Teaching online: how we learnt from each other

Abstract

Observation Context
 In autumn 2015, Kate Coulson and Alison Ewing engaged in the COOL process. Kate observed Ali’s teaching on her master’s level module: Interprofessional Practice regarding practice education for health and social care practitioners. And Ali observed Kate’s teaching on her Open Online Course: “Study Skills for Academic Success” which is a free course offered to applicants to the University of Northampton who accept their course offer. The course runs before term starts in September and is not credit bearing. 
 Ali and Kate were seeking to understand how their teaching online impacted upon their students and almost wanted a “sense check” about what they were doing well and what could be improved. 
 
 Learning Achieved
 Ali and Kate were staggered at how much they did learn about their own teaching from the observer but also how much they gained in terms of being an observer. Observing other’s teaching is clearly a beneficial way to benchmark your own teaching and reflect on your own approaches and those of the observee.
 
 Next Steps
 Encouraging colleagues and team members to undertake COOL; Kate’s team has already undertaken a workshop regarding how to utilize COOL. Some of the team have already undertaken their first observations and others are writing about their experiences and planning on observing others within and external to the team. 
 
 Kate and Ali are keen to share their learning, understanding and experiences of COOL, they also want to learn about other colleagues’ experiences of peer observation and want to use their Cracker Barrel session as a vehicle in which to do this. 
 
 UKPSF Dimensions
 K5 – Methods for evaluating the effectiveness of teaching. 
 V3 – use evidence-informed approaches and the outcomes from research, scholarship and continuing professional development.