Online Learning Assistants (OLAs)
What are Online Learning Assistants (OLAs)?
OLAs are trained tutors who are embedded in your fully online course. They are UNM students who have previously taken the course and excelled. OLAs work with students under the instructor’s guidance during the duration of the course. They focus on helping improve student learning outcomes and foster engagement with course material and challenging course concepts.
Benefits of having an Online Learning Assistant
- An OLA offers the perspective of an experienced student in class discussions
- Through a peer tutoring model, OLAs can help build a sense of community in online learning environments
- Embedded support such as OLAs can help students who may not seek tutoring otherwise
For Faculty
Assignment of an OLA to a course is dependent on tutor availability and budget, the type of course and the way the OLA is incorporated into the curriculum. Ideally, a course that is a good fit for OLA support meets these requirements:
- Is a fully remote course
- Includes frequent, challenging assignments
- The curriculum allows for minor adjustments to incorporate the tutor
- Has been historically difficult for undergraduate students
If you are interested in receiving Online Learning Assistant (OLA) support for your course, please contact Morgan Lewton.
Embedded tutoring is a model of academic support in which a peer educator works directly within a course over the full term under the guidance of faculty and instructors to help deepen student engagement with course material, encourage active participation, or lead recitation sessions.
The following UNM programs use a common faculty proposal application to ensure courses are connected to the most appropriate type of embedded support:
- Peer Learning Facilitators (administered by the College Enrichment Program)
- Online Learning Assistants (administered by the Center for Teaching and Learning)
- Supplemental Instruction Leaders (administered by the Center for Teaching and Learning)
This common form will allow UNM to better support our faculty members by connecting their individual proposals to the academic support options most aligned with their curricular plans. As part of the selection process, program coordinators from each of the programs will review all applications together to determine which one(s) to offer to the instructor.
Fall 2026 priority deadline: April 13, 2026
Preliminary course selections will be made by: April 24, 2026
