Order or obtain materials needed for classes.

“Order or obtain materials needed for classes.” is a core task performed by Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary. Among the occupation's 20 rated tasks, workers place it 7th by importance (#14 most important). About 70% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Purchase goods or services. in Monitoring and Controlling Resources

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Teach undergraduate-level courses. · importance 4.6
• Evaluate and grade examinations, assignments, or papers, and record grades. · importance 4.6
• Lead discussion sections, tutorials, or laboratory sections. · importance 4.3
• Develop teaching materials, such as syllabi, visual aids, answer keys, supplementary notes, or course Web sites. · importance 4.2
• Inform students of the procedures for completing and submitting class work, such as lab reports. · importance 4.1
• Return assignments to students in accordance with established deadlines. · importance 4.0
• Prepare or proctor examinations. · importance 3.9
• Tutor or mentor students who need additional instruction. · importance 3.9
• Complete laboratory projects prior to assigning them to students so that any needed modifications can be made. · importance 3.8
• Demonstrate use of laboratory equipment and enforce laboratory rules. · importance 3.8
• Provide assistance to faculty members or staff with laboratory or field research. · importance 3.8
• Meet with supervisors to discuss students' grades or to complete required grade-related paperwork. · importance 3.7
• Schedule and maintain regular office hours to meet with students. · importance 3.7
• Attend lectures given by the supervising instructor. · importance 3.4

See all tasks on the Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-10971,
  title  = {Order or obtain materials needed for classes.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-10971}
}