Hopefully CCT’s Institutional Teaching Model is old news by now. You may even know about the ways CCT supports faculty, like the Excellence in Teaching Conference during Convocation, the Oregon Tech Excellence in Teaching (OTET) Workshop. However, you may not know about peer observation and the teaching assessment worksheet. This worksheet was developed as part of the workshop to give faculty concise, focused feedback on their teaching. Almost 80 faculty have participated in the workshop and used this worksheet to reflect on their own teaching and provide feedback to their colleagues. We would like to invite all OIT faculty to draw upon the experience of those who attended the workshop. Volunteers will observe your teaching and give you feedback that is strictly for your own use — not part of any formal evaluation process.

Several faculty have already taken advantage of this opportunity. Ryan Brown, of the Medical Laboratory Science Department, offered to share his experience.

Why did you choose to participate in peer observation?

I was looking for feedback on the effectiveness of my teaching. Without feedback, you are doing your best but are really navigating in the dark. The only formal feedback we receive is from student evaluations and that is inconsistent at best.

Did you have any reservations?

Not really … only my own insecurities of exposing inadequacies of which I wasn’t previously aware.

Can you comment on the feedback you received?

The rubric was excellent. I feel that it is important to have a framework. It limits what I would term free styling. It limits the subjectivity. The best part is the section that asks the observer to list several specific areas on which to focus. This gives you very concrete ideas of things you can do to improve your teaching. This focused approach has allowed me to identify patterns and consider how I might apply these suggestions to other areas I teach. I highly recommend the experience and anticipate asking others to observe my classes in the future.

You can request an observer or volunteer to observe. If you would like more information, please contact jesse.kinder@oit.edu or talk to any CCT member!