Learning Assistant Program

There are three essential aspects to the LA Experience:

LA-Student Course Interactions (LA Practice): LAs attend all sections and meeting times assigned to them. If unable to attend a class time (in person), due to health or other emergencies, you should contact your Lead Faculty. LAs are expected to treat all students in the course with kindness and respect, and promote a safe, inclusive, learning environment. LAs lead and facilitate discussions of small groups of students, requiring them to identify students’ ideas through listening and/or observing their written work, use good questioning skills, and work to involve all students in meaningful group work.

Weekly Preparation Meetings with Lead Faculty: LAs meet with their Faculty Mentor to prepare for the upcoming week, reflect on the previous week, and sometimes analyze assessment data from previous terms.

These meetings should occur weekly for at least 30 minutes, but more typically 60-90 minutes.

LA Office Hours:

LA Pedagogy Course (New LAs only): All new LAs must attend a two-day Learning Assistant training offered at the beginning of each semester. During the pre-semester training, new LAs learn and practice evidence-based techniques for supporting and enhancing student learning. New LAs also attend nine (9) Pedagogy trainings throughout the semester. These training sessions are vital to an LAs growth as a group facilitator and LA. Training dates are listed in the Events section of this website.

Apply to be an LA through the Learning Assistant Alliance website.

1. Go to the website using the link or address above.
2. Click on the “Students” tab
3. Select the “MSU Denver” campus link
4. Complete the application

LA Requirements:  LAs will be paid up to 10 hours a week per LA course.  These hours are to minimally include:

• team teaching in the assigned course with your faculty mentor;
• at least one hour a week of consultation with your faculty mentor;
• your attendance in the pedagogy class your first semester as a new LA
• at least one office hour per week; and
• other duties as required by your faculty mentor and/or course leader.

You’ve accepted an LA offer. Congratulations!

Now, apply for the Learning Assistant position through the University (this is how you will be paid)!

The position number is JR103287 Learning Assistant.

Here is the direct link to the application: https://www.myworkday.com/msudenver/d/inst/15$158872/9925$4715.htmld

Please view the Student Employee site to learn more about the process and requirements.  

Community:

After a professor is awarded LAs and selects you as a great fit, you become part of an instructional team and a much larger community. Locally, you are supported by this instructional team. If you are a new LA, you are also supported by other LAs in your pedagogy course section, LA mentors, and Returning LAs. The International Learning Assistant Alliance consists of over 500 institutions across 21 countries, so you are connected to an international network. There are many models for how LAs are used in lecture, lab, recitation, help room, work group, office hours, etc., and through this diverse community, we continue to learn new and better ways for instructional teams to work together to support student learning.

Effectiveness:

In LA-supported courses, LAs facilitate group discussions and encourage interaction and collaboration among students. LAs apply pedagogical principles and are able to connect with students. By sharing their ideas and having their thinking challenged, students develop a deeper understanding of the content. The LA program improves undergraduate education.  Research shows that LA-supported courses have better learning outcomes than comparison classes and have better retention in those classes, especially for students traditionally under- served by STEM disciplines (Pollock, 2009; Otero, 2015; Alzen, Langdon, Otero, 2018; Van Dusen & Nissen, 2020).

Benefits:

LA Alliance reports that LAs learn the content better, become better learners, and develop leadership skills. They also have the unique opportunity to develop close relationships with like-minded students and with instructors at their institution. Most LAs put their LA experience on their résumés, since it points to their abilities to teach, to manage, to lead, and to learn. Most LAs report that they learn much from the LA experience, especially by tying their evolving understanding to particular principles addressed in the pedagogy course. During the Spring 2020 transition to remote learning, LAs surveyed reported a high sense of belonging, and LA Program communities, and increased motivation due to their work as LAs, which translated to their roles as students, as well.

References

Alzen, J. Langdon, L., & Otero, V. (2018). A logistic investigation of the relationship between the learning assistant model and failure rates in introductory STEM courses, International Journal of STEM Education, 5 (56), https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0152-1.

Gray, K., Webb, D., & Otero, V. (2016). Effects of the Learning Assistant Model on Teacher Practice, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 12, 020126.

