Ph.D. Teaching Requirement
All Ph.D. students must satisfy a Teaching Requirement. This requirement is satisfied by serving as the principal instructor of a course here or elsewhere. This means that the student must have been in charge of lectures, grades, assignments, and all administration of at least the equivalent of a 1.5-hour course. Service as a teaching assistant does not qualify as satisfying this requirement.
Some Informal Advice
If possible, satisfy your teaching requirement before you start your dissertation research. When you are in the heat of battle with your research topic, you will not want to give up the weeks of work required to teach a course.
A Comp 990 (390) "Seminar on Teaching" is usually offered in the Spring semester for graduate students who will be in charge of a course the following summer or next academic year. These seminars have been highly recommended by past participants as an orientation to the teaching enterprise.
Satisfying the Requirement
There are two ways to satisfy this requirement, as follows:
Option 1: Teaching at another institution
If you teach a course elsewhere and would like this experience to be accepted as satisfying the Teaching Requirement, complete Form CS-11 and submit it to the Director of Graduate Studies along with other relevant documentation such as a syllabus, the text used, assignments you gave, a grade sheet, course evaluations, or other notes. (All documents you submit, other than Form CS-11, will be returned to you after review.)
Option 2: Teaching a course in CS at UNC
A few slots are available each academic year, mostly in the summer, for graduate students to teach an undergraduate computer science course in our department.
Deciding what courses are available and assigning instructors to them is the job of the Associate Chairman for Academic Affairs. The Associate Chairman maintains a list of students who are interested in teaching either to satisfy the requirement or to gain experience. The current planning data that will be used for determining the next round of graduate student teaching assignments can be examined and updated.
Most students satisfy the Teaching Requirement by teaching a course in the first or second summer session. COMP 101 (4), 110 (14), and 380 (96) are usually taught in the first summer session and COMP 101 and 110 are usually taught in the second summer session.
Students who teach regular departmental courses are supported by extensive lecture notes developed by previous faculty and student instructors.
It is not usually possible for a student to invent a course and teach it. Graduate students may teach a special topics course (Comp 190) to satisfy the Teaching Requirement, but slots for such courses are more tightly constrained than regular undergraduate courses. Students who would like to teach a special topics course should submit a detailed course description to the Associate Chairman, and be aware that even if the course is approved it may require several semesters before that course can be scheduled.
If you teach a course in this department, a faculty mentor will be assigned by the Associate Chairman for Academic Affairs. The mentor will support the student by providing advice on pedagogy, administration, or special situations, and commenting on the student instructor's presentation skills, assignments, and tests when asked.
Evaluation of Teaching and Recording Satisfaction of the Teaching Requirement
The faculty mentor will be responsible for developing a written critique of the student instructor's performance. This critique should include comments from students in the course and personal in-class observation. For student instructors satisfying the Teaching Requirement, the faculty mentor will complete form CS-11, attach the critique, and submit it into the student's file after completion of the course.
For summer courses, the CS Department's Summer School Administrator will normally be the faculty mentor in charge.