Month: September 2014

Bullying and Harassment Training

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http://bullyingandharassment.ubc.ca/training-events/
http://bullyingandharassment.ubc.ca/

Effective November 2013, British Columbia’s Workers Compensation Act was amended to include three new policies addressing workplace bullying & harassment. Sections 115, 116 and 117 of the Act set out the general duties of employers, workers and supervisors.

Who Should Take the Training Course?
The new legislation requires all UBC Faculty & Staff (including students employed by the University) to receive training about the new workplace bullying and harassment policies and requirements on how to recognize, prevent, and address workplace bullying & harassment.

Training Course Objectives
Participants completing this online training will be able to:
•    Define workplace bullying and harassment
•    Recognize workplace bullying and harassment
•    Identify behaviours that do not constitute bullying and harassment
•    Describe the duties of employers, supervisors, and workers, with respect to workplace bullying and harassment.
•    Respond to situations involving workplace bullying and harassment

Evaluation Process
To complete the online training course, participants must confirm their understanding of the course content by obtaining a score of 100% on a short multiple choice quiz. Those that do not pass the quiz can reread the course material and retest as many times as necessary. Upon successful completion, participants will receive a printable Certificate of Completion for their records. Please scan and email a copy of your Certificate of Completion to the LFS Grad Office (lfs.ta@ubc.ca) ASAP. TA’s may claim a maximum of 30 minutes in order to complete the online course

Training Course Duration
The online course is self-paced. The duration will depend on the individual participant and their prior knowledge of the subject matter. On average, the course will take 20-30 minutes to complete.

TA Performance Review

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The following information was emailed to all 2014-15 LFS Instructors and TA’s on September 9 on behalf of Gwen Chapman.  The evaluation and orientation forms can be found under Resources

Hello 2014-15 Winter Session instructors (and cc’ed TAs):

I’m pleased to let you know that we are rolling out a new TA performance review process for all LFS TAships.The process has been developed as a way to facilitate discussions between a TA and the instructor in order to encourage growth and improvement in the TAs skills, to enhance teaching performance, and to recognize successful teaching.  Teaching assistants are potential academics in training.  These positions provide an opportunity for students to be further integrated into the learning environment and to encourage teaching development.

The evaluation process includes 3 components, all of which were pilot tested in the summer term:

1)      A preliminary orientation meeting, to be held as soon as possible at the start of term.  At this meeting, the TA and instructor will go through the attached “orientation guide” checklist to ensure that both are clear about the expectations of the TA’s role and the TA / Instructor relationship.

2)      An informal check-in approximately half way through the term, where the “TA Informal Check-In” form will be completed.

3)      The formal Performance Review to be completed at the end of term: “TA Performance Review”.

Each of the three forms should be returned to the LFS Grad Office UBC (lfs.ta@ubc.ca) (electronic scanned copy is preferred)  as soon as it has been completed to be added to the TA’s file. All of these steps are intended to enhance communication between the TA and Instructor, and to provide positive two-way feedback to encourage the TA’s professional growth and the instructor’s supervision. Instructors who have serious concerns with the performance of a TA should discuss them with the TA as soon as possible and notify the Graduate Programs Manager (Shelley Small) and/or the Director, HR & Administration (Barb Hsiao).

Time used for this performance evaluation is part of the TA contract hours – we anticipate that it will only need to take a total of ~1 hour.

If you have any questions or feedback about this process, please let me, Shelley, or Barb know.

Best regards,

Gwen

Gwen Chapman PhD RD
Professor and Associate Dean Academic | Faculty of Land and Food Systems
246 Food, Nutrition and Health Building | 2205 East Mall
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z4
Phone 604 822 6874 | Fax 604 822 5143
gwen.chapman@ubc.ca | www.landfood.ubc.ca