Online Teaching Days: Peer Observation as Professional Growth for Observers

UT Austin- Anne Braseby, Kate Holloway, and Sarah Schoonhoven

Online Teaching Days are an opportunity for instructors to watch their colleagues teach, and to talk with each other about their teaching successes and struggles. As a non-evaluative peer observation practice, Online Teaching Days instead focus on reflection and sharing of new ideas and methodologies. Instructors have the opportunity to observe both synchronous and asynchronous undergraduate courses across many disciplines, and have opportunities to reflect on the intersections between the course observed and their own courses.

In this session, we will share the impacts of this event on instructors, from sharing new pedagogical practices, to holding space for reflective conversations, to building community around teaching and learning.

We will also discuss the transition of the in-person “Eyes on Teaching” into “Online Teaching Days” to support instructors’ transition into remote teaching. Finally, we will brainstorm via small-group conversations to consider the future possibilities for a hybrid form of this event