What are Learning Assistants?
Learning assistants (LAs) are undergraduate students who support active learning in a course under the supervision of the course instructor. They are trained to facilitate in-class activities in lecture, in discussion and in lab. LAs are only appropriate in courses that have a significant amount of active learning and an instructor who will meet with them weekly.
Examples of work that an LA can do:
- Circulate during class, lab or discussion and help small groups with an activity
- Help students at problem-solving sessions, with problem sets and answer keys made by the instructor
- Proctor exams, take attendance
- Assist professors or TAs during office hours or open labs
Requirements
LAs for Bio Sci courses must be an enrolled and full-time undergraduate who has taken the course and done well. Students can only be an LA for 9 units of credit. The course instructor may have more specific requirements, such as a letter grade in the class or having taken the instructor in the class. The time commitment varies by course.
A common workload is:
- (1 unit) Attending class 3 hours / week plus one hour / week meeting with the instructor, and perhaps:
- (1 unit) Assisting a TA for 3 hours of discussion / week or 3 hours of lab / week, or
- (1 unit) Facilitating problem-solving sessions or homework sessions for a class under the instructor’s supervision, 3 hours / week
Becoming a Learning Assistant
If you are interested in becoming an LA, you should speak to or email the instructor of the course as soon as the Schedule of Classes is released (usually Week 6 of the preceding quarter). Here is an example of the email you can send. If the instructor is accepting LAs they will provide you with instructions.
If you as a student would like to work with an instructor as an LA but they have not yet used LAs, encourage the instructor to reach out to the Bio Sci faculty advisor who works with other faculty to use learning assistants: Adrienne Williams (adriw@uci.edu). Keep in mind that the process of preparing a class to be active enough for LAs may be complex enough that even willing instructors cannot use LAs in an upcoming quarter – it may take more time.
New LAs
- First time LAs enroll in UNI STU 176, a concurrent training course (only taken once to be certified as an LA for any previously enrolled course)
- Enroll in BIO SCI 192A with the corresponding instructor (auth. code required). This pedagogy class will provide you with training specific to the class plus 1-3 units appropriate for your workload.
- New LAs can only LA for one course
Returning LAs
- Returning LAs enroll in their corresponding BIO SCI 192A section (auth. code is provided by the instructor).
- Students can LA for multiple courses as undergraduates, up to 9 units total.
- Students can LA in multiple departments but the 9 unit total includes all LAships.