Database driven Online Web Forms

Faculty of Science should view this page here

SFU Semester Schedule for TA Applications, TUG Forms, and Evaluations

The current term is 1247. The start of week 6 for workload review is 2024-10-09 (YYYY-MM-DD). The evaluation term is currently 1247 and TA applications are being accepted for courses for 1251 (Spring 2025). We use the week 6 date to switch Evaluations to the current term. We switchover TA applications to 1251 during weeks 4-6.

We try to change to the new term about the same time when course maillists are updated to reflect the rosters for the new term. Summer term rollover is 2024-04-30 (class start 2024-05-06), Fall term rollover is 2024-08-25 (classes start 2024-09-04). Spring rollover is after Christmas. week 6 for spring is 2024-02-05, for summer is 2024-06-04, for fall is 2024-10-09

Last Fall TA applications began 2023-10-23 and ended 2023-11-06. Spring TA applications begin 2024-02-26 and end 2024-03-11. Summer TA applications date begin 2024-06-24 and end 2024-07-08. Fall TA applications begin 2024-10-28 and end 2024-11-12


(This paragraph is greyed out for general consumption as it is only relevent to the Faculty of Science that will view this page here)
Reminder: Many of the pages use the SFU computing ID   and the current term (1247) or next term (1251) to search for and limit access to the proper database records- e.g., for the TUG instructor web pages, the index page searches for TAs assigned to courses with the instructors' computing IDs and and the current term (1247); if it does not find any it will generate an error message suggesting that there are no TAs assigned to your computing ID and you might check that the department has your computing ID correctly.  It allows multiple instructors to be listed on courses. TUG forms need a mailing list that includes all instructors (generally Faculty and sessionals) but not TAs to restrict access.

2022-2025 TSSU Collective Agreement- for relative dates, see   'Article 18: Position Posting and Offers of Employment'. 2019-22.

TA applications start "On the Monday of the tenth (10) week prior to the commencement of the semester" (2024-10-28) (if the university is closed that Monday, the next day is used).
Postings shall remain open at least two (2) weeks (close 2024-11-12). (...when positions must be reposted or become newly available 1. For TA/TMs, the position will be posted on the central website and shall remain open at least two (2) weeks ...[or if] due to the commencement date of the position, the posting shall remain open for two (2) working days prior to being awarded. To allow for applications in the first weeks of the term we don't change the TA Applications over to the next term until week 6.
Offers by: Successful applicants shall receive written notification of the employment offer between six (6) and four (4) weeks prior to the commencement of the term.
Hint: Just do a google search "10 weeks before september 3".

HR Job Postings for TAs, TMs and Sessional Instructors  TSSU TA Website   TSSU Public Calendar    SFU Calendars of Important Dates   

