Leveraging the Experience and Expertise of Learning Assistants in Remote Learning Spaces

Perspectives from Learning Assistants and Faculty

The national LAA LA Panel, held on April 16th, had about 70 participants from institutions around the world, in addition to our panelists. Three additional panels were held in April at institutions across Colorado, with an additional 55 participants. The community of panelists and participants provided both overarching ideas and specific techniques to effectively support students remotely.

Additionally, to learn more about the perspective of faculty working with LAs during the transition to remote learning, faculty at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder were surveyed at the end of Spring 2020 and provided useful insight on the impact of LAs.

Keeping the community of learners engaged

While navigating this new space was challenging, there were elements that kept the LAs engaged in their work of supporting students. LA Diane Hogan cited the importance of ongoing interactions where students reached out to her with questions: “It lets me know that they are still willing to learn, and it makes me feel - being in this situation, it shows me that no one has given up.” LA Linnea Wolniewicz mentioned that “something that has really helped me feel like I'm still part of the online classroom community is when I attend classes and everybody has their video on. It's like you're still attending the same lecture with the same people that you were before, and you might not be sitting next to them, but they're still there on the screen.”

LAs cited the importance of checking in with students to see how they were doing. LA Siya Bedi mentioned “... one thing I've been trying … is … starting off by asking the students as an LA, something unrelated to the problem. So something like, ‘how are you doing?’ or how their day's going, so they feel more connected, and it's an easier transition to start a discussion.”

LAs are a key source of student support, both academically as well as socially, during challenging times. One faculty member expressed in the Spring 2020 faculty survey, “The most valuable thing this semester is having the LAs continue their work during remote learning … They are really leading by example and giving students the message, ‘hang in there, you can do it!’” Similarly, another faculty member shared, “As always, [LAs] are an approachable peer for students in the class, especially under stressful conditions.”

Providing support and facilitating active engagement

LAs took on many roles during remote classes, including facilitating recitation sessions, holding office hours, facilitating discussions during synchronous lecture time with the faculty (in features such as chat and breakout rooms), as well as in promoting engagement in asynchronous discussions.

Three of the LAs, Linnea, Benjamin Tressler, and Nicholas Pizzo mentioned that more students were taking advantage of office hours and were being more “communicative.” Benjamin stated that “one positive thing of the transition to online learning is just being more available, in the sense that people can just join office hours or whatever they need in the comfort of their homes.” Online office hours via video conferencing at times that accommodate the complex schedules of our students can encourage more participation in these spaces. For some LAs, using video conferencing is new and provided some benefits that they did not have before through email communication. LA An Dang mentioned “I think [Zoom is a] super helpful tool, and it should be used as much as possible ... it's helpful to see and show the students how to do problems ... even when I'm at home ... it's very interactive - it's not like just through emails or through text messages.”

LAs described the challenges of active engagement and group work in these settings but offered suggestions. Many LAs engaged with groups in Zoom breakout rooms. During group work, having a dedicated group member as the “screensharer,” a new role in this setting, proved to be important to keep groups focused on a task. Group roles seem to take on additional importance in these settings. Nicholas mentioned how LAs used the WebEx whiteboard and chat features. “For our live lectures - at the second half of the lecture when the LAs are interacting with students while one of us is physically working on the whiteboard answering questions about problems and using their mic, the other two LAs in the class are answering questions in the chat.” Chat features in video conferencing provide a unique space for LAs to support students as an instructor is discussing a particular topic. Responses by LAs in real time can help students not get lost during a lecture and keep them engaged. This is especially important in an online space where it can be more challenging to read the room.

When faculty at CU Boulder were asked how they thought the transition to online learning would have differed if they did not have LAs, faculty said that “Our students would have been less supported … and likely would have learned less” and “class would be less personal.” An instructor of a large introductory course shared, “The LAs are absolutely critical … Without the LAs, I think we would have seen more student frustration about continuing to do active learning work during lecture.” Several faculty also expressed that without LAs, smaller group discussions would have been challenging, because, as one faculty member stated, they “would have not been able to do class breakout sessions.” Faculty valued LA input and feedback on how to promote student learning in a remote setting, such as improving student interaction in Zoom and providing “suggestions for making discussions in breakout rooms more engaging.”

Facilitating technology adoption

In many classes, LAs supported the new technology needs of the course by helping faculty and students navigate new communication infrastructure. An mentioned, “Since it's not like a face-to-face class anymore, it might take more time for professors to respond to us through emails. And we overcome that by using GroupMe[4], which is like a chat service.” Diane, a computer science major, used her computer skills and discussed how she was able to help students set up their online classes: “I help them go through the platform that they need to use to get to classes - so it's very positive for me because I am helping them with something that I already know.”

Providing perspectives as students in remote learning settings

During the panels, LAs were able to provide both a learner perspective as well as an LA perspective. They understood the challenges of studying at home and staying focused and motivated and could often better relate to the experiences of their peers and convey this to instructors over the semester. Faculty valued the LA’s unique student perspective and “appreciated [LA] feedback about how students are experiencing the transition.”

