Below you will find descriptions and tips for each stage in the process (after student applications have opened). Linked within the tips are sample emails and interview questions.

1. Open Faculty Applications

Using LA Campus or a survey management system, open applications for instructors desiring LAs for the upcoming semester. Determine the number of LAs needed for each class and ensure that LAs will be engaged in assisting students in learner-centered classroom environments.

2. Open LA Applications

• Host an LA Information Session

• Week 1 of open student applications

One week after applications are open. Begin screening; get a sense of number and quality of applications that have come in for the courses you are hiring in the department. There’s one more week for students to apply, so may need to do additional reminding / recruiting to get a well-qualified pool.

• Week 2 of open student applications

Have 2 – 3 people screen applications and separately come up with candidates who are: “great on paper—need to interview,” “good on paper—might interview,” and “not what we’re looking for—no need for further review.” Discuss your rankings and finalize a “first-pass” interview list. Interviews may not be needed in small departments where the reviewing faculty already know all of the applicants.

3. Inviting students to an interview (if applicable)

Sample Email Invitation. If you know the specific time commitments that your LAs need to make, it’s helpful to let candidates know this as early in the process as possible. It’s also useful to ask students to bring their current and/or projected semester schedule to the interview—one that you can keep. When starting out in this process, you’ll probably want to interview 1.5 – 2 times as many students as positions you have available. Interviews can last from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. Most interviews are of new LAs, but you may want to interview “returning LAs” if their LA experiences thus far have been in a different department.

Depending on the size of the program, interviews may be with the LA program coordinators or the departmental coordinators.

4. Interviews (if applicable)

Some Examples of Interview Questions. During the interview, you want to get a sense of why the student is pursuing this opportunity. (Hopefully it’s more than a resume-building experience for them.) Ask about their previous experiences with LAs in courses. How important do they think it is for students to work on conceptually challenging materials in groups? What learning experiences have they found useful as students? What are there career plans?

This question is key: “Why do you think students struggle in this course?” If a candidate’s only thought is that students don’t study hard enough, that can be a red flag. Good LAs are able to connect with students, and often that means that they have either struggled a bit themselves or can at least think of good reasons for difficulties (for instance: it’s a very abstract subject; some students can’t relate mathematical equations to underlying concepts; students don’t see the relevance and how it’s connected to their major or future plans).

An LA’s primary role is to facilitate learning among groups of students, so LAs need at least some initial buy-in of this model. Candidates who express that they learn everything on their own, do best when professors lecture, and see working in groups as a waste of time and not useful for learning, might not be the best fit for the LA program. On the other hand, candidates who have strong study skills, set priorities, have good self-study habits, but also see value in students sharing, articulating, defending, and refining their ideas in groups, can be good both for facilitating groups and also sharing individual study skills that have worked for them.

5. Making hiring decisions

Once interviews are complete, it’s useful to bring the hiring team back together to discuss which students should be offered positions, which would be good “backups,” and which just aren’t a good fit. You might also determine that you need to do a few more interviews.

If you are hiring several LAs for one course, it is useful to think about how you are putting together your “team.” Hire for a range of attributes and abilities, not all the same kind of student. Having some students who are strong in content knowledge is important, regardless of their stated career goals. Having some students who are passionate about the subject is important, even if they didn’t get a solid “A” in the course. Having some students who really are undecided on their career path but are considering teaching is important. A mix of majors might be good.

Then contact each student that you interviewed accordingly. Doing this will provide you with more confidence that your hiring list will be stable going into the next semester.

6. Sending hiring decisions to the LA Program

Offers can be sent and student applicants can accept or decline offers directly through LA Campus. Alternatively, a departmental contact can send a hiring summary to their LA Program Coordinator, indicating those students they want to hire for the next semester. Once ALL departments have sent their hiring spreadsheets, the LA Program can email official “offer” and “regrets” emails to every student who applied to the program. The deadline for submitting hiring spreadsheets can be provided when applications are sent to department contacts.

Sample Hiring Letter Templates:

• Hiring letter for a new LA

• Hiring letter for a returning LA

• Rejection letter for a new LA

• Rejection letter for a returning LA