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Hi everyone. I'm Hannah Klawa,

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a PhD student in

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the Mathematical Sciences Department
here at George Mason University.

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During the fall 2020 semester,

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I had the opportunity to work as
a graduate learning assistant for

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a graduate linear analysis class
that was taught by Dr. Sander,

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who is a professor in

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the Mathematical Sciences Department
here at George Mason University.

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Before Long and Cigole
introduce themselves,

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I just want to mention that also
on this project is Joanna Jauchen,

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who's an instructional faculty member in

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the mathematical sciences department and

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is a PhD student in
mathematics education.

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Hello, I'm Long Nguyen,

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a PhD student in mathematics
at George Mason University.

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I was working as graduate
learning assistant during fall

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2020 in numerical analysis course
was taught by Dr. Seshaiyer,

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who is Professor in Math Department
of George Mason University.

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Now Cigole will introduce herself.

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Hi, I'm Cigole Thomas.

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I'm a PhD student in the
Department of Mathematics at GMU.

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In fall 2020, I was a graduate
learning assistant for

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the graduate algebra course
taught by Dr. Rebecca R. G,

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who is a professor in the
Department of Mathematics at GMU.

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Today we will be talking
about graduate assistants

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supporting active learning
in graduate classrooms.

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Regarding this study, since
this is a new initiative,

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we got the IRB approval
to conduct interviews and

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surveys to see the impact of
this program on students.

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What is the graduate learning
assistant or GLA program?

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The Department of
Mathematical Sciences at GMU

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started a graduate learning
assistant program in fall 2020.

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The structure of the program is that

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three advanced graduate students
were hired under a graduate teaching

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assistant funding to be
a learning assistant for

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three graduate core
courses namely algebra,

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linear analysis, and numerical analysis.

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Usually, the students in
the core courses tend to be

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mostly incoming first-year
graduate students.

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With the GLA program,

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we aim to help

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the graduate students navigate
smoothly into their graduate studies.

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Now Hannah will talk more about some
of the goals of the GLA program.

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Some of the goals of the GLA program
were to give students an extra mentor,

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provide better active
learning opportunities,

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provide additional time to get

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help and prepare students
to pass preliminary exams.

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By having a GLA in the graduate class it

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gives students a peer
mentor who's available.

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Also, just like LAs have helped

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facilitate active learning in
the undergraduate classes,

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having a GLA was hopefully going to

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provide better active learning
opportunities for graduate students.

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The GLA would have
sessions, office hours,

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be available via e-mail,

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so it provides additional
time for people to get help.

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One of the big goals of
the program is to help

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students prepare to pass
the preliminary exam.

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This was an additional
support that would be

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available and hopefully help
people prepare for the exams.

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Now Long will tell you
a little bit about

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the actual breakdown of
what a GLA was going to do.

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As a GLA,

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our job typically takes
approximately 10 hours per week,

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which includes two hours attending

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lectures and help with
group's activities,

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about two hours for office hours
to help students with homework,

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projects, and answer questions.

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Also two hours for
prelim section which is

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important section since most students
take prelim exam for core courses.

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In this section, GLA discuss

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2-3 old problem to create confidence
for students to take their exam.

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Besides, we meet with
instructor half-hour

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weekly to clarify plan for next week.

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Finally, GLA spend about 2.5 hours
to prepare material for next week.

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Next, we will talk about some
strengths of the program,

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and Cigole will start with
GLAs modeling problem-solving.

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Now that we have seen the
structure of the GLA program,

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let's look at some of its strengths and

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how the students have
benefited from this.

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From the student's salary responses
and the interviews we conducted,

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one of the benefits the
students had was how

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the GLA models problem-solving tactics,

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which they mostly attributed
to two different aspects.

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The first one is how the
GLA model and approach for

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problem-solving by nurturing students in

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right direction and helping model
how to approach the problem.

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The second aspect is
how the GLA encourage

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active learning for problem-solving by

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encouraging discussion through asking

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questions and also encouraging
collaboration among students.

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Now, Hannah will talk
about a few other ways,

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how the GLA program has
helped the students.

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Another positive aspect
of the program was

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that people did find it useful to have

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that additional person
to answer questions

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and additional time for
questions and problem-solving.

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During the class sessions,

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it was found helpful to have

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an extra person going around between
groups and answering questions.

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Outside of class,

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one student mentioned that
it felt less imposing to ask

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questions to the GLA
than the instructor.

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Then they mentioned feeling more
comfortable going back to the GLA several

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times and discussing the same question

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if they weren't understanding something.

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Then there was the aspect of
additional time for questions.

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It was helpful just to have

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that extra scheduled time
so if they weren't able to

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make it to the professor's office
hour or to the GLA office hour,

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just having that additional
time each week that

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was set aside for questions was helpful,

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and it was also found helpful to have
a scheduled time for problem-solving.

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During the prelim sessions,

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they would come and work out problems,

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and some found that that provided

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a accountability system and helped them

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concentrate longer to work
in that structured setting.

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Now I'll let Long tell you
about another positive aspect.

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Another strength for this program is
GLA artifacts of prelim sessions.

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We're glad that many
students found it helpful.

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Typically, GLA provide materials and

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all prelim problems which relate
to current course lecture

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at least three days before prelim
session so that students have time

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to find out either method or
trouble of solving these problems.

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That helps students get involved
actively in prelim sessions.

