Research Questions regarding Undergraduate TA and Mentor Programs in Computer Science.

Undergraduates have been an important part of the teaching staff at many universities for decades. Recent work such as the Peer Teaching Summit at SIGCSE 2019 [1] and a systematic literature review [2] have focused more attention on issues related to the use of undergraduates in teaching assistant roles. This BOF provides a forum to discuss open research questions about undergrad TA/mentor programs at various stages in their evolution. Attendees will have an opportunity to discuss research questions, research methods, and explore possible collaborations. Discussion Leader(s): Diba Mirza will open the session by summarizing the key findings of literature review on UTAs from ICER'19 [1]-in particular, the fact that while there is widespread consensus that using UTAs is a good idea, the evidence backing up this consensus is mostly anecdotal. This creates many opportunities to establish the effectiveness of current practices, and the claimed benefits of the use of UTAs through more rigorous research and to discuss innovative ways to incorporate UTAs in teaching outside of what has been reported in the literature. This will be followed by a themed discussion to brainstorm about research within each of these areas. Based on the large turnout at the BOF on Undergraduate Teaching Assistants in SIGCSE'19, we plan to organize the discussion in smaller groups. Diba Mirza, Phillip Conrad, and Cynthia Lee will lead the discussion within each group. The leads will also document the discussions and share it with the participants.