Teaching Development and Support

FLEX@PITT  (Fall 2020)

For TAs/TFs: Please check frequently the constantly-updated resources of the University Center for Teaching and Learning.

Graduate students who have teaching responsibilities can choose to teach in person or remotely.

Flex@Pitt Instructional Model for Fall 2020

COVID–19 Remote IT Resources

COVID-19 Standards and Guidelines: Instruction

University Center for Teaching and Learning's Graduate Student Teaching Initiative

The University Center for Teaching and Learning is nationally and internationally recognized as a model resource center for teaching, learning, and technology in higher education. The mission of the center is to inspire excellence and innovation in teaching, learning, and scholarly activities at the University of Pittsburgh.The center provides resources to prepare graduate student instructors to meet their teaching goals and responsibilities from the first day of class through the job search process.

New Teaching Assistant Orientation

  • Participation in the New Teaching Assistant Orientation is required by the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences for all students who will be teaching assistants for the first time in the ensuing semester(s). Offered in January and August each year, this one-day event is designed to introduce basic concepts and information needed for classroom success.

University Teaching Practicum

  • FacDev 2200, the university's teaching practicum, is a mainstay of the University of Pittsburgh's commitment to graduate and undergraduate education. The three-credit graduate seminar is offered every semester. The Dietrich School requires this course to be taken by graduate students teaching independently for the first time.

Achievement in Pedagogy Badge

Educational Technology Training Workshops

  • Training workshops cover a large variety of technologies, including Blackboard, multimedia technologies, peer reviewing, academic integrity applications, and online survey creation.

Teaching Support

  •  Consultants are available to meet with you one-on-one to help you design an assignment, manage challenges in the classroom, improve a syllabus or exam, or to compile a teaching portfolio.

Center for the Integration of Research, Training, and Learning

The Center for the Integration of Research, Training, and Learning (Pitt-CIRTL) community is training the next generation of STEM faculty members with knowledge of, and engagement in, evidence-based teaching/learning practices.

Library Resources

The University Library System helps instructors find information for both their courses and personal research.

Discipline-Based Science Education Research Center

The Discipline-Based Science Education Research Center (dB-SERC) works with teachers in Pitt natural sciences departments to create a community to improve the teaching and learning through evidence-based practices.

International Teaching Assistants Support

International Teaching Assistants Tutoring Groups 

International  Teaching Assistants (ITA) Tutoring Groups are non-credit tutoring sessions available through the English Language Institute for international teaching assistants and international teaching fellows (ITA/ITFs) in the Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Business or School of Computing and Information who have scored a 3 or below on the ITA English Language Comprehensibility Test.  ITA Tutoring Groups are designed to help students:

  • improve their pronunciation.
  • develop their public speaking skills in English.
  • prepare to retake the English Language Comprehensibility Test.

ITA Tutoring Groups meet for one hour and fifteen minutes each week for ten weeks and are offered in the fall. Tutoring Groups may be offered in the spring with sufficient enrollment. Students must be recommended for a tutoring group.

Classroom Communication for International Teaching Assistants and Fellows  (ITAs/ITFs)

Classroom Communication for International Teaching Assistants (CCITA) is a non-credit course available through the English Language Institute and is only available to ITAs/ITFs in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Students who have scored a 4 or below on the ITA English Language Comprehensibility Test are recommended to take this course. CCITA is designed to help students:

  • improve their English speaking skills.
  • develop strategies for instruction and managing learning situations in an American university environment.
  • deepen their knowledge of American general and academic culture.
  • prepare to retake the English Language Comprehensibility Test.

The CCITA course meets for two hours each week for twelve weeks and is offered in the fall.  The CCITA course may be offered in the spring with sufficient enrollment. Students are recommended for this course based on their score on the ITA English Comprehensibility Test.

There is no cost to students to participate in either of these opportunities.  Registration in the ITA Tutoring Groups and the CCITA course does not appear on students’ transcripts; however, Midterm Reports and Final Reports indicating attendance and Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory progress are provided to students and to their departments.  For more information, students should contact Rob Mucklo at rom17@pitt.edu in the English Language Institute or the Graduate Administrator in their Department.