In addition to individual consultations, the CTL offers other services to help faculty get feedback on their teaching - classroom observations, online course reviews, student focus group facilitation, and creating mid-semester surveys. These services provide confidential, formative feedback and assist faculty to make strategic decisions to further improve their course.
Classroom Observations
In a classroom observation, an instructional design consultant will work with you as you reflect on and develop your in-class teaching practices. The classroom observation process begins with a discussion to frame the meaning, purpose, and goals of the observation, and usually follows these steps:
- The consultant meets with you to discuss the observation process and to establish the contexts, scope, goals, and date of your class-meeting observation.
- The consultant observes you during a class-meeting, either for the entire class period or for only part of it.
- The consultant compiles notes from the observation into a report, addressing your questions and concerns, and sends it to you.
- You and the consultant meet to talk about the report and to identify steps and approaches that may improve teaching practices and the course
We use a standardized CTL Classroom Observation form to observe class sessions but can provide feedback on other aspects of teaching not included on the form, depending on your teaching goals.
Due to high demand for this service, classroom observation requests should be made as early in the semester as possible (or even prior to the start of the semester) to improve the chances that a consultant will be available to observe your class on the date you prefer. Please complete our consultation request form, or send an email to us at thectl@iupui.edu, as soon as you decide that you’d like to schedule an observation. If you have a particular date that you would like the observation to occur, please include that in the request form or email.
Online Course Module Review
If you are teaching an online or hybrid course, a CTL digital learning consultant can review a section of your course in a manner similar to a classroom observation of one course meeting. The review will normally focus on a single week or module that your students have already completed for the semester so student activity is present. In addition, it will provide feedback on overall course usability and accessibility.
The process begins with a meeting with the consultant to discuss your course, your questions, and your goals for course improvement, as well as to review pertinent course materials. You and the consultant determine what week or module of your class will be reviewed. After the review, the consultant will compile their notes into a report to address your questions and concerns and provide additional feedback on what they observed during the review. You and the consultant will then meet again to walk through the report, discuss the feedback, and identify next steps you may wish to take.
Feel free to request a review to be conducted at any point after the completion of the module you would like to focus on. Requesting a review as soon as possible after the module ends allows more time for you to incorporate the feedback into your current course as well as future offerings. Please fill out our consultation request form or email us at thectl@iupui.edu as soon as you decide that you would like to schedule an observation.
If you are interested in a more in-depth review using the Quality Matters Rubric, please note that in the consultation request form or email.
Blended or Flipped Classes
If you are teaching a blended or flipped class, you can request a combined review including both a classroom observation and an online course module review. The process is the same as detailed in the two sections above. The main difference being that you would meet with both an instructional design consultant and a digital learning consultant at each of the two meetings.
The time constraints noted in the Classroom Observation section above also apply to blended and flipped classes. Please fill out our consultation request form or email us at thectl@iupui.edu as soon as you decide that you would like to schedule an observation and review. Please note in your consultation request or email whether you have a blended or a flipped course. If it is a blended course, please also include how often the class is meeting in-person during the semester.
Student Focus Group Facilitations
Soliciting student feedback during the semester about the course and your teaching methods gives you the opportunity to make changes before the end of the semester. It can help you gauge what aspects of the course help your students’ learning and what changes you could make to improve their learning. Online and in-class surveys and student focus groups are commonly used tools for gathering student feedback at any point in the semester. CTL’s instructional consultants can work with you to design and implement these tools in your face-to-face and/or online classes.
Student Focus Groups
A student focus group, also called Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID), is a structured activity that provides you with anonymized student feedback about what’s working well and what could be improved in your course. CTL instructional consultants can work with you to facilitate a student focus group in your class at any point during the semester and this process follows these steps:
- The consultant meets with you to discuss the context of, goals for, and the date of the focus group session.
- The consultant will facilitate the focus group session during a portion of the class period and may range from 30 – 45 min depending on the class size, with larger classes requiring more student response time. To maintain student anonymity and receive honest, constructive feedback, you are requested not to be present during the focus group session. Students will work in small groups to complete the focus group form (or a modified version of this form)
- The consultant will synthesize the students’ feedback, identify themes, and compile the responses into a summary report that they will share with you prior to a post-focus group meeting.
- During the post-focus group meeting, you and consultant can review the report to identify changes that you could make to improve the course and what aspects of the course cannot be changed at this point in time.
- After the post-focus group meeting, you will thank your students for providing feedback and communicate your decisions about what you will and will not change in the course and why. This step is critical to maximize the benefits of gathering student feedback during the semester.
Online and In-Class Surveys
Alternatively, faculty may collect mid-term student feedback via an online or in-class survey. Our consultants can work with faculty to tailor such surveys to meet individual needs. Consultants can also work with faculty members to interpret student responses and to identify ways to respond to student feedback.
Examples of Surveys
Please complete the consultation form or email us at thectl@iupui.edu at least two weeks prior to the preferred student focus group date to allow enough time for the consultant and the faculty member to schedule a pre-focus group meeting.
Fill out a consultation request form