OTEI offers consultation services to individual instructors, post-docs, and graduate teaching assistants on a variety of topics and provides workshops upon request to academic units. Please fill out our request form:
Service Request FormIn consultations, we help faculty with resources and feedback, including observation of a class session (for consultation purposes), student feedback, assistance in review of course materials (such as activities or assessments), and similar support. We help instructors and TAs assess their teaching effectiveness and perform full evaluations of courses, to help instructors revise a course or develop a new one. OTEI will also link instructors with appropriate support units on campus, such as CCIT, Clemson Online, Library Support, and other units. Academic departments can also engage in consultation (see below) to help with curriculum. Development and faculty support. All individual consultations are as private as possible.
Through a "class interview,” faculty and graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) gain anonymized information from their students on course strengths, weaknesses, and pedagogy effectiveness during a semester. In a class interview, OTEI staff solicit useful recommendations for improvement that can be addressed or implemented immediately by the instructor. OTEI staff will have students fill out a brief, open-ended questionnaire, which they then discuss in small groups and, finally, clarify with the consultant. This takes at most 20 minutes of class time, and student anonymity is assured. OTEI staff later meet privately with the instructor to share and interpret the results. The survey essentially asks students three questions: What is helping their learning? What are the barriers to their learning? What can they do to improve their learning?
Some departments encourage instructors to observe each other's classes to provide formative feedback or evaluation. However, when faculty and GTAs want the feedback of an outside expert, an OTEI consultant will observe and take notes on an instructor's lecture style, discussion skills, questioning techniques, class rapport, use of technology, and other performance dimensions. A pre-and post-meeting helps the instructor gain the most from this experience.
Our staff can make recommendations on course elements, such as: syllabus and assignments, test construction, course design and organization of a course, and application of teaching methods appropriate to the course goals. We can also help you analyze students’ responses to your courses, including end-of-course feedback and student surveys.
OTEI fosters Clemson's dedication to teaching and provides resources for instructors to meet the University's rigorous standards for teaching effectiveness. OTEI supports Teaching as Research, also referred to as SoTL: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Instructors may approach course enhancements as a researcher, with the goal of sharing research results. When a grant or contract pertains to teaching or requires a teaching component, faculty and administrators may request consultations on curriculum, existing literature, certain research methodologies, and strategies for assessing the treatment/program.
Colleges, schools, programs, departments, and committees may request information, advisement, training, or facilitation. This can be on a wide range of teaching-related issues including writing program outcomes, curriculum mapping, curriculum revision, student learning assessments, peer evaluation of teaching, department meetings on new trends, innovations, and research in teaching and learning in higher education.
