We can no longer assume that looking in one “place”—whether in a classroom, an LMS shell, or a Zoom recording—affords a representative sample of online instructors’ teaching behaviors. Learn what has changed in tech-mediated teaching and discover consistent, equitable, and fair ways to observe and assess online teaching.
The research and advice in BOOK TITLE REDACTED (2015) covered the range of observing and evaluating then-possible online instructional scenarios: what we might nowadays call “traditional” online spaces like learning management system (LMS) shells that afforded a highly mediated and structured range of possible interactions among instructors, learners, and the tool sets within those spaces. Largely asynchronous, traditional online teaching left a clear trail of observable phenomena.
Announcement posts, discussion threads, and comments on student work were all captured in the LMS space. At the time of publication in 2015, we worried that such a cornucopia of observable data points would lead to “analysis paralysis,” and we advised observers of online teaching to limit their observations to one unit or online session, much as an on-ground observer might observe only one or two class periods of live class time.
We now find ourselves in an instructional world where the bounded environment of the LMS seems almost simple. Especially as a result of the rapid shift to emergency live remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, the possible permutations and definitions of “online teaching” have exploded.
For those of us tasked with observing, evaluating, crediting, and critiquing the teaching that happens at our institutions, we can no longer assume that looking in one “place”—whether that is a classroom, an LMS shell, or a Zoom recording of a live remote session—will afford us a representative sample of the teaching practices and behaviors that instructors exhibit. This best-practice session outlines what has changed in technology-supported and -mediated teaching and offers ways to observe and assess online teaching that are consistent, equitable, and fair.
Nearly everyone has now taught using technology mediation of some kind. The universe of possible modalities, tools, and loci of interaction has expanded significantly. In this session, you will learn about six shifts in the narrative of evaluation techniques, examine the alignment of teaching principles across the spectrum from synchronous on-ground interactions to asynchronous LMS-bound online connections, and practice applying three updates to our observation and evaluation methods for technology-mediated teaching across formats.
We will engage and interact in several ways throughout this hands-on session. As take-aways from our session, you will
- practice communicating with instructors about where to find evidence of teaching behaviors across splintered engagement sites,
- observe and assess exemplar multi-format teaching environments, and
- identify which instruments cover all teaching scenarios in a format-agnostic way.