using your Caltech credentials at https://caltech.learn.taleo.net. (The MyLearn application is also available via access.caltech.edu, under the "Self Service" heading). From the MyLearn homepage, enter part of the course name (e.g., "teaching") in the search box in the upper right hand corner of the window. Click on the plus sign to the right of the Learning Plan called "Caltech Policies for Teaching Assistants".  Click on the Caltech Policies for Teaching Assistants link and then click on the "Launch Course" button. Instructions with screenshots can be found here.

Upon completion of both the online component and the in-person component, new TAs have fulfilled the institute-required TA Orientation and may note on CVs/Resumes that they completed the "Caltech Introduction to University Teaching Program."