The Learning Experience Team (LET) of the Extension School has just celebrated its second birthday, and since its inception, over 60 Teaching Assistants (TAs) have been brought on board to support you, our lecturers, in the delivery of online courses.
This addition to the services offered by the Extension School has streamlined the process for lecturers allowing them more time to focus on course content, and facilitates a smoother learner journey for our participants.
In joining the Learning Experience Team, these TAs develop valuable skills that will serve them well throughout their career. Supporting lecturers, helping learners from all over the world and collaborating with course teams and other Extension School’s colleagues, make their support role a rich learning experience.
Being responsible for moderation and learner engagement means that that these young professionals learn to think on their feet to solve problems, communicate effectively, manage expectations, and build relationships. These elements have come back time and again in their evaluation and feedback.
Something we are particularly proud of is that since its inception, many TAs have commented on how the knowledge and skills they acquired during their work for in Learning Experience Team proved instrumental in furthering their career and facilitating communication with prospective employers.
Naturally, we always strive to continue improving the support we offer lecturers and learners alike; we would like to take this opportunity to celebrate our TAs and put some of them in the spotlight. You might have worked with some of them already. Below you will find their stories.
Meet some of our TAs
Matteo Baricchio
Matteo joined LET to support the production – from start to finish – of three new MOOCs that form part of a Professional Certificate Program.
His three key takeaways from the experience are:
- Learning how to deal with all kinds of people, managing both relationships and expectations.
- Figuring out how to balance the demands of the job with his thesis work.
- Being able to build assignments keeping in mind the learner as well as the learning goal.
Luisa De la Vega
Luisa started at LET as a moderator but soon evolved to support the process of creating a course as well as updating existing offerings.
Her three key takeaways are:
- Improving her organisational skills to be available for both the learner and the lecturers whenever needed.
- Learning how to work both in collaboration and autonomously.
- Managing relationships with people from different backgrounds, fulfilling various roles whilst managing expectations and maintaining healthy boundaries.
Agapi Kaperoni
Agapi also started at LET as a moderator, which quickly evolved to supporting course updates and playing a role in production.
What she takes away from her experience:
- Seeing the bigger picture of her role and how it relates to the experience of learners.
- Growing in confidence by the trust placed in her by the instructor to moderate live sessions.
- Discovering the importance of a pleasant work environment to be able to thrive
Yuka Reinoso
Yuka was involved in variety of aspects in LET moderating both MOOCs and ProfEds, whilst supporting updates.
Her three key takeaways are:
- Building on her technical skills.
- Being able to provide valuable feedback on assignments in a meaningful way.
- Being conscious of the impact of her work.
