Learning Assistant - Instructor Partnerships: An example from Astronomy

Involving peer instructors, Learning Assistants (LAs), in instructional delivery has the potential to create spaces that support student performance in a variety of courses, from in-person to online, asynchronous settings. Relationships between LAs and instructors can leverage the expertise of the LAs and place them in leadership roles within the instructional team where they co-think, co-design, and co-develop activities and lessons with faculty, as well as provide insights about the students in the class and the learning environment. In this presentation we leverage a developing framework for identifying LA leadership to analyse LA participation in an online astronomy course to better understand the development of instructional partnerships and how these partnerships foster leadership development. Funded by the Department of Education (CSER, RECESS), the National Science Foundation DUE#1911341 & 2412938, and the Illinois Space Grant Consortium.