Many students rely on college and university learning spaces to do their work. LA Bailey Holifield said, “One challenge is finding somewhere quiet to do my work. I have to sit down and be motivated, and it's hard for me to do that by myself sometimes.” Diane mentioned that “most students that I have agree with me -- it's the distractions at home … you have TV to watch, we got the kids, we got the dog, family members … it's a challenge mentally to not be in a learning environment.” LAs are often in better positions to empathize with the students in these classes and what they might be struggling with in these new spaces.[5]

Although LAs cited the importance of synchronous interactions in providing community and some sense of normalcy in these spaces, they also provided a student perspective on issues of access, citing the importance of also providing asynchronous materials. Asynchronous materials provide students the opportunity to review materials and also mitigate certain circumstances that students faced during the semester. For example, Benjamin said, “I have a 10-hour time difference. I traveled back home … So there's some lectures that I have that end at 4am, and well, that's not that's not nice when you live with your family. And so there are classes where …[I] wake up in the morning and watch the recorded lecture of what happened at 4am … and that's why making it an asynchronous activity gives the opportunity for students who couldn't appear in person or online to do it in their own time.” LA Kyle Tayman also commented on the value of recorded lectures:“say you know you missed something that the professor said, instead of just being lost for the rest of the lecture, you can just rewind it”

Learning from this experience and moving forward

Many institutions are now developing plans for remote learning or hybrid spaces for the Fall 2020 semester. While the situation with COVID-19 remains challenging for students, LAs, staff, and faculty, there are lessons learned from our LAs that we can take into Fall 2020 and beyond. Aidan Barker, the LA Panel Moderator and LA at CU Boulder, challenged the LAs to describe what they have learned from this experience - items that they see as useful in remote learning and in in-person settings.

LAs found that the virtual videoconferencing format, at flexible times, allowed for interactive opportunities with students that may not have occurred in a face-to-face setting. As we transition back to in-person coursework, classes might also provide virtual spaces for discussion, such as sessions that can be implemented via Zoom breakout rooms. These can happen at times convenient for students, such as the evenings, with LAs moderating the sessions.

Creating personal connections with students was also highlighted as an important feature that should continue regardless of the instructional setting. Benjamin mentioned that “a good thing would be for professors to maintain a kind of personal relationship with students … try and get to know them a bit, maybe kind of personally invest in students a bit more, as you are in online classes … I'm sure students would appreciate to see that more once we get back to classes.” He went on to say “I'm sure we'd all like to see a bit of personal connection between a mentor, a professor, and the student.”

LAs also felt that the sense of flexibility and accommodation should also move forward as we transition back to more traditional learning spaces. Linnea commented that “I think it's wonderful that faculty are being more understanding of the extenuating circumstances, and things like that, and like deadlines, and it would be wonderful if we could carry that sense of connectedness and, like, caring for each other beyond the classroom.” An mentioned that she was proud of her institution for its diverse support of students, stating that her institution “has been helping us with, like, emergency aids, and renting out laptops without fees, so that's one very big support from our college, and I am very ...proud..” LAs on the panels cite the importance and attention to empathy and compassion continuing beyond COVID-19. These statements echo what Valerie Otero describes on how LAs are “leading the charge of creating meaningful, compassionate online experiences for students during the COVID-19 crisis.”

As we move forward, LA Gabrielle Jones Hall reminded the participants attending the virtual LA Panel to “take this abrupt transition as a wake-up call - really pay attention to STEM education research … learn about pedagogy, take Learning Assistants serious, because we're here to help.”

Supported, in part, by NSF DUE #s: 1525338, 1524893, 1525354, 1524829, 1911341, and The Department of Education

Chicago State University: Mel S. Sabella is a professor of physics and Andrea G. Van Duzor is a professor of chemistry, both at Chicago State University where they are co directors of the CSU Learning Assistant Program. Additionally, Mel S. Sabella is Past-President of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

University of Colorado Boulder: Jennifer S. Avena is an Instructor in Biology and the Learning Assistant (LA) Program, Aidan Barker is a former undergraduate LA, LA Mentor, and recent graduate and is also a member of the Learning Assistant Alliance Leadership Council, Susan Hendrickson is a Teaching Professor in Chemistry and a Departmental Coordinator for the LA Program, Laurie Langdon is Director of the LA Program, Valerie Otero is a Professor in the School of Education and Executive Director and founder of the LA Program.

[1] To find out more about the Learning Assistant Model, see learningassistantalliance.org and Otero, V. K. (2015). Nationally scaled model for leveraging course transformation with physics teacher preparation. Recruiting, and Educating Future Physics Teachers: Case Studies, and Effective Practices, 107-127.

[2] Sabella, M., Van Duzor, A., & Davenport, F. (2016, July 20-21). Leveraging the expertise of the urban STEM student in developing an effective LA Program: LA and Instructor Partnerships. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2016, Sacramento, CA.

[3] Close, E. W., Conn, J., & Close, H. G. (2016). Becoming physics people: Development of integrated physics identity through the Learning Assistant experience. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 12(1), 010109.

[4] groupme.com

[5] https://tinyurl.com/LAsCompassionateLeadership2020, retrieved 5-26-2020

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Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.