Hi everyone,

I've been asked to be a seminar tutor next year which I'm looking forward to, as it will be my first teaching. But we've been asked to state how many seminars we would like to do each week, and I'm not sure what to say.

Do any of you take seminars for undergrads? If so, how much time does preparation take up? Also, we will need to mark one assignment each term, so I presume that the more seminars I take the more marking I will need to do.

Any ideas how many seminars I should agree to take per week? I don't just want to say one if I'm likely to be able to fit more in. I'll be doing my PhD full time then if that makes a difference.

Thanks all!

I would say that if it is your first/second year then you are probably fine to commit to up to three hours a week. This is of course assuming you will be teaching the same module but to different groups; of course you only need to prepare once then! Marking time depends on the nature of the assignment. Expect the first ones to take ages, and you to speed up once you know what you're looking for. Teaching is an excellent experience and will set you up for an academic career, so go for it.

If you are receiving funding for your PhD have a look at their rules and regs, especially if it's a research board as I'm fairly sure that they stipulate the max amount of hours a week a funded student can teach. Are there any students in the year above you that have been seminar tutors? It might be worth having a word with them on their experiences and what they would suggest. I only co-lecture and have never taken a seminar but I know that those in my department that do take seminars have to attend the module lectures so they know what to base the seminar on.

Hope you enjoy the experience!

Hey Button! I would tend to be a bit cautious with how much you take on really. I have taught on one undergrad module for each year of my PhD and it really can be quite time consuming even if it's only a single 1 or 2 hour class each week. If you're just preparing one and delivering it to several groups then that's not too bad, but I would be wary of taking on more than one module at a time and having to prepare more than one seminar for each week. Also keep in mind that the marking is very time consuming! Having said all that, I have found teaching to be mostly a positive experience and of course very advantageous for the CV! Good luck with it! KB

Thanks for all your thoughts, it's really helpful! I'm going to try and track down some previous seminar tutors too. Thanks again!