How often have you heard that Electrical Engineering (EE) is one of the hardest engineering majors? In a typical EE classroom, you often see dense mathematical equations on the lecture slides accompanied by intricate circuit diagrams. Students are often left to bridge the gap on their own, that is, to make connections from math to the voltages and currents and back to the math. This can feel quite intimidating!
But what if the lecture hall didn’t have to be a place of just listening and scribbling notes, but instead a space where students collectively build their knowledge in a hands-on manner, with approachable help right around the corner? The use of “Learning Assistants” (LAs) in Electrical Engineering classrooms at UC Merced is making this possible. At its core, the LA model is about shifting the role of instruction from “grading the work” to “guiding thoughts,” and supporting students as they learn in real time. Formally defined, LAs are near peers who have recently excelled in the course and are hired as student employees to help others navigate the same course.
Evan Luu, a third year EE major and an LA for EE 005 affirms this philosophy:
“The most rewarding part of being an LA for me was watching students who were struggling with a section or a specific part of course material, master that topic with help from LAs and [their] hard work.”
Students find that LAs make the classroom feel more welcome. Genesis Landrum, a second year EE major, says
“When the LAs are making their rounds around the classroom, I think it makes the atmosphere less stressful. Especially when it's time to touch on new material, the LAs are a good source of casual help.”
“The LAs are very easily approachable and often open to conversation […] Having the LAs there is a good way to seek advice on subjects like internships and specific focuses in career development. Moments like that are definitely some of my favorites in class. It also helps that they tend to be pretty casual, so talking with them is easily fun.”
Learning Assistants enable hands-on learning and interactive classrooms
In the LA model [1], LAs are present during in-class activities – circulating, listening in, and supporting students as they work through problems in real time. They do not give the answers to the exercises rather they aim to ask the right questions to spark a “lightbulb moment.” That changes the energy of the room. Instead of confusion building silently until students give up, questions surface early, misconceptions get caught quickly, and students practice thinking like engineers while support is still within reach.
Malakai Leon Guerrero, a sophomore in EE, finds that LAs are easily approachable and the fact that they share similarity to the students, in age and career level, helps:
“My thoughts on the approachability of LA's is that they are super approachable because they are close in age to the students, making them feel more down to earth than a professor. But it is also good to try to approach your professors because they can help with more complex things that the LA's weren't able to help you with”
“The atmosphere in the classroom when LA's are walking around the classroom instead of just a professor at the front makes the class feel more welcoming and open to ask questions and help.”
That support is often most visible when students are debugging circuits, running into issues with code, or trying to understand an equation. Having an LA nearby helps students keep making progress. Small misunderstandings can be quickly resolved and unproductive approaches do not snowball as much and become major roadblocks later, as Genesis Landrum recalls:
“Yeah, during a class when I was struggling to get the outcome I needed to get a good score on the Lab at the time, I was assisted by one of the LAs. We were both a bit confused about what the problem was with my code and why the grading AI wasn't understanding. The LA eventually spotted that the error was due to a spelling mistake and an issue with my function. A small problem, but I probably would've gotten frustrated and quit if not for the help.”
Baron Liu mentions that when the professor started talking about certain complex topics, the LAs helped him understand these topics better:
“When we got to some of the more complex topic like inheritance or creating a "class" there was a few things I didn't understand and by asking the LAs and getting a more casual explanation it made more sense.”
“For me the atmosphere in the classroom is more lively when there are LAs walking around instead of just the professor at the front which could be a bit boring sometimes”
Learning Assistants are the “student voice” to faculty
LAs are not only good with the class content, but they also learn the science of how people learn. An important aspect of education with LAs in the classroom is that LAs are not only past students, they are students who are also given guidance on pedagogy during regular meetings with the faculty and some LAs also take a formal course on pedagogy. They learn how to include everyone in the learning process and practice asking the right questions in the classroom. They aim to avoid giving answers away and instead help students move through the learning process. In these conversations, LAs also discover the pain points students are experiencing and collect feedback actively in every lecture to pass on to the course instructor.
LAs meet with the professor who is teaching the class every week. In these weekly meetings, the LAs are involved in co-designing the activities for the upcoming week. Just as importantly, they carry the student voice to faculty, sharing patterns they see in real time. This creates an effective feedback loop: LAs can tell the professor where students are struggling, and the professor can adjust. Baron Liu shares that LAs act as effective intermediates between faculty and the students:
“For the class of EE021, […] though the professor usually have less time available for each students and could only spend a minute or two before moving on to the next person, the LAs are usually more helpful in terms of guiding the student slowly to find their issue and provide insight on how to fix it.”
In addition to improving the students’ experience of the course, being an LA also helps strengthen their own confidence and identity as engineers and mentors. Daniel Tsai, an LA for EE 005, finds this process rewarding:
“I think helping teach courses can help solidify your own understanding of the subjects. For me one of the most rewarding part, […] was being able to help offer my own perspectives on the class, which hopefully helps them better understand the subject at hand better. That and being able to meet new people are both really fun for me.”
Author bio: Ayush Pandey is a faculty member in the Electrical Engineering (EE) department. He is interested in research on control theory, computational modeling, and AI for the formal design of large-scale physical systems. Over the past few years, his research has focused on the development of robustness metrics and new inference tools for biological systems. He is also actively extending his research on computational tools to build scalable and open-source educational technologies that make classroom learning more interactive and engaging. Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Revolutionizing Engineering Departments Program, he is involved in advancing the pedagogy and curriculum design effort for the new EE department.
Reference: [1] Learning Assistant Alliance, “Outcomes of the LA Model” https://www.learningassistantalliance.org/connect/main/outcomes-of-the-la-model.php
