Teaching assistant development and contributions in online, MOOC and blended synchronous settings: an integrative review

ABSTRACT

Higher education institutions are expanding the delivery of online and remote learning courses in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, numerous challenges are foregrounded for those who are preparing and delivering these courses, including instructors, administrators, and teaching assistants. The purpose of our integrative review was to explore both the roles and responsibilities of teaching assistants in online, blended synchronous learning, and massive open online course modalities, as well as strategies for administrators and instructors to develop teaching assistants in these settings. A systematic search of databases and grey literature produced 1,603 texts; 42 were included for data analysis. We found that teaching assistant roles and responsibilities, as well as strategies to develop teaching assistants, are diverse and often poorly articulated. Roles and responsibilities were dependent upon the teaching assistant’s previous pedagogical experiences and comfort level with non-traditional learning environments, institutional leadership, communication by the course instructor and the unique learning environment itself. Strategies to develop teaching assistants were often underdeveloped and influenced by resource constraints and institutional stances towards teaching assistant professional development programmes. Teaching assistant development across the three modalities primarily involved ‘on-the-job’ training, suggesting a need for further professional development interventions to be designed, delivered and evaluated. Results are synthesised and presented in pragmatic checklists to aid teaching assistants, instructors and administrators with planning and carrying out the three teaching modalities. Our results form the basis of an evidence-informed approach to assist institutions transitioning towards non-traditional learning environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching assistants
• higher education
• online learning
• blended synchronous learning
• massive open online courses (MOOC)

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to Dr. Derek Sellman, PhD, RN, for providing feedback on a final version of our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Morgan L. Wadams

Morgan L. Wadams, RN, BScN, is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta. He has been extensively involved as a graduate teaching assistant with undergraduate and graduate level courses since 2016.

Kara Schick-Makaroff

Kara Schick-Makaroff, RN, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta. She has taught in online asynchronous, online synchronous, and blended synchronous graduate level (masters and PhD) courses for the past 6 years, often with Teaching Assistants.