Teaching Feedback Services
The Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (CTSI) offers services that provide instructors with formative feedback on different aspects of their teaching.
Effective March 1, 2022, CTSI is gradually returning to campus and CTSI staff are working on-campus on a limited basis. As such, not all in-person services are currently available. Please note that for the remainder of the Winter 2022 term, no in-class observations will be booked, but instructors may still request virtual observations of synchronous online class sessions or reviews of their Quercus course designs. All other consultations can continue to take place virtually. In-person on-site consultations in CTSI are possible with a pre-arranged appointment, pending staff availability. We will update our service availability as the CTSI returns to normal on-site operations.
Quercus Course Reviews
CTSI’s Quercus Course Reviews service is intended to provide instructors with formative feedback on how they use Quercus to support their course and teaching. At an instructor’s request, a Faculty Liaison from CTSI and/or a divisional educational developer/technologist provides constructive and appreciative feedback on focused elements of a Quercus course with a view to shaping future course design processes and enhancements while improving pedagogical practices. This service will best meet the needs of an instructor who has used Quercus before and is now looking for more specific feedback on how they use Quercus to meet their teaching and learning goals.
Teaching Observations
CTSI’s Teaching Observations service is intended to provide instructors with formative feedback on their instructional practices in a class session (face-to-face or online synchronous). At an instructor’s request, a Faculty Liaison from CTSI and/or a divisional educational developer/technologist attends a class session for one hour and provides constructive and supportive feedback. Teaching Observations are an effective means to gather formative feedback on one’s teaching in a low-risk context and to explore ways to strengthen instructional practices and achieve goals for student learning. Please note that as CTSI gradually returns to on-campus operations, on-site observations of in-person classes are currently on hold, at least until the end of the Winter 2022 term. At that time, more information will become available as our on-campus operations and services gradually return to normal. Note that we are still able to observe synchronous online teaching.
Other options for receiving formative feedback on your teaching
- Ask a peer from your department to observe your teaching or to review your teaching materials. This can be particularly helpful if you’re looking for comments on course content, the level that your material is pitched at, or the relationship of your course material to other courses offered in your department or program.
- Ask a peer from another department or division to observe your teaching or to review your teaching materials. This can be helpful if you’re looking for feedback from outside your discipline, particularly in relation to organization, presentation, structure, and clarity.
For more information on using peer feedback in your teaching, please see CTSI’s Peer Observation of Teaching: Effective Practices guide.
- Collect mid-course feedback. Administering a short survey to your students midway through a course can provide more immediate formative feedback on particular aspects of the course, such as assessment measures, new teaching strategies, or educational materials. Mid-course feedback can be gathered through a short questionnaire, one-minute papers, or other quick strategies.
For more information on gathering mid-course feedback, please see the CTSI guide Gathering Formative Feedback with Mid-Course Evaluations.