Policy Regarding Satisfaction of the PhD Teaching Requirement (2/27/2004)

In the Department of Computer Science listing in the University of Idaho Catalog it states:

"The student must have at least one full semester of teaching experience, with the teaching assignment determined by the student's supervisory committee."

An individual receiving the PhD degree must be skilled in communicating the concepts and principles in his/her field of specialization. For most successful PhD candidates an academic career involving significant future accomplishment in teaching and research will be expected. Therefore a demonstrated ability in teaching is considered essential. It is the supervisory committee's responsibility to approve and monitor the candidate's method of satisfying the teaching requirement. Two alternatives are available:

• In most cases the supervisory committee will require the candidate to teach an approved course at the Moscow campus or at a University of Idaho Residence Center. Alternatively, the committee may consider as sufficient, teaching experience gained at another university, junior college, or community college provided that the experience is substantially similar in level of material covered and responsibilities assigned as would be experienced if the candidate were teaching at the Moscow campus. The academic teaching experience must (1) be in computer science or a closely related field, and (2) at least in a lower division course. Leading lab and/or recitation sections is not considered to be sufficient to fulfill the teaching requirement. Responsibilities must include preparation and delivery of course material via lectures, preparation of assignments and examination questions, and grading of assignments and exams. Results from the student evaluation of teaching shall be used by the supervisory committee to assess the candidate's satisfaction of this requirement. The candidate's method of satisfying this requirement and his/her performance will be documented and placed in his/her academic file.
• The supervisory committee may (but is not required to) consider as sufficient to satisfy the teaching requirement, a combination of instruction in professional workshops, technical seminars, and training courses where the combined teaching experience is at least equivalent in level, duration, and responsibility to a one semester undergraduate computer science course. If this alternative is considered by the supervisory committee, the candidate must have the primary responsibility for (1) developing the materials, (2) delivery, (3) participant mentoring, and (4) providing feedback to, and/or evaluating participant performance.

The candidate's performance in accomplishing the teaching requirement must be evaluated by the participants and judged as acceptable by the supervisory committee. The candidate's method of satisfying this requirement and his/her performance will be documented and placed in his/her academic file.