Scaling Large CS Courses via Full-time Teaching Support Staff
As enrollments in computer science courses continue to grow, with many now exceeding several hundred students, the logistics of running such large classes become increasingly complex. Tasks that instructors can complete quickly in small courses become significantly more time-consuming at scale. To address these challenges, our institution established a full-time teaching support staff position responsible for coordinating high-enrollment computer science courses. This experience report primarily documents the first author’s experiences over the past three years in this role. Responsibilities include managing course logistics, hiring and supervising teaching assistants, serving as a liaison between students and course staff, and leading student outreach efforts. Shifting these responsibilities to a trained staff member enables instructors to focus more fully on pedagogy. Additionally, because the support staff member works across multiple courses, they are uniquely positioned to promote consistency in instructional policies and practices. This report presents a model for implementing similar roles at other institutions and provides guidance for its adoption.
