My Bootcamp Experience as a UX/UI Design Teaching Assistant
Recently, some of our students have been curious about TA (teaching assistant) roles, including the requirements, the process of becoming a TA, advantages, and challenges. I was often asked questions during different cohorts in the past; I thought about them and decided to share some of the most important points of my experience here to give a glimpse of being a UX/UI design teaching assistant at a bootcamp, an intense 6-month program.
During the summer of 2022, I was contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn, who later offered me a UX/UI Instructional Specialist role, a remote one. After passing three rounds of interviews, including a Figma test and a role-play as a TA, I became the third TA for UC Irvine’s cohort. The class had over 30 students, three TAs, and an instructor, and we all worked closely with the student success manager to achieve the weekly student success criteria. Six months later, I was offered another contract with GWU, with a similar structure but slightly different content, and I was the only TA there. Additionally, I was added to a Slack channel that allowed me to claim extra TA shifts with over ten universities in Canada and the USA. My primary responsibilities included helping and guiding students, grading their projects, providing constructive feedback, troubleshooting, and most importantly, listening to them and reporting concerns to the academic manager. So far, it’s been a great experience, and here are some reasons I enjoy working as a TA and find value and meaning in it.
1- I restudied the design material over and over again. Each university I worked with offered its syllabus, calendar, assignments, and projects, so I went over all the materials that refreshed my design knowledge after graduating from the boot camp. So I could contribute to the class with fresh knowledge, updated content, and real-world examples given by instructors and explain whys in detail.
2- I had a chance to work with 12 universities registered with the same boot camp concept for almost two years. As I had my TA role, I was also added to the Sub-TA Slack channel, which allowed me to claim extra shifts with various universities. Working with remote teams and students in different time zones advanced my adaptability and flexibility because each instructional team had its calendar, syllabus, style, and speed. In the end, remote work became a natural thing for me.
3- I used LMS (Learning Management System) for the first time. Some of you must know about LMS, which stands for learning management system, a software tool that allows you to create, deliver, track, and report on training courses and programs. There are many LMSs to choose from, each offering different features and capabilities. I used LMS to grade projects, keep track of attendance and learning progress, and view weekly reports and analytics to meet the student success criteria with the academic team.
4- I have improved and advanced some skills, such as communication, mentoring, problem-solving, technical skills (Figma, coding, troubleshooting), teamwork, and organizational skills. I have utilized these skills consistently to help students learn UX design within a limited time. As a former bootcamp student, I had to learn how to learn fast, and this time around, I had the opportunity to co-teach students how to learn fast for the nature of the bootcamp setup. Unfortunately, it’s common for students to feel overwhelmed or burnt out with the number of mandatory assignments, projects, and presentations they have to complete. Therefore, my role is to empathize, listen, and understand their situations to ease their concerns.
5- I got to read and grade plenty of projects focused on design thinking. As each cohort offered 24 modules with more than 20 assignments and three main projects for each student, I got to see, read, grade, and give feedback on these projects, which helped me improve some of my other skills, including communication, writing, giving and receiving feedback. Receiving feedback is as important as giving feedback to create a safe and clean environment for learning and provide students with a comfortable space to learn fast and push their limits and creativity. Seeing many projects also inspired me, gave me design ideas, and helped me to learn more about different industries and problem spaces.
6- Working as a TA is the first step to becoming an instructor! Yes, I’d love to be an instructor and teach UX/UI design in the future, and this a baby step to get into teaching, learning foundations, facilitating workshops and classes, handling questions professionally, giving real-world examples, and having authority in class. When it’s time, I’d love to share my expertise and experience with the students transitioning into design.
7- I had my first coding experience as this program combines both UX/UI and coding. As a former bootcamp student, I only studied UX/UI, so I had no prior experience with coding. Fortunately, TAs are not required to know how to code well, but we are still responsible for grading and troubleshooting during office hours. Our syllabus requires us to teach students the basics of coding, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, and GitHub setup, for at least two months. Even though coding is not the main focus of the program, I plan to keep the basics and continue to learn more to communicate effectively with developers and speak their language better.
8- Our network is super important! They say our network is our net worth, which is true and open to discussion at the same time. Not everyone feels comfortable with networking or knows how to network effectively, especially when they’re fresh graduates or professionals transitioning into a new industry. Career services of boot camps usually offer resume creation and review sessions for students to help them get their first interviews through an organized and clean resume with relevant information. They also teach some of the basics of networking or at least the starting point and support the idea that our network technically starts in the class and continues as long as we maintain the relationships either in person or online. I added a lot of students, educators, and TAs from the USA and Canada to my network, and I reconnected with them in time, especially with my students asking for tips, guidance, portfolio reviews, and references or even referrals.
9- I also learnt from my students, and I feel happy and lucky to get to know many personalities with different backgrounds, experiences, goals, and dreams. I always enjoy friendly conversations with students about design, tech, careers, hobbies, interests, and some other interesting topics that keep us all intrigued and invested.
10- I love graduation days! Most students who complete a 6-month bootcamp experience a mix of emotions. They feel tired, happy, hopeful, and relieved for having the program completed successfully. However, they also feel worried and uncertain about what to do next, especially in a job market that may not be at its best. Not only do bootcamps teach design, but help students prepare for job hunting, develop their portfolio and case study presentations, and stay connected with their network. As an instructional team, our goal is to provide strong foundations in UX, let students absorb as much information as possible, and graduate with a decent portfolio that can be polished later. Also, we try to give them tips and strategies to stand out in an overly competitive field with their skills, portfolio, and authenticity, and we always feel proud and happy to witness our students’ hard work, dedication, and energy that lead them to graduation day. On that day, it just feels amazing to see their final work and excitement for completing the bootcamp.
Overall, it’s been a great and unique experience working with students, mentoring and setting them up for their new careers while learning something new in each class and having moments to make an impact in students’ world when possible.
#ux, #design, #bootcamp, #teaching, #edtech