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Peer observation of teaching (POT) is presented as a valuable mechanism allowing for the dissemination of ‘best practice’ for a variety of purposes, including staff development, monitoring of quality, and staff promotion decisions, although there are also some reservations around the process (Hammersley-Fletcher and Orsmond, 2005, Yiend at al., 2012, Gosling and O’Connor, 2009). With the rapid rise of distance, online and blended learning courses focusing on the international student market, it is argued here that it is essential that effective POT in online environment is regarded as central to reflective practice in order to improve the teaching and learning experiences of both staff and students (Harper and Nicolson, 2012). Moreover, there is also a need to move to a model of peer review of teaching that is more flexible and more inclusive of the whole range of activities involved in the design, delivery and assessment of teaching. In practice, however, the development of POT to accommodate the online environment appears to be inconsistent. For example, the QAA have never required POT to be used in the context of e-learning (Swinglehurst et al., 2008), although it acknowledges that many subjects provided by UK universities are now delivered in blended mode or online environments. It can be argued that, with increasing competition in HE on a global basis and rising use of e-learning environments in the sector, the professional development of academic staff involved in distance, online and blended learning will contribute to providing universities with a competitive advantage over their peers. There has been little research into the experiences of teachers as they shift from face-to-face to online teaching, with research focused more on the technologies, methods and tools used in the online environment than on the delivery of teaching (Kraglund-Gauthier et al. 2010). This paper focuses on three dimensions of the higher education environment: institutions, policies, and staff. It explores the intersection between two important and developing areas within the UK higher education sector, POT and the online delivery of teaching and learning. It argues that the intersection of peer observation of teaching and the online environment is not only an area that is under-researched, but also one that is under-implemented in UK higher education, compared to the use of POT for face-to-face teaching. This paper presents an insight into the current implementation of POT in e-learning environments using document analysis on a sample of UK universities to present a cross section of current institutional practice. The findings indicate that POT has not yet become a standard evaluative and/or developmental process in e-learning environments, although some universities do implement it within their CPD or teacher training programmes.

Peer Observation of Teaching in E-learning environments in UK Universities