Graduate students who are officially assisting with the instruction of a course and will be tracked by the Office of Institutional Research are considered Teaching Assistants (TAs). All graduate TAs are input into SPARK automatically via a feed from SPIRE. In order for your TAs to have access to SPARK, you must contact your Academic Scheduling Representative and request that they be input into SPIRE as "Teaching Assistant Section Leader". Once your TAs have access to your course, you will need to grant them access to specific tools to perform tasks such as grading and making changes to course content.

Role in SPIRE:
"Teaching Assistant Section Leader": Request that your TA be input into SPIRE as a "Teaching Assistant Section Leader".

Giving TAs Access to Teaching Tools

For more detailed information about the TA request process, see SPARK - TA Request Process.

Graduate and undergraduate students who assist with limited course activities (e.g. grading) but are not tracked by the Office of Institutional Research are considered Student Assistants. All Student Assistants are input into SPARK automatically via a feed from SPIRE. In order for Student Assistants to have access to SPARK, you must contact your Academic Scheduling Representative and request that they be input into SPIRE as "SPARK Only". All Student Assistants (both grduate and undergraduate) must also read and sign the SPARK FERPA Acknowledgement form (pdf, 34K). Please note that the registrar's office can not put the student into SPIRE until the FERPA Acknowledgement form has been submitted. The instructor is responsible for ensuring the form has been completed and returned to the department's Academic Scheduling Representative. Once your Student Assistants have access to your course, you will need to grant them access to specific tools to perform tasks such as grading and making changes to course content.

Role in SPIRE:
"SPARK Only". Request that your Student Assistant be input into SPIRE as a "SPARK Only".

Giving Student Assitants Access to Teaching Tools

For more detailed information about the TA request process, see SPARK - TA Request Process.

All Co-instructors will be input into SPARK automatically via a feed from SPIRE. In order for your co-instructor to have access to SPARK, you must contact your Academic Scheduling Representative and request that he or she be input into SPIRE in one of the three roles listed below. All of these roles have the same privileges as the instructor does within the SPARK system.

Role in SPIRE:

• "Primary Instructor": This role has full responsibility for your course - they provide face-to-face instruction in a credit section and can grade. This person will have full instructor and designer privileges in SPARK. This person will also be recognized as a full instructor by the Office of Institutional Research.
• "Secondary Instructor": This role may be used in cases where an individual provides face-to-face instruction but does not have full responsibility for the section. The Office of Institutional Research will treat Secondary Instructors as equivalent to Primary Instructors for reporting purposes.
• "Section Assistant": This role should be used to identify people who provide instructional support and need the instructor role in SPARK, but do not need to be tracked by the Office of Institutional Research as an 'official' instructor for the course.

There are other accounts you can request that are input into SPARK manually, outside of SPIRE. To request these accounts, go to:

http://people.umass.edu/accoprod/webct/vista4_special_account.html

Other Accounts (non-SPIRE):

• "Section Designer": Access for a colleague or student to help you design your course. This role can only assist in content development and will have no access to 'teaching' functions or student grades.
• "Contributor": Access for student assistants, colleagues, guest speakers or special guests to view the course or interact with students. Contributor accounts can only use the tools in SPARK that enrolled student would -- no editing, uploading or grading is possible.

  Note: The Contributor account is for special exceptions only. Registered students, instructors, and TAs are added to SPARK courses automatically via a feed from SPIRE.