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Also providing solutions in detail
to show how to use course material

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to show prelim problems and

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effective guidance for students
when taking prelim exams.

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Now Cigole will show
student survey responses.

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Here is a visual representation of
some of the student survey responses.

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If you look at the chart on the left,

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it talk about statements like,

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"I felt connected with

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other graduate students in this
class throughout the semester,

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" "The active learning
class sessions helped

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me gain a better understanding
of the course concepts,

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" "The prelim sessions were beneficial
towards my learning in the course,"

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and "Active learning sessions made me

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better prepared to work
problems independently."

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The chart on the right talk
about statements like,

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"I actively participated when
I attended active learning

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sessions," "I learned
from others in my group

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during the active learning
session," "I felt comfortable

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discussing mathematical
ideas with classmates," and,

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"The instructor or GLA
encouraged discussions."

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If you look at the chats,

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we can see that the combination
of strongly agree and

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agree denoted by blue and orange is

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greater than disagree and strongly
disagree denoted by yellow

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and dark teal indicating that

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the experience for the
students was overall positive.

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Now, we'll talk about some
of the challenges we face.

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In the surveys and interviews,

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one of the main concerns voiced
by students is regarding

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the efficiency of group work
for the pre-lab sessions.

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Some of the students commented on

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the difficulties when
the group members failed

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to contribute to the discussion or

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when there is no collaboration
while working in groups.

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However, some students also added
that the presence of GLA could

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encourage the students to engage and
participate more in the discussions.

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One student also mentioned how

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the online Zoom sessions made
it harder to collaborate.

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Now, Hannah will talk a little bit

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more about some other
challenges that we faced.

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Yes. One of the negative
things that came up was that

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students felt that the GLA did
not meet their expectations.

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For example, the GLA
is not always able to

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answer all the questions that an
instructor is able to answer.

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Sometimes this is concept related.

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In one instance, it was related to

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instructor created
content where if there is

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a typo the GLA might not be sure if what

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the instructor's intended meaning is and

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so is unable to answer the question.

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Also, GLAs might not provide
sufficient guidance.

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This is something that's a typical
comment in an active learning course.

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Some people would prefer to do

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less group work where they're doing
group work and then the GLA is just

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answering questions and would
prefer the GLA to provide a

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more guided setting where
they're working out the problem.

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Also, there was some concern
that the GLA might not cover

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sufficient number of problems in

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this session over the
course of the semester.

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Now, I will let Long tell you about
another challenge that we ran into.

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Some other challenge was scheduling
conflict and technical problems.

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Due to conflict of schedule,

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not so many students were
able to join prelim section.

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As a resort, many students requested
to meet with DOA in different term,

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that gives us such a hard time since
we have other work to do as well.

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Also as we worked remotely,

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showing work were trouble.

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All students had told
to show their work,

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so this were hard to keep track
on students solving process.

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Now, let Hannah talk about what
can be improved for GLA program.

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Yeah, some possible
improvements so it includes

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standardizing GLA-instructor
communication and

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amount of information shared.

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One student had mentioned
they felt like there was

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poor communication going on
between an instructor and GLA,

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and so setting up some
standards for how much that

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the instructor be telling
the GLA and guidelines

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for the instructor in the GLA on

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communication and amount of
information shared could be helpful.

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Increasing discussion and
collaboration between students.

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This there's only so much you can do but

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sometimes one student had
mentioned that even when the GLA

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would visit a room and just ask a
question or get the discussion going,

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then that helped be an
icebreaker to the discussion.

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Also increasing advertising and

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encouraging students to
attend the GLA-lead sessions,

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and this in turn can help to
increase the discussion and

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collaboration since there's lack of

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attendance and it's hard
to get discussions going.

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Now, in this last part we'll tell you
a little bit about the benefit that

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being a GLA has to the graduate
students working as GLAs.

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One of the good things about the
GLA program was not only does it

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provide additional support for
students taking core courses,

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but it also provides
graduate students who are

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working as a GLA with better
teaching experiences.

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It gives experience with active
learning at an advanced level,

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helps you solidify your own
understanding of the topic,

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and provides an opportunity to
explain and discuss advanced topics,

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or while having the
instructor around to answer

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questions and serve
as a teaching mentor.

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I'll now let Cigole
tell you a little bit

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more about the benefits of being a GLA.

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When I look back as a
graduate learning assistant,

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what I got out of this program is
a toolset for grocery teaching.

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First of all, it was

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a great learning experience on how
to teach graduate level courses.

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Not only was I able to observe

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how the instructor teaches
the graduate courses,

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but I also got hands-on experience
to assist the teaching in my role.

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Secondly, the active learning worksheets

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that I developed for my
previous sessions was

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a great experience to

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understand more about active
learning in a graduate level.

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In addition, the
experience I gained from

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one-to-one interactions
with graduate students

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as a learning assistant
was also invaluable.

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One of the benefit of
being GLAs in experience.

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I have taught some undergrad

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[inaudible] but teaching grad
course in more advanced.

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Being GLA is definitely
a perfect opportunity

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to gain experience in teaching
grad course from professor.

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Moreover, GLA could learn from
grad student as well since

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there always been some
new interesting thinking

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and skill of solving problems.

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More importantly, GLA could
have changed to understand

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deeper course material which we'll
get knowledge for research later.

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Thank you for listening.

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We hope all the information are helpful.

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Please feel free to provide feedback.

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More detail can be find on
[inaudible] proceeding page.