Course Lecturer Guidelines

Eligibility

These positions are offered to visiting academic staff, contract personnel and to qualified graduate students registered in the School's Doctoral and Master's programs.

Stipend

The standard stipend for a Course Lecturer in the School is $5,000 per course. A 4% vacation entitlement is included in this stipend. Each course runs over a term. Each term is normally four months [i.e. September through December (Fall term) and January through April (Winter Term) except for our Summer term which runs from May through June inclusively].

Successful applicants must complete appropriate paperwork for payroll purposes. Once officially in the University's payroll system, cheques will be directly deposited into the Course Lecturer's bank on the 15th and the last day of every month of employment.

Workload

The average workload for a Course Lecturer in the School of Computer Science is 135 hours for the term (for a 3-credit course). Of these, three (3) hours are spent in class time per week. The rest are spent in preparation time for the class and regular office hours.

Duties

A Course Lecturer is expected to:

• meet at least once with either the former instructor of the course or the Chair of the Undergraduate Program Committee to discuss the text and other details relating to the course;
• read Faculty guidelines carefully and respect the rules and regulations contained therein, as well as the SOCS "Instructor's Guide".  N.B. Your responsibility as course lecturer is to be aware of the information contained in both documents.
• respect his/her office hours;
• ensure timely assignments;
• respect the deadlines for the submissions of exams, supplementals and grades;
• complete and return the Teaching Assistant workload form as per the T.A. Union agreement;
• evaluate Teaching Assistant(s) assigned to the course at the end of the term, and complete and return the evaluation form as per the T.A. Union agreement;
• ensure that he/she or his/her delegate is present during the examination period in order to answer any questions which may arise;
• remind students to conduct a course evaluation (done on-line through the Mercury system) at the end of the semester which will remain on file for future consultation;
• be accountable for his/her actions;
• respect and treat all students equally;
• serve the full term of his/her appointment.

Where multiple sections of a course exist, a Course Lecturer may be designated as Co-ordinator of this course. As the Co-ordinator, he/she will be asked to perform the following additional duties:

• to co-ordinate the sections of the course;
• to co-ordinate the T.A.s assigned to the course sections;
• to ensure common assignments;
• to establish uniform grading criteria;
• to be responsible for grade submission;
• to assume overall responsibility for the course and its T.As.

Application Process

The School sends e-mail to all registered graduate students soliciting applications by a given deadline. Applicants must submit an application form together with an updated C.V. to the School's administrative office for consideration.

Download the application form (pdf)

Evaluation Process

At the end of each semester, the performance of Course Lecturers will be evaluated through the course evaluation exercise. The results of this evaluation will remain on file for future reference.

Information on Funding Forms

Click here for further information about funding forms.