Otero, V. (2015). Nationally scaled model for leveraging course transformation with physics teacher preparation, To be published in Effective Practices in Preservice Physics Teacher Education: Recruitment, Retention, and Preparation, edited by E. Brewe and C. Sandifer.

Pollock, S. (2009). Longitudinal study of student conceptual understanding in electricity and magnetism, PhysRev: Phys Ed. Rsrch 5, 020110, 1-8.

Van Dusen, B. and Nissen, J. (2020). Associations between learning assistants, passing introductory physics, and equity: A quantitative critical race theory investigation, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16, 010117 – Published 9 April 2020

Publish Date: March 31, 2022

Our program follows the LA Model developed at CU Boulder.  We are a member of the LA International Alliance.

Here are the essential elements of the LA model:

Team Teaching: LAs work with their Lead Faculty to transform courses by creating environments in which students can interact with one another and engage in collaborative problem solving.

Content/Weekly Faculty Prep Meetings: LAs meet weekly with the instructor to discuss upcoming activities and how the LA will be involved in the classroom.

Pedagogy Class: all first-semester LAs attend pedagogy trainings on interactive teaching techniques.

Office Hours

As a member of the LA Alliance, you have access to the following resources:

• LA Campus for hiring and interviewing your LAs
• Implementation and LA Campus Guide
• eLearning Tools
• Conferences and research literature
• Videos
• Course Assessments

Sign In Here!

1. Create a faculty account first at the Learning Assistance Alliance Website here.
   • Watch a quick tutorial on creating an account
2. After creating an account, complete a Course Proposal through LA Campus.
3. In LA Campus, view your LA applicants, interview, and send your LA an Offer by the deadline

The faculty course proposal has five (5) sections that must be completed in order for the proposal to be submitted. Upon clicking the Submit to Dept/Submit to Program button, a validation check is carried out.

Starting a New Faculty Course Proposal (FCP)

1. Log in to https://www.learningassistantalliance.org.
2. Click on LA Campus in the primary menu at the top of the page.
3. Click on the Course Proposals menu item in the secondary menu on the left hand side of the page. This will expand a new panel below and show a list of proposals you have access to as well as an option to start a new course proposal.
4. Click on the Start Course Proposal link in the secondary menu under the Course Proposals panel. This will open the Create Course Proposal
   1. If you do not see the Start Course Proposal link in the secondary menu, you may not have access to start a new course proposal. The course proposal acceptance period must be open to start a new proposal, or you must be given access by your program coordinator (PC) to start an FCP after the deadline.
5. On the Create Course Proposal page you have two (2) options for creating a course proposal.
   1. Option 1: Create new proposal – Creating a new proposal will start a new faculty course proposal for the application term.
      1. Select the Create new proposal.
      2. Click on the Start Course Proposal button at the bottom of the options.

• Note: The FCP will be attached to the department of the original author/creator. This is important to keep in mind as to which departmental coordinator (DC) it will be submitted to.

1. Option 2: Use existing proposal to get started – The using an existing proposal will provide you a list of proposals that you have access to across all terms within the system. If you have no other proposals, you will not be able to use this option. If you need to duplicate a proposal from a past term for a course you are now teaching, please contact your department coordinator (DC) or program coordinator (PC) and they can duplicate the course and add you as a faculty member on the proposal.
   1. Select the Use existing proposal to get started.
   2. Select the Department that the course proposal you want to use was created in.

• Select the Course that you want to duplicate. This will present a list of all prior versions of the proposal that have been created for the selected course.

1. Select the specific course proposal that you want to use. A view only version of the proposal will be shown to assist you in the selection process.
2. Click on the Duplicate Course Proposal button at the bottom of the list of course proposals.
3. NOTE: A duplicated FCP will be be attached to the department of the original FCP, and not the author/creator doing the duplication. This feature is intended for use by PCs to duplicate FCPs for new faculty teaching LA using courses.

6. Once you are on the Faculty Course Proposal page you will need to add a course to the proposal, if one does not already exist, and save it. This new proposal will not exist within the system until you have done an initial save. The Save link can be located on the action bar in the bottom left the the FCP.