Review of Teaching

OTEI and External Resources

Faculty can used evidence-based guides, rubrics, and other materials to inform and to self-assess elements of their course. OTEI has created or is providing the following resources for self-and-peer evaluation.

OTEI guides:

  • For an up-to-date syllabus, consult our Syllabus Guide and Syllabus Reflections handout.
  • When asking for student feedback at the course midpoint, this guide on student feedback can help you and help your students give effective feedback! The university has guides to using "eval kit" here.
  • New processes for peer observation of teaching are available through CBSHS's Teaching Effectiveness Community.  The observation sheet and directions are open access; if you are not in CBSHS, OTEI can help you learn to these peer practices.
  • Faculty may also self-evaluate teaching practices and course materials with regards to diversity and inclusion, using the resources on the OTEI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion page.
  • Learning-Focused Assignment Guide. This holistic guide can help you assess the alignment, transparency, and inclusivity of your assignments, in terms of development, use, and revision of assignments.
  • Learning-Focused Assignment Rubric.This rubric preceded the creation of the assignment guide and uses a point-scoring system. From the Universities of Virginia and George Mason.
  • Learning-Focused Test Guide.This guide helps you assess the alignment, transparency, and inclusivity of your tests, both development and deployment.
  • Test Blueprint Guide.This guide walks you through the process of creating a simple blueprint to evaluate your test questions and check on alignment with learning outcomes.
  • These resources are available and explained in the course on Learning-Focused Assignment Design. This open-enrollment course in Clemson’s Canvas explains how to create a signature assignment, leads participants through the uses of the assignment guide, and provides multiple examples of self-evaluations using the guide. Visit Canvas and browse for the course title.
  • Measuring Teaching Effectiveness is a comprehensive site to support faculty evaluation, and was created by Clemson's CAFLS (College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences) with support from OTEI.  It contains advice and resources on building a portfolio for review.  Many of these OTEI resources are also embedded in this site. 

Faculty peers and administrators play an essential role in evaluating teaching through class observations. The following guide and sample peer observation forms (from Clemson and from other institutions) can orient you to the role of the observer in doing a peer observation of teaching.

  • This Map of Teaching Effectiveness was designed by OTEI's director for a TIGERS Advance committee, in order to assist in answering the question, what is effective teaching?  This map can be used to design more equitable reviews of teaching.  It has been reviewed by the committee and multiple department chairs and has been updated in 2023.
  • Peer Review of Teaching for 2020-21, a guide for modified in-class, blended, and online variations. You may also access the powerpoint for a presentation on this guide.
  • A Guide to Peer Observation: Observing Teaching in Higher Education (OTEI). This guide provides an overview of teaching observations in higher education today, a suggested approach and schedule, and sample documentation. Much of this advice was also incorporated into the peer observation process adopted by CBSHS.

Sample protocols / checklists:

External Resources

From the TILT: Transparency in Learning and Teaching Project, Palmer et al have created several resources.

  • A Guide to Assessing the Focus of Syllabi.This article provides an overview and instructions for using a “valid and reliable syllabus rubric” from the University of Virginia. Faculty can also visit the OTEI website for a current version of the CU Syllabus Template (“the Student-Centered Undergraduate Syllabus Template” and others) at the Clemson Teaching page.
  • TEval: a national NSF funded project, Transforming Higher Education--a multidimensional evaluation of teaching.  https://teval.net/