Managing CAs

Much like real professors, you are able to utilize the assistance of paid labor, namely in the form of course assistants. Generally, you will be able to bill about six hours a week per every ten students registered - but this is not harshly enforced. Course assistants can be a nice addition, especially if they have familiarity with the course material via previous iterations of the course or through other means. Otherwise, part of the course expenses will go towards the time the CA takes to educate themselves on the course material.

The extent of their authority over the course depends on what you want (and there isn’t an incorrect way to utilize them). In our experiences, the course assistants have always served to lighten our workload for the class. For instance, in AA we only managed to secure one CA. Their time was invaluable for us, but the class would have managed to run without them. Contrary to this, in DSA we had about ten course assistants performing help hours and check-ins - if we managed to not have any CAs during that class, we would not have been able to operate at the same level of efficiency (at least, not without cutting any outside workload).

Course assistants are also a good candidate for continuing SLCs. People who may have been interested in teaching but couldn’t that semester could serve as a CA before teaching it in the next iteration.