September 30, 2025
ECS Demonstrator Briefing
Welcome to the ECS Demonstrator induction. This briefing covers everything you need to know about your role as a lab demonstrator, including responsibilities, expectations, and procedures.
Your job is to assist students, guide them in problem solving, help them become independent learners, and give feedback.
- •Guide students to debug code rather than solving problems for them
- •Ask the right questions to help students think critically
- •Help students become independent learners
- •Provide constructive feedback
Support students through their lab experience and help them develop independent learning skills.
- •Guide problem solving, don't give answers
- •Assess understanding fairly and consistently
- •Provide constructive feedback
- •Represent ECS professionally
Important limitations on your role as a demonstrator.
- •You are NOT allowed to mark exam papers
- •You are NOT allowed to give students answers directly
- •You may help highlight points of interest in assignments, but final marking is done by supervisors
This Year's Cohort
This year has a larger cohort with nearly 1,000 new undergraduate students across ELEC programs, computer science, and AICE. The lab program is the main experience students will reflect on.
Getting Started Checklist
Complete these requirements before your first demonstration
- Required
Complete Uni Workforce Contract
Must be completed before starting
- Required
Complete EDI Training (Online)
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training
- Required
Complete Health and Safety Training
Covered in PhD induction
- Required
Complete SoTeach 1
Required for all demonstrators
- Required
Complete SoTeach 2
Required for all demonstrators
- Required
Attend ECS Specific Briefing
This current briefing
- Required
Review Job Assignment on Demonstrator Timetable
Check your allocated sessions
Do NOT do any demonstration until you finish the EDI and the health and safety training.
Professional Conduct
As a demonstrator, you represent ECS and the university. Maintain professional standards at all times.
- You are a staff member when demonstrating, not a student
- Be professional and confident
- Always help students in English - encourage them to communicate in English
- Do not eat or drink in the lab
- Do not chat excessively among yourselves during labs
- No phone calls unless important - step outside if needed
- Arrive 10 minutes before labs start
- Dress appropriately - no shorts and slippers (health hazard)
- Know the content of the lab before coming - read and try it yourself
Tip: If you don't feel confident, come to the lab during off-hours to practice. Contact Ivan or the module lead for help.
- Be professional and treat others with respect
- Be on time - arrive 10 minutes before labs
- Inform in advance and ask for replacement if absent
- Dress appropriately for a working lab environment
- Know the lab content before demonstrating
- Engage with students proactively - don't wait for hands up
- Read all lab notes line by line before demonstrating
Process
- 1Post on Teams as soon as possible when something happens
- 2Do NOT find cover on the morning of the lab
- 3If you really cannot find cover, let Ivan know
- 4All colleagues will need to share the workload
Important Note
If your supervisor asks for a last-minute meeting during your allocated demonstration time, politely mention you have a demonstration allocated. Supervisors should be understanding given the student numbers.
New Marking System (2025) for ELEC
The marking system has changed from numbers (1-5) to letter grades (A*, A, B, C, D, E, F) to better align with UK degree classifications for ELEC students. AICE and COMP use Moodle for marking.
Less than 10% of students - truly exceptional work that goes above and beyond
Criteria
- •Preparation: Completed exceptionally well, prepared for all aspects
- •Progress: Exceptional job of all sections including optional additional work
- •Understanding: Fantastic understanding, can answer questions beyond the lab
- •Logbook: Exceptionally well recorded
- If ANY criteria is E or F, the student fails the entire lab
- Students work in pairs but should NOT get the same mark automatically
- Ask BOTH students questions to assess individual understanding
- Talk to students about their marks - give feedback on how to improve
- Use the marking criteria to justify your decisions
- Get together with other demonstrators ~45-60 mins before lab end to calibrate
Lab Session Structure
Understanding the flow of a typical lab session
Work students should complete BEFORE the lab
Duration: 1-3 hours (varies by lab)
- •Should be done a previous day, not the same morning
- •All recorded in their lab logbook
- •C programming labs allow online logbooks
- •All other ELEC labs require physical logbooks
The core work done during the 3-hour lab session
- •Series of questions, steps, and mini experiments
- •Students should be pulling out key observations
- •This is what they spend the majority of time on
Extra material to stretch students who finish early
- •Not part of core assessment
- •Required for top marks (A*, A)
- •Students shouldn't rush through main lab to get here
- •Only valuable if main lab done to a good standard
Step-by-step guide through a typical lab session
Arrive 5-10 minutes before lab starts
As students arrive, stick sticker at preparation point in logbook
Wait for students to settle and start working
10-15 minutes in: sit with pairs, discuss preparation, mark prep
Middle 2 hours: go around offering support, ask questions proactively
Don't wait for hands up - engage with students
45-60 mins before end: calibrate with other demonstrators and academics
End of lab: complete marking and photo documentation
A new tablet-based system for inputting marks
Marking Steps
- 1Login with your email
- 2Select the module/lab
- 3Search for students by name or ID
- 4Assign students to your bay
- 5Add marks (A*, A, B, C, D, E, F) for each criteria
- 6Add comments if needed
- 7Take a photo of the marking sheet in logbook
- 8Submit marks
Tips
- •Verify student identity - check last digits of ID or email
- •Circle preparation mark on sticker first, enter all marks together at end
- •Make sure photo is clear and not blurred
- •Contact Ivan if there are technical difficulties
Policies & Resources
Important policies, guidelines, and frequently asked questions
Allowed Uses
- ✓Suggesting functions and libraries to use
- ✓Debugging code - feeding in program and compiler output to understand errors
Not Allowed
- ✗Writing code by putting lab instructions into AI
- ✗Using AI to complete the lab work
- •Encourage students to use AI for debugging when appropriate
- •Students must acknowledge AI use in their logbook
- •Students will NOT be marked down for declaring AI use
- •Not declaring AI use is an academic integrity issue
- •Prefer to explain issues yourself when possible - it's better for their learning
Purpose
- •Record of everything done so you can mark it
- •If not recorded, you can't assess it
- •Should allow student to repeat the lab in half the time a year later
Should Include
- •Results and outputs
- •Graphs
- •Processes followed
- •Problems encountered and solutions
- •Notes on tricky parts
- •Most students haven't kept an engineering logbook before
- •Don't expect A* in logbook for first few weeks
- •Students are learning how to use logbooks
- •Physical logbooks required for all ELEC labs except C programming
Security
- !Do NOT leave notes unattended for AICE and COMP labs
- !For ELEC labs, tablets will be provided to access notes
- !Do NOT print and leave demonstrator notes around
- !Students can easily photograph unattended notes
- !Notes are valuable - considerable effort goes into creating new labs
Submit claims through the portal - Ivan handles administration
Tier 4 visa holders (international students): Maximum 20 hours per week
Key Contacts
Ivan Ling
Demonstrator Coordinator
- • Claims process
- • Allocations
- • General questions
Scan the QR code provided or wait for Ivan to do an upload at the end of the week for late sign-ups.