Discussion forums
What is it? Forums allow students and staff to have a group conversation, with each participant posting their contributions at times convenient for them. Most posts are text-based, but often support images, links and even […]
Interviews for evaluating teaching
This is an evaluation guide. What is it? An interview is a discussion, individually or in a group, prompted by a series of questions. Interview questions tend to be open-ended (if you need to ask […]
Developing your questions for evaluating teaching
This is an evaluation guide. Pat Hutchings’ (2000) taxonomy of educational inquiry questions can be helpful in specifying the main purpose of your evaluation. “What works” questions are evaluative; they set out to prove effectiveness. […]
Questionnaires for evaluating teaching
This is an evaluation guide. What is it? A questionnaire is an efficient, economical way to obtain a large amount of responses. When administered digitally, questionnaires scale up with minimal extra resource since they tend […]
Classroom observation protocols for evaluating teaching
This is an evaluation guide. What is it? Classroom observation protocols support the collection and categorisation of observational data about what students are doing in relation to what their educator is doing, typically in large […]
Concept inventories for evaluating teaching
This is an evaluation guide. What is it? A concept inventory is a standardised multiple choice instrument developed collaboratively by subject experts to test students’ understanding of core concepts. It is used as a pre- […]
Live tableaux – groups envisaging concepts (case study)
Overview Dr James Porter leads Environmental Science and Policy Making, a 10-session masters module with 35 students. In his final two-hour session, groups of students visually represent a concept from the module. This takes the […]
Problem-based learning
What is it? Tutorial groups of eight to twelve students address realistic, ill-structured scenarios in complex, interdisciplinary domains, through a defined sequence of steps facilitated by a tutor. PBL is a curriculum approach – a […]
Brainstorming
What is it? Brainstorming is a method used to generate multiple answers or ideas. It encourages creativity and divergent thinking which can be used to solve problems or answer questions. It was popularised by Alex […]