OTEAR Workshops for Spring 2025

Greetings from OTEAR! Please see our lineup of Teaching Evaluation and Assessment workshops for Spring 2025:

Peer Review of Teaching using the Critical Teaching Behaviors Framework (Virtual Interactive Workshop)

Friday, January 24, 2025, 12:00pm-1:30pm

Peer review of teaching is an important part of the advancement, reappointment, and promotion process for instructors of all ranks. This workshop is primarily designed to prepare reviewers tasked with conducting peer review of teaching, but instructors preparing to be observed may also find this session helpful. We will introduce the Critical Teaching Behaviors Framework and show how it can be used to facilitate peer review of teaching. If you wish to attend the workshop or to receive the video recording after the workshop, please register.

Using the Rutgers Guidelines for Presenting Evidence of Effective Teaching (Virtual Interactive Workshop)

Thursday, January 30, 2025, 9:00am-10:30am

This workshop will explore the Guidelines for Effective Teaching, which adopts a framework showing what effective teaching looks like and encourages faculty to present evidence that shows their strengths across all aspects of teaching. As part of this session, participants evaluate samples of evidence and brainstorm what sources of evidence they can muster to build their promotion packets. This workshop is intended for all instructors presenting evidence for effective teaching. Please register to attend or receive the recording.

Writing & Refining the Teaching Philosophy (Virtual Working Session)

Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 9:00am-10:30am

This new workshop is a deep dive into what might be the most important piece of a teaching portfolio or teaching statement: the teaching philosophy statement. This reflective and highly personal narrative encapsulates an instructor’s instructional goals, teaching methods, and their approach to assessing student learning. In this interactive session we explore examples from different disciplines before spending time writing, editing, and peer reviewing. This workshop will not be recorded. Please register to attend.

Interpreting SIRS and other forms of Student Feedback (Virtual Interactive Workshop)

Tuesday, February 18, 2025, 1:00pm-2:30pm

While students are crucial stakeholders in the university’s teaching enterprise, their feedback should not be mistaken for “evaluation of teaching,” which is a task for instructional colleagues. Student feedback is an indicator which provides evidence that must be interpreted. In this workshop, we explore scholarly research on the limitations and potential biases of student feedback. We present strategies for how department chairs and program directors should review, interpret, and utilize the likert-scale and comment responses from the Student Instructional Ratings Survey (SIRS) to improve course curriculum, support faculty, and evaluate teaching. This workshop is especially beneficial for those who regularly engage with SIRS, but we also encourage anyone from the university community interested in learning about best practices in interpreting student feedback to join us. To attend the workshop or to receive the video recording after the workshop, please register.

Writing & Refining the Teaching Philosophy (In-Person Working Session)

Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 9:00am-10:30am

Assessment of Learning 101 (Virtual Interactive Workshop)

Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 12:00pm-1:30pm

This workshop explores the fundamentals of academic assessment, including program learning outcomes, course learning goals, and both direct and indirect assessment techniques. We will examine the crucial role of rubrics within the assessment process and discuss how assessment strategies can effectively inform course design. The workshop will also address best practices for enhancing assessment quality, including the implementation of blind grading procedures, ensuring grading reliability through inter-rater checks, and utilizing multiple reviewers for comprehensive evaluations. This workshop is designed for faculty who are new to academic assessment or need a refresher on learning about different methods of assessment and the assessment cycle. If you wish to attend the workshop or to receive the video recording after the workshop, please register.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Round Table: Assessment of Instruction and Course Design (Virtual Presentation and Discussion)

Friday April 11, 2025, 10:00am-11:30am

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the assessment of learning and teaching with the goal of improving instruction and student success where faculty are researching their teaching and engaging in continuous improvement. This meeting of the SoTL Round Table will create a space to hear about SoTL work from our community, share progress on ongoing research projects, and provide space to develop new ideas and collaborations. Are you interested in presenting your research project on your teaching? This could be a complete project, one you are currently working on, or one you are still trying to determine the structure for. If so, please email otear@rutgers.edu to let us know your interest and details of the project. This session will not be recorded. If you would like to attend the workshop, please register.

Best Practices for Peer Review of Online Teaching (Virtual Interactive Workshop)

Monday, April 21, 2025, 2:00pm-3:30pm

Peer review of teaching plays a crucial role in the advancement, reappointment, and promotion process for instructors across all ranks. Many educators now teach courses with significant online components, including asynchronous online, synchronous online, and hybrid formats. Peer review of these courses presents unique challenges, such as defining the concept of “observation,” understanding the integration of course design and student engagement, and recognizing the specific challenges faced by both instructors and students in online settings. This workshop offers a platform to share best practices and engage in discussions about these issues. If you wish to attend the workshop or to receive the video recording after the workshop, please register.

Peer Review of the Teaching Portfolio (Virtual Working Session)

Wednesday, May 7, 2025, 10:00am-11:30am

Does your teaching portfolio present strong evidence showcasing your teaching success? Is the teaching philosophy clear and well-matched with your instructional goals? In this workshop we provide a rubric for evaluating teaching portfolios and assign participants to small teams to peer review their portfolios and document effective strategies and presentation of evidence. We will share results so that all participants can see the best strategies and learn from each other. This workshop is meant for those who can bring a draft portfolio to share with others. If you wish to attend the workshop or to receive the video recording after the workshop, please register.