School of Social and Political Science

Guidance for Tutors

Tutors are essential to the delivery of high-quality teaching in the School of Social and Political Science.

With the help of our tutors, we aim to guide students away from passive engagement with lecture material towards a more active self-education.  We want to encourage students to read widely and investigatively, to observe their environment carefully and in new ways.  We want to develop their confidence to think and argue for themselves about what they find in books or in the world around them.  We want them to value and be engaged in the particular subject material they are studying in social and political science.

As a tutor, you will play a crucial role in helping our students to realise these goals.

 

Please note: Some of these documents were last updated in 2023 but remain accurate. Any updates to this guidance will be advised to current SPS tutors and published here. If you require any of our documents in an alternative format, such as large print or coloured background, please contact SPS.Tutoring@ed.ac.uk 

 

Quick Guide for Tutors

Our quick guide provides the key information you need to begin as a course tutor. This will be updated prior to 1 August 2024 for the 2024/25 academic year. Please also refer to the SPS Job Descriptions & Rates of Pay section below for more information.

 

Key Employment Facts & HR Guidance 

Use this guide to find information about key employment facts such as contracts, pay rates, sick pay, annual leave and line management. 

For more information, please refer to the University's Conditions of Service and HR Guidance for GH Academic Staff:

 

SPS Job Descriptions & Rates of Pay

Tutorial Models & Paid Hours (Job Descriptions)

The below document outlines the agreed tutorial models within the School and what tutor activities and payment hours are associated with each model:

The below document outlines the agreed activities and payment hours associated with the role of Senior Tutor on some large courses within the School:

 

Tutor Payment Within SPS

The below document provides details of how you will be paid for your tutoring work:

 

Please note: You will be paid monthly, retrospectively, by direct transfer to your bank or building society account. For example, hours worked in October will be paid in November, and so on. Payments are made on the 28th of the month (unless this falls on the weekend or Bank Holiday).

 

Marking Rates of Pay

The below documents detail the hours that can be claimed for marking assessment work within the School:

 

Training, Course Meetings & Absence Cover Payment Form

SPS Tutor Payment Request Form

Please use the below form to report:

  • Training and development hours (maximum 18 hours per semester)
  • Course-level meetings with course organiser (maximum 3 hours per course)
  • Absences and details of absence cover

Your other hours will be entered on your behalf by professional services staff. Please see the Tutor Payment Within SPS section above for more details. 

For absences and absence cover, both the absent tutor and the tutor covering the absence should complete the form to ensure our records are accurate. 

Training, Course Meetings & Absence Cover Payment Form

 

Training & Continuing Professional Development

SPS Tutor Training Learn Page

All SPS tutors will be added to the SPS Tutor Training Learn Page, which serves as a resource on:

  • Guidance for SPS tutor training requirements
  • Schedule of in-person trainings each semester
  • Starting to Tutor
  • Online Tutoring - Best Practice
  • Inclusive Classrooms
  • Feedback Studio & Marking 

If you are experiencing issues accessing this Learn page, or you were not added at the beginning of your employment, please get in touch with sps.tutoring@ed.ac.uk

 

UK GDPR Training

To comply with updates to the General Data Protection Regulation, 2018 (GDPR), all staff who handle personal data must complete our two online training courses:

  • Information Security Essentials
  • Data Protection Training

These are Learn self-enrol courses. Guidance on how to access these courses can be found in our Compulsory Training for UK GDPR document:

Compulsory Training For UK GDPR

 

Institute for Academic Development (IAD)

The Institute for Academic Development offer a number of training workshops, support materials and courses for tutors and demonstrators.

For tutors we recommend:

 

Recording Student Attendance

Attendance Monitoring

Attendance is monitored by the School as part of our more general monitoring of student engagement and progress. Keeping attendance helps alert staff to any additional pastoral or academic support needs students might require. Staff can then provide advice, guidance or support in a timely and useful manner.

Attendance must be taken at all small teaching events (tutorials or seminars). If a class has less than 51 students and has no tutorial or seminars, attendance must also be taken at the lecture.  

Attendance is taken using the Student Engagement Monitoring System created by Student Systems (more details of the system are below). The course administrator will create and upload course registers at the end of teaching week 2. Please note that until this has been completed you will not be able to view any of your group information.

 

Course Changes

Students can still transfer in and out of their courses and tutorials in Week 2 so there may be some changes to your tutorial groups. When your course administrator has uploaded your register information you can access these by following the guidance below.

 

Courses with In-person or Online Synchronous Tutorials

Tutors must take attendance in all of their tutorial groups.

This is done using the online EUCLID system. Guidance on how to access this system, take attendance as well as video demonstrations can be found at Recording registers as a tutor

The college also has a guide for tutors taking attendance where for tutorials are held on Collaborate, Teams and Zoom. Please see the Student attendance tips and tricks document for full details: Student attendance tips and tricks

 

Note for New Tutors

If you are a new tutor and have not tutored for SPS before, it may take us a few weeks to get your UUN into the system that allows you to access the online attendance monitoring system.

Please use the paper template for taking attendance and make sure you input this information into the online system as soon as you are able. Paper templates can be found below:

Please keep checking regularly to see if you have access to the online system. If you do not have access by week 3, please contact sps.tutoring@ed.ac.uk

 

Accessing Your Registers

  • You must use your staff account to log into your staff EASE account
  • You must ensure your browser (Firefox preferred) settings allow for pop-ups
  • The first time you login to your Staff MyEd, please follow the guidance on the Student Systems webpages
  • All attendance must be electronically entered into the EUCLID system within 24 hours of the teaching activity taking place
  • Login via MyEd using your staff login details. (See Teaching tab and select Student Attendance Recording)

 

User Guides

 

Teaching Office