Introduction: Digital Learning Experiences and COVID-19: Insights and Perspectives from GTAs

Abstract

In June 2021, I agreed with the doctoral college at the University of Leeds to organise a day of professional development dedicated to postgraduate research students who teach (in this volume, Graduate Teaching Assistants or ‘GTAs’ will be used to refer to these students, although there is no unified terminology across the different institutions in the UK). The event ‘Postgraduate Teaching Experiences: What we can learn from them’, which was part of the Festival of the Doctoral College, took place online and was structured in the following way. In the first session, I presented the findings and insights gained from the project ‘Enhancing the engagement of postgraduate research students in teaching’.1 The presentation was followed by a roundtable discussion on the enhancement of the pedagogic practice at the University of Leeds, with the aim of sharing a diversity of perspectives on the following points:
 The experience of being a GTA at the University of Leeds, exploring the extent to which GTAs feel valued and supported in their teaching context, and the level of control they feel they have over their classes and the wider teaching context.
 The working relationships between staff and GTAs from a staff perspective, exploring staff attitudes to GTAs, and whether student teaching benefits from GTA involvement and how staff might respond to greater GTA input.
 Student attitudes to GTAs and professional teaching staff: do undergraduates respond to the two groups differently? Do they have different experiences of these two groups?