A Supporting System for Teaching Assistant to Control Assistant Behavior by Adjusting Instruction Time

Abstract

In this study, we propose a Teaching Assistant (TA) support system to assist the TA in instructing students more effectively. The TA is expected to support students properly without decreasing the learning impact of the students. Hints for exercises should not be given excessively to let the students work by themselves. The proposed system controls the TA’s behavior by preventing the TA from overrunning the instruction time. To measure the instruction time, the position data of the TA in the classroom is used. The system detects the beginning of a TA instruction based on the still position in a fixed period. When the instruction time overruns a specific time, the system notifies the TA by sending a signal to vibrate the mobile device worn by the TA. The TA is assumed to conclude the instruction and leave from the student when the mobile device vibrates. We introduced the experiment in the classes of basic programming course. From the results of the experiment, the notification affected the TA adequately and the instruction was concluded as anticipated.