Open Classroom Initiative
The Innovation in Learning Center is launching an Open Classroom Initiative! This program will provide opportunities for colleagues to experience different teaching practices, get inspired by new teaching ideas, and engage in dialogue about teaching, all through friendly classroom visits.
How It Works
Open Classroom Hosts will “open” their classrooms during a set period of time to allow faculty from across the institution to visit a class. Hosts benefit from getting to share their teaching excellence, meeting faculty from across the campus community, and learning about teaching practices that may translate into other disciplines. Hosts may also open their classrooms to seek teaching suggestions. For instance, you might be curious to find out if your students are paying attention. A visitor can help answer this question!
Open Classroom Visitors sign up to ‘visit’ a class, gaining insight into the unique ways of teaching in different disciplines, connecting with new colleagues, and possibly even feeling encouraged to try out a new teaching practice. You might have a teaching question, such as “ “How can I boost student engagement?” or “How can I help my students come to class ready to participate?” You may find inspiration and potential answers to your questions by visiting a class and then talking about the teaching practices that you are taking with you.
Common Questions
Is this an evaluation?
No! This is meant to be a friendly, supportive way of sharing your expertise and learning from a colleague's instructional practices. This should be a stress-free environment and a great way to highlight what has worked for you! We hope you walk away from visiting a colleague’s class thinking, “Wow, that's a clever way of [doing this practice]!” Or, “I noticed that my colleague's students were engaged in [this activity]. I wonder what it would look like in my class.” During our post-visit debrief, hosts may hear comments such as, “I was really impressed with how you [did this activity].” Or, “I noticed your students were motivated by [this activity].”
What about online classes?
Hosts are welcome to invite visitors to their online classes. We recommend allowing visitors to pop in during a 2 to 3 day period. The ILC will add the visitors to your class on the date you select and remove them 2 to 3 days later.
How do I know what I’m looking for when I visit the classes?
In lieu of a pre-observation meeting, as a visitor, you will receive details related to the class that you are visiting, such as instructor goals, what the instructor expects students to do (or have done prior to the class), as well as the target teaching practices (e.g., interactive lecture, discussion-based class). We will also share a list of evidence-based teaching behaviors that you might witness during the observation. This is meant to help you identify the effective practices that you might want to include your classes or practices that you already use!
What do I do after the observation?
After visiting the open classroom, you will be invited to meet with the instructor and other visitors to debrief your takeaways. We will also invite you to share brief written ‘shout outs’ to celebrate the teaching practices you observed.
Timeline
The Open Classroom Initiative will take place from February 2 to February 13, 2026.
Hosts will invite visitors during two or three “normal” classes. We want to avoid test days, review days, and any atypical class session that doesn’t incorporate your teaching excellence, such as a guest speaker.
Once we have the proposed dates from our hosts, we will invite visitors to sign up to visit a class. Attendance is limited to two visitors per class. After the class visits, we will invite both hosts and visitors to meet to discuss teaching takeaways.
Interested in hosting? Please fill out the Host Interest Form. (You can be both a host and a visitor!)
Interested in visiting? Please fill out the Visitor Sign Up Form.
Questions? Please email Lisa LaCross.