Becoming a Tutor

What do tutors do?

Tutors generally deliver tutorials, and assist during lab sessions. They may also mark the work of students in their courses. In first year subjects, they generally work about 5 hours a week per class they teach. Tutors are generally assigned two classes per term. In addition, tutors may work extra (paid) hours a term to mark assignments.

Tutors are also asked to invigilate exams at the end of session. This can be applied for separately, and is not required of tutors.

Process

1. Complete a course that requires tutors - most commonly these are: COMP1511, COMP1911, COMP1521, COMP2521, COMP1531, COMP2511 or ENGG1811
2. Complete the talloc form
3. When completing the form, you will need to list relevant experience, and make a short video to demonstrate your teaching skills.
4. Course Supervisors will select tutors, and if successful you will hear back directly before the term starts. We try to contact successful applicants during Week 0 of a term at the latest.
5. You will be asked to attend a tutor briefing, and fill out some paperwork.
6. You’ll be assigned classes as tutor, and will start tutoring!

Note: In general, first year courses hire two tutors (one tutor, and one assistant) for each class. New tutors are generally assigned to one or two classes as an assistant. After a term or two, they may be given a class to tutor; generally they will assist a tutor early in the week, then tutor a class later in the week. After that, they may be put earlier in the week, or moved to higher level subjects.

Attributes of a good tutor

• Tutors should be good humans - kindness and helpfulness are qualities that make our tutors highly valuable. If students do not feel you will help them, or do not feel comfortable to ask; you will not make a good tutor.
• Previous technical experience is not required - in many cases, it’s actually not helpful to have a lot of experience in the subject (since tutors who learned the subject recently will remember where their issues were; and be able to help others).
• Tutors have to be responsible - this means they should display integrity (both personally and academically), and where possible show that they would be able to be responsible for a class.
• Tutors should have a desire and ability to teach.
• Tutors should show some level of initiative - helping without being asked, learning on their own, and fixing things that are wrong where they can.
• Generally, tutors should have high marks in the course they want to tutor (usually at least an HD) – this is not a requirement, nor do better marks always mean you’ll become a tutor.

What Can I Do to Show I’m a Good Tutor?

• Demonstrate your ability to explain things by contributing to classroom discussions, on class forums, and other places.
• Contribute to, and lead projects (especially within the school of CSE).
• Tutor in external organisations (such as in high schools, or university societies)
• Get good marks.

What should I do in my video?

The video is designed to show how you communicate, and that you can explain technical concepts in a simple way. You should choose a small topic, and while it doesn’t have to be from COMP1511, the topic should be demonstrative of your ability to explain a concept to a student.

Videos should be short – if you can get it in 60 seconds, that’s brilliant! Few videos we receive are longer than 2 minutes.

There are no hard rules about this video. If you want to have a longer video, or choose a unique format or topic, that's alright with us.

Just remember that we get hundreds of applications, so if you have a 3 or 4 minute video where it's the last 60 seconds that are amazing, the person watching might not get up to the end of it!

On Recommendations

While tutors are able to give recommendations, in general, tutors can only recommend their own students. They cannot recommend friends, family or partners.

The rule is that tutors recommendations can only be to draw attention to an attribute they have noticed already. For instance, if you’ve been helpful in class, a tutor may recommend you. If you show initiative in class, a tutor may recommend you. Tutors can’t recommend you just because you ask.

What if I didn't get hired?

Applications are extremely competitive. Unfortunately, this means we are often unable to accept all applicants. Don’t be discouraged! Try applying again next term.

Often, we are forced to reject good applicants because of our current amount of tutors, or due to the requirements of timetabling.

We don’t make those reasons public, and generally don’t provide reasons to students as to why their applications were unsuccessful.