Learning Assistant Program Information for Faculty

Learning Assistants (LAs) are students who act as peer-instructors in the lecture hall or lab environment. The use of LAs in the classroom is distinguished from other forms of peer instruction in their practice, preparation, and pedagogy.

  • practice: LAs are expected to provide peer instruction, helping students in class with their own learning process. The actual of this varies from course to course, but it is expected that LAs help maintain an active learning environment in the courses they help in, keeping students engaged in their own learning.
  • preparation: LAs are expected to be prepared for their upcoming in-class work by preparing in advance. In most scenarios this involves a weekly meeting with the instructor to review the upcoming activities in the course and also critically review the previous week's activities.
  • pedagogy: LAs have preferably received some training in pedagogy. Most programs require new LAs to take the LA Training Seminar (BIOL 389 or corresponding XXX 389 course in your program), with exceptions handled on a case-by-case basis. This seminar serves as a formal training for LAs and reviews concepts such as encouraging in-class discussions, fostering a productive in class environment, handling classroom conflict, metacognition (i.e. being aware of how we think and learn), handling student issues, and equitable student treatment. LAs who have taken the seminar earn a $1 raise to their hourly wage.

Benefits to the Students in the Class

The use of LAs in the classroom and using them to maintain an active-learning environment has been shown to consistently result in learning gains as measured using research-based assessments (e.g. pre-/post- tests of course content), particularly in the STEM fields where they have been used most often. Use of LAs is also associated with decreased DFW rates as well. Furthermore, the positive impact of an LA teaching model appears to be even larger for students from underrepresented & minority backgrounds. For details, we recommend reading; A scoping review of literature assessing the impact of the learning assistant model by Barrasso and Spilios (2021).

Faculty Resources

Benefits to the Learning Assistants

In addition to the wide range of studies showing an improvement in student learning outcomes for students in courses using LAs, it turns out the LAs also experience a variety of improved outcomes. Barrasso and Spilios (2021) note several positive impacts for LAs:

  • "LAs have larger learning gains than students who taught in another near-peer learning program or participated in undergraduate research." For example, Otero et al. (2010) found physics LAs displayed content knowledge comparable to physics graduate students.
  • The LA experience helping students develop a sense of identity as an active collaborator in a discipline rather than simply a student. This "results in more comfort interacting with peers, near peers, and faculty and that contributes to the development of a stronger [discipline] identity." (Close et al., 2016; Close, Close, & Donnelly, 2013).

Requesting Learning Assistants

If you are interested in advertising your need for LAs for an upcoming course, please use this web form.

Request LAs

Paying for Learning Assistants

Most departments currently pay for Learning Assistants through differential tuition (DT). Karen Lester (MSUM Comptroller) notes DT requests CANNOT include instruction per se, so you need to list LA duties in the class (e.g. facilitating group discussion, equipment setup, explaining how equipment is used) and they cannot explicitly include instruction.

  • Most LAs work anywhere from 5 - 10 hours per week and can earn a salary ranging from $970 - $2500 per semester.
    • The following payment chart can be used to determine wages and salaries for LAs.
  • LAs can earn between $13 - $17 per hour.
    • New LAs earn a base wage of $13.00 per hour.
    • LAs who have taken the LA Training Seminar earn an extra $1.00 per hour.
    • A $0.50 per hour raise is given for each additional semester an LA participates in the program.
  • As an option, departments can choose to offer a $1.00 to $2.00 raise to incentivize LAs to help with certain courses that are in particular need of LAs.
    • LAs can earn an additional $1.00 for helping with courses “in need” of LAs
      OR
    • An additional $2.00 for helping with courses in “HIGH need” of LAs
    • Definitions for “in need” or “HIGH need” are intentionally vague: departments are free to determine their own criteria for these definitions.
      • e.g. Some departments may want to incentivize LAs to help with large entry level courses.
      • Other departments may want to incentivize experienced LAs to help with upper-level courses.
      • Departments can also choose to NOT implement this type of raise.