History of the LA Program at GW
Faculty at GW have long worked independently to involve undergraduates in the education process at GW. The departments of biology, mathematics, and geology, for example, all provided limited opportunities for undergraduates to help lead laboratory sessions, exam review or homework help, and tutoring.
In Spring 2012, faculty from the departments of biology, chemistry, curriculum and pedagogy, and physics brainstormed the possibility of implementing a Learning Assistant program at GW, based on the model developed at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Planning and grant writing commenced for an entire year. In Summer 2013, the team was awarded seed funding from the Teaching and Learning Collaborative to pilot an LA program in the introductory, large-enrollment lecture courses in chemistry and biology during the 2013-2014 Academic Year.
The program launched in Fall 2013 with 16 LAs, 2 biology and 1 chemistry faculty member. A faculty member from the school of education developed and ran CPED6100W Pedagogy for Learning Assistant course for the first time in Fall 2013 to prepare the new LAs. Following a successful launch in Fall 2013 with 16 LAs, the program expanded to include the department of physics in Spring 2014. An additional 10 LAs were trained, for a total of 26 LAs in the pilot year. In total, the pilot year of the program impacted approximately 700 students enrolled in large-enrollment lecture courses in biology, chemistry, and physics.
In summer 2014 the GW University Teaching and Learning Center awarded a grant for the development of a pilot LA program for GW's first non-STEM field. The German language LA pilot program was launched in fall 2014 with six LAs serving a total of 75 students in introductory German courses. The world languages LA program expanded to include American Sign Language, Arabic, and Russian the following year.
Beginning in Fall 2018, the Learning Assistant Program began a relationship with STEMWorks (now called Academic Commons) located in Gelman library. Here our LAs increase the amount of LA-student contact beyond the classroom by hosting office hours and review sessions to further student learning. More about LA office hours and review sessions can be found on the peer coaching section of the Gelman Academic Commons website.
In spring 2024, the GW LA Program celebrated its 10th anniversary with faculty, students, and staff from the Gelman Library, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, and Graduate School of Education and Human Development in attendance. The event was planned, hosted, and orchestrated by the spring 2024 first-time LAs, who did a wonderful job selecting guest speakers, decorating our space in the Student Center, and coordinating with the caterer. At the event, alumni spoke about the impact of the LA program on their personal and professional lives, and per program tradition, we recognized graduating seniors with honor cords. We also recognized retiring faculty member and program co-founder Hartmut Doebel, whose tireless support of students and willingness to innovate has been essential to our program's success.