Learning Beyond the Lecture: How UCLA’s Learning Assistant Program Transforms Large Classes

Teaching hundreds of students at once can feel like trying to solve a puzzle without seeing the whole board.

An instructor may know the material thoroughly. They may prepare detailed slides, carefully designed exams, and structured lectures. But once 200 students fill a lecture hall, it becomes more difficult to see how individual students are making sense of the material. Some students are still working through foundational concepts, while others are already moving ahead. From the podium, it can be challenging to gauge where understanding ends and confusion begins.

At UCLA, the Learning Assistant Program was created to help address this challenge.

The program places trained undergraduate students directly into large lecture courses, where they support collaborative learning. These students, known as Learning Assistants (LAs), work alongside instructors during discussion sections and in-class group activities.

Unlike teaching assistants, LAs do not grade assignments or deliver lectures. Instead, they facilitate discussion as students work through complex ideas, asking questions and encouraging them to explain their reasoning. In doing so, LAs help make student thinking more visible within large courses.

Students apply to become LAs after completing the course themselves. Those selected return to the classroom in a new role, supporting discussion-based learning while also participating in training focused on teaching strategies and collaboration.

Preparing students for this role is a central part of the program’s structure. First-time LAs participate in a weekly pedagogy seminar, where they learn approaches for guiding discussion, supporting peer learning, and encouraging active participation. Throughout the quarter, they also attend regular content meetings, where instructors and LAs work through upcoming discussion problems together and anticipate where students may encounter difficulty. These meetings allow LAs to revisit course material while considering how students may interpret key concepts in different ways.

Since its founding in 2016, the program has expanded across departments at UCLA, embedding Learning Assistants in dozens of undergraduate courses each quarter.

The structure of the program reflects education research showing that students often develop stronger understanding when they actively work through problems together.

“We all learn better by working together to solve problems,” says Shanna Shaked, Ph.D., director of the UCLA Learning Assistant Program and a leader in evidence-based teaching at UCLA, in an interview for this article. The challenge, she notes, is implementing that idea within large lecture courses. “That’s really hard to do in a 200-person lecture class.”

In classes of this size, instructors cannot easily observe how every student is thinking through the material. As Shaked points out, “The instructors are really only interacting with a really small percentage of them in office hours.” Many questions and misunderstandings therefore remain unspoken.

The Learning Assistant model attempts to bring that reasoning into view. During discussion sections and group activities, LAs work directly with students, helping them articulate their thinking as they work through problems step by step. These interactions create space for questions that might not arise during lecture alone and allow LAs to identify misunderstandings as they emerge.

One LA in a large introductory physics course noted that when students discuss problems with their peers, confusion often becomes visible much sooner than it does during lecture. Students who initially seem comfortable with a concept may struggle once they begin applying it independently.

These smaller interactions can also make large courses feel more personal. Even something as simple as learning students’ names can influence the atmosphere of a large class, helping students feel more recognized and more willing to participate.

Small group discussions, often facilitated by Learning Assistants, allow students to encounter multiple explanations of the same concept. When students work together in groups of three or four, they are exposed to different ways of thinking about the material. These exchanges can clarify ideas that may not fully resonate when presented in only one way during lecture.

The program’s approach is grounded in research, but evaluating learning requires more than exam scores alone. The LA Program therefore considers multiple forms of feedback when assessing how courses are functioning.

“In the LA program, we value quantitative data where we can get it,” Shaked explains, “but we also really value qualitative feedback.”

Student responses often describe how LAs circulate through the room, clarify expectations, and create opportunities for participation. These observations, combined with weekly reflections and conversations during content meetings, help LAs refine how they support students throughout the quarter.

Even small adjustments can matter when courses enroll hundreds of students. The emphasis is less on tracking individual performance and more on improving the quality of interactions in the classroom.

In addition to supporting current students, the experience can also reshape assumptions about who benefits from revisiting course material. Shaked recalled initially wondering whether weekly content meetings would be necessary for Learning Assistants who had already performed well in the course.

“A student can do well in a course and still be able to learn more about the content and how to support student learning, which is why LAs meet weekly with the instructor to re-do the section assignments and activities,” she explains.

Even students who previously mastered the material can continue refining their reasoning by revisiting concepts collaboratively.

As the program continues to grow, Shaked encourages a wide range of students to apply.

“I would say especially to students who struggled in the course and might question if they can be an LA — they have some of the best empathy.”

This perspective reflects the program’s broader vision: learning improves when students are not simply recipients of information, but active participants in building understanding.

In a lecture hall of 200 students, not every question can be heard from the podium. Learning Assistants help make space for those questions, supporting conversations that help students develop a deeper understanding of the material.