Asee peer logo

The Well-being Teaching Assistant: A Proactive Approach to Caring for Students with Academic and Personal Difficulties in Massive Courses

Download Paper |

Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Promoting Well-Being in Engineering Education: Strategies and Perspectives

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44496

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44496

Download Count

184

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Jorge A. Baier Pontificia Universidad Catholica de Chile

visit author page

He is an associate professor in the Computer Science Department and Associate Dean of Engineering Education at the Engineering School in Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. Jorge is interested in various forms of applying AI to improve students' experience in higher education.

visit author page

biography

Isabel Hilliger P.E. Pontificia Universidad Catholica de Chile Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5270-7655

visit author page

Isabel Hilliger is Assistant Professor of Practice and Associate Director for Assessment and Evaluation at the Engineering Education Unit in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC-Chile). Isabel received a BEng and PhD in Engineering Sciences from PUC-Chile, and an MA in Policy Organizati

visit author page

biography

Ximena Hidalgo

visit author page

Psychologist, faculty development coordinator, Division of Engineering Education. School of engineering of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

visit author page

biography

Matías Alonso Piña Pontificia Universidad Catholica de Chile

visit author page

Matías is a master's student and researcher at the School of Engineering in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC-Chile), and a Research Assistant at University of Toronto. Matías received a Bachelor of Science degree in Design Engineering from PUC-Chile, and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Computer Science at the same institution.

visit author page

biography

Gabriel Astudillo Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile

visit author page

Gabriel Astudillo is Coordinator for Measurement and Evaluation at the Engineering School in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC-Chile). Gabriel received an MA in Social Sciences from Universidad de Chile.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Since the covid pandemic, some higher education institutions have promoted a flexible evaluation approach for students who face a variety of problems. Instructors willing to implement such flexibilizations face an important challenge: making themselves aware of students going through hard times. This evidence-based practice paper presents an overview and a preliminary evaluation of the well-being teaching assistant (WTA), an approach to facilitating communication, suggesting and documenting flexibilizations, and providing support for students going through difficult times in high-enrolment courses. WTAs are regular members of the teaching assistant staff, but they use an early warning system to identify potential students at risk of failure, initiate communication using supportive language, and take action by suggesting flexibilization or providing academic support for students facing challenges. WTAs have been incorporated into 27 courses at a large school of engineering in Latin America, during 2022, and have been positively evaluated by students. One of the main current challenges of the approach is scalability.

Baier, J. A., & Hilliger, I., & Hidalgo, X., & Piña, M. A., & Astudillo, G. (2023, June), The Well-being Teaching Assistant: A Proactive Approach to Caring for Students with Academic and Personal Difficulties in Massive Courses Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44496

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2023 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015