In Week 9 of Autumn session experienced Western academics have generously volunteered to open their on-campus and online classrooms and allow colleagues to observe their teaching. The opportunity to observe our peers – to see in action the ideas, practices and techniques they use to engage and inspire students in their learning and to achieve, can help us to reflect on the challenges we all face and how such learnings might be adapted to help us meet those challenges.
Observing the online teaching practices of others, in face-to-face, synchronous and asynchronous modalities, can broaden our perspective and open the door, so to speak, to new practices, techniques, and approaches that enrich our own teaching skill-set. Whether it’s the structure of learning activities, online collaborations and interactions, formative and summative assessments, or communications strategies, peer observation of teaching can yield immediate and practicable insights. Open Door Week will facilitate opportunities to gain insight into how other colleagues teach in the classroom and/or online and reflect on how they might adapt some of their own practice to enhance teaching quality and the student learning experience.
How it will work
Once registration opens you will be forwarded information about the location and/or access to the classroom and/or vUWS sites. You will also have access to advice for observers to get the most out of your peer observation experience.
This is an informal interaction and opportunity to participate in peer observation or teaching. Providing feedback is not required (unless the tutor or site owner requests it). If relevant, you’ll be able to browse vUWS sites to see what sort of asynchronous tools, resources, content and activities are used. We will send out a quick survey at the end of Week 4 and ask you to share your thoughts with us about what you observed!
What sort of classes will be involved?
We will be drawing on units from every School, enabling a wide-range of choices. Unit descriptions will be made available for you to assist you in deciding which unit you would like to peer observe.
Will face-to-face or online classes be offered?
There will be a range of class types available, including face-to-face and Zoom. There will be limits applied to the number of observers for each class, particularly with face-to-face classes.
Access to unit vUWS sites will depend on the Unit Coordinator.
Please check the
Open Door Week Subject Guide(opens in a new window) for details!
Why you should get involved!
As an ‘Open-Doorer’, opening your classroom door will allow you to identify areas of strength in your teaching and curriculum practices, share your practices with others to further reinforce your capabilities and inspire others with their educational practice. It can also provide opportunity for you to gain collegial peer feedback and engage in formative discourse about teaching, learning and curriculum with peers from within and across disciplines and schools.
As an observer, Open Door Week is an opportunity to see what’s happening in the online teaching and learning space. This a chance for you to learn something new, to draw inspiration from other teaching staff, or just to appreciate the amazing work that goes into providing high quality learning experience for our students in your school or in another discipline.
What happens next?
Open Door Week is just the first step in the expansion of the Collegial Peer Review Initiative. You’ll be hearing those words a lot in the coming months. The emphasis for this University-wide initiative is on the word collegial. It means approaching feedback in a respectful, friendly, and mutually beneficial way, so that we can learn from each other, improve our teaching, and ultimately improve the learning experience of our students.
If you have any questions, or would like further clarification, please contact Gina Saliba(opens in a new window), Lecturer, Learning Futures.
If you have any issues registering, please don't hesitate to contact Learning Futures: learningfutures@westernsydney.edu.au(opens in a new window), or Gavin Smith: g.smith@westernsydney.edu.au(opens in a new window)
The Western Week 4 Open Door: Peer Observation of Teaching Scheme has drawn inspiration from the successful SEA Open Class Initiative (opens in a new window) at the University of NSW and ‘Open Door Week’ (opens in a new window) at Sydney University.
