Teaching assistantships offer graduate students the chance to support the learning of undergraduate students while building skills that will support them in their academic careers. In addition to supporting student learning, teaching assistants also fill two essential roles: ambassador for the institution, faculty, department, and program; and front-line observer.
ExpecTAtions (Teaching Assistant Training)
The starting point for anyone who wishes to serve as a Waterloo Engineering teaching assistant (TA) is to register in the Faculty of Engineering (FOE) Teaching Assistant training: ExpecTAtions.
ExpecTAtions is mandatory TA training offered over a two-week period to graduate students registered in the Faculty of Engineering . This training is held each term in September/October, January/ February and May/June. Students who attend and complete all required training components receive a certificate noting their achievement. Currently, we deliver ExpecTAtions virtually with synchronous and asynchronous components, which takes approximately 8 to 10 hours (4-5 hours for the School of Architecture/ CONRAD) to complete.
Registration
Students will be invited to self-register for ExpecTAtions_FOE, ExpecTAtions_Arch, and ExpecTAtions_BET by the Office of ADTSE and their department contact:
- Chemical Engineering (CHE): Sarah Fischer
- Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE): Stephanie Kears
- Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business (CONRAD): Tracie Wilkinson
- Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE): Brianne Brown
- Management Science and Engineering (MSE): Andrea Christian
- Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering (MME): Tanya Yoworski
- Systems Design Engineering (SYDE): Tara Campbell
- School of Architecture (ARCH): Mark Anderton
Once students successfully register for ExpecTAtions_FOE/ExpecTAtions_Arch/ ExpecTAtions_BET, they will receive a confirmation email with more information on the content and deliverables.
Self-registration dates and training dates for ExpecTAtions_FOE, ExpecTAtions_Arch, and ExpecTAtions_BET will be posted on this site by mid August. We will also email students details about these trainings.
Upcoming Teaching Assistant Trainings
ExpecTAtions_Arch Winter 2026
Graduate Teaching Assistant Training for TAs in the School of Architecture
For all Teaching Assistants in the School of Architecture (Offered every term)
Self-Registrations on LEARN will remain open between January 5th at 7pm EST -January 11th 2026 till 7pm EST.
Dates for training: January 12th 9am to January 23rd 2026 11.59pm.
Modality: Online (with synchronous, asynchronous components), and in-person.
Synchronous component Orientation Session: TBA
In-person component: Feedback and Grading Workshop for TAs: TBA
ExpecTAtions_FOE Winter 2026
ExpecTAtions_FOE Winter 2026
Graduate Teaching Assistant Training in the Faculty of Engineering for the following Departments:
- Chemical Engineering (CHE)
- Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
- Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
- Management Science and Engineering (MSE)
- Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering (MME)
- Systems Design Engineering (SYDE)
- CONRAD School of Entrepreneurship and Business (CONRAD) PhD Student only
(Offered every term) (to complete before your TA hiring applications)
Self-Registrations on LEARN will remain open between January 12th at 7pm EST and January 25th 2026 till 7pm EST.
Dates for training: January 26th 9am to February 6th 2026 11.59pm.
Modality: Online (with synchronous and asynchronous components).
Synchronous component Orientation Session: January 12th 2026 at 11.00am to 12.00pm
Synchronous component Check-in Session: February 2nd 2026 at 11.00am to 12.00pm (optional)
ExpecTAtions_Arch Spring 2026
Graduate Teaching Assistant Training for TAs in the School of Architecture
For all TAs in the School of Architecture (Offered every term)
Self-Registrations on LEARN will remain open between May 11th at 8pm EST -May 17th 2026 till 8pm EST.
Dates for training: May 18th 9am to May 29th 2026 11.59pm.
Modality: Online (with synchronous, asynchronous components), and in-person.
Synchronous component: TBA
In-person component: TBA
Upcoming Teaching Development Events
Teaching Development Event 4 (AI Resistant Design - Designing assessments that AI is likely to fail)
REGISTRATION CLOSED
Back by popular demand. We ran a similar online workshop in the Spring 2025 term, and had requests to run it again in Fall 2025. Join us to get hands-on experience using a systems perspective to consider assessments and an innovative framework for building prompts with genAI tools. This workshop is online so that we can all join in trying out sample prompts and templates.
Friday, November 28th 2025
2pm to 4pm
ONLINE (Teams link to join the session will be emailed to the registrants)