Week	What Instructors/ Students are Doing	What Managers/Staff are Doing View of the Science Server and the IT group	What IT Staff are Doing Details
-		If TSSU requests report, do in Filemaker.	Graduands
-	Faculty often work on TUG forms before courses start (and even before the term rollover).	Send Faculty the link for doing TUG forms https://advance.science.sfu.ca/{Your Department}/tug_TA/tug_Instructor/
1- Semester/ Classes Start 2024-09-04	TUG Forms (Faculty often start a week or two before classes start). "The Course Supervisor shall complete these forms during the first week of classes each semester in consultation with the Teaching Assistant. The Teaching Assistant is entitled to suggest amendments to the assigned times for the various activities". Review Evaluation Form and Evaluative Criteria with TAs at the beginning of the semester. 'The TA [for 1244] must receive a copy of the Evaluation Form no later than the end of the first week of classes of the following semester.'	Adjustments to Contracts & replace TAs who resigned. Ensure Instructors from 1244 have finished their TA Evaluation Forms by the end of week (https://advance.science.sfu.ca/YourDept/ta_evaluation/tug_Instructor/evaluation_admin/) Ensure Instructors for 1247 have completed TUG forms and reviewed the Evaluation Form and Evaluative Criteria.	Delete backup of TA Applications as well as CV and Transcript uploads from over one year ago (Current Year Competition Completed + 1 year) in January
2		Review Tug Forms (https://advance.science.sfu.ca/{Your Department}/tug_TA/tug_Instructor/tug_full_access/). Remind Instructors that have not completed and sent out emails to TAs.
3		Remind then Harangue TAs that have not completed TUG form	Good time to update TA Applications.
4-5		Tell Dave & King (sass-support@sfu.ca) if applications need to be kept available due to grievances.	Open Workload Review for all departments (for week 6 2024-10-09) and change Evaluation Semester to current semester.
6	Start of week 6 (2024-10-09)	'Prior to the end of week six (6), Departments shall remind Course Supervisors and Teaching Assistants that Course Supervisors are required to conduct a workload review'	Move last semester's TA Applications to previous applications (use script in Previous Applications), delete last semester's TA Applications in Filemaker.  Delete TA CV & Transcript uploads (but maintain archive in backups for one year plus end of Calendar year).
6 (con't)	'The Course Supervisor will conduct the workload review in consultation with the Teaching Assistant in a timely manner so as to ensure that the course is sufficiently advanced to assess the workload. The Course Supervisor will advise the Teaching Assistant of the result of the review, and the Department will retain the copy of the completed review form until the conclusion of the following semester.'	Finish entering Course list & TA/TMs Required for next semester. (This can be done anytime) Update Departmental Faculty list if needed (https://advance.science.sfu.ca/YourDept/ta_applications/instructors/admin/live/edit_supervisors)	In the 'course_offerings' table field CourseTAneededValueList: If ( ((PatternCount ( TATM ; "T" )>0)  and (Year Semester ="1251")) ; course ;""  ) change the semester to next semester. In Filemaker BISC TA Applications, find the 'Edit online Information' button, and enter the new Payroll & App't Start and End Dates as well as TA application deadline. Edit/ update dates in /var/www/html/globals.php
7-		Test Applications with both 'dept grad students', other grad students, and undergrads or external. Check that the Departmental Faculty list is updated (https://advance.science.sfu.ca/{Your Department}/ta_applications/instructors/admin/live/edit_supervisors)
8- TA Applications Open	TA/TM Postings up: 2024-10-28 Instructors may view their applicants at https://advance.science.sfu.ca/{Your Dept}/ta_applications/instructors/ (requires Instructor Computing ID to entered as Course Instructor)	Check progress of Work-Load Reviews by Instructors (https://advance.science.sfu.ca/YourDept/tug_TA/tug_Instructor/tug_full_access/ - see )	Check to make sure no old TA applications present!  Ask Managers etc to test Applications with both dept grad students, other grad students, and undergrads or external.
9		View applications at https://advance.science.sfu.ca/YourDept/ta_applications/instructors/admin/live/
10 TA Applications Close	TA/TM Application deadline: 2024-11-12	Parse TA applications to create list by course.  Note- the course list will not include all courses checked, just those given first to fourth preference.  Biology & MBB send lists to instructors.
11-			The morning after TA Applications close back up databases and rename the backup clearly  (TA_Applications_backup_date...).  Rename index.php index-open.php and index-closed.php index.php (script).
12		TA Assignments... remember that some lists only show first 4 choices, but Graduate students (including outside your dept) need to be considered for all courses they applied to.
13	(TA/TM Offer period : ...)	TA Assignments...  Start entering Course list & TA/TMs Required for next semester.
14-	TA/TM Offers must be received by... TAs go to https://advance.science.sfu.ca/YourDept/ta_applications/accept/	TA Assignments....  Workload reviews should be finished by Instructors.	After last class but before end of exams is good time to work on updating TUG forms.  You cannot do it when people are working on TUG forms.
15- TAships are offered (Last Day of classes .., exams ...)		Send TA Offers by this week
16 (Last Exam-...)		Contracts / uploads due to Payroll (Check
-	Faculty often work on TUG forms	If TSSU requests report, do in Filemaker.	Graduands
-	TUG Forms. Review Evaluation Form and Evaluative Criteria with TAs at the beginning of the semester. The TAs must receive a copy of the Evaluation Form no later than the end of the first week of classes of the following semester.	Ensure Instructors from 1247 have finished their TA Evaluation Forms by the end of week (https://advance.science.sfu.ca/YourDept/ta_evaluation/tug_Instructor/evaluation_admin/)
1- Classes Start	Classes Start ....

      

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If any of the dates above are wrong please contact sass-support@sfu.ca now! Thank you.




SFU (yes or no) and Status questions are asked in the first part of the TA application form and based on the answers the differences are implemented within a single form using simple logic:

if status =  'SFU <Your Dept> Graduate' Then Show or Hide specific Information or requests.
if status contains  'Graduate' Then Show or Hide specific Information or requests.
if SFU =  'Yes' Then Show or Hide specific Information or requests.

If ( ((PatternCount ( TATM ; "T" )>0)  and (Year Semester ="1251")) ; course ;""  )