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What if teaching could be documented and evaluated with the same rigour as research?
At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar, faculty members are being encouraged to do just that through a Teaching Portfolio โ a detailed record of what happens inside a classroom, how students respond, what difficulties they face and what teachers do to improve learning.
The institute describes the Teaching Portfolio as a measure designed to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the teaching-learning process. It documents key aspects of teaching activity much like a research paper documents research activity.
The idea goes beyond simply collecting student feedback at the end of a semester. Faculty members are required to submit a Teaching Portfolio for every course they teach at the end of each semester. The document is also used as evidence of teaching effectiveness during career advancement reviews. This model also caught the eye of faculty at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).
The portfolio captures several aspects of classroom teaching โ from course planning and teaching aids to collaborative activities, student questions, assessments, feedback and interventions for students who need additional support.
Faculty members are trained to prepare the portfolio through interactive sessions explaining its various components. The training is conducted over several days and runs for more than 20 hours.
One example in the portfolio is that of a professor from IIT Bhubaneswarโs School of Mechanical Sciences, who taught Mechanics to 112 students in the Spring 2024 semester.
His portfolio records the use of chalkboards, PowerPoint presentations and physical models, including screw jacks, C-clamps, trusses and beams with different support conditions.
The document also records Active Collaborative Learning sessions. In one such session, students were divided into groups of three and given a critical-thinking problem on stress and strain. Each group had to solve the problem in at least two different ways, explain the underlying concepts and give examples of practical problems where the methods could be applied.
The approach also extends beyond the classroom. During tutorials, teaching assistants were assigned groups of 12 to 15 students and acted as mentors. Students could also interact with them outside class through WhatsApp groups.
One of the more unusual sections asks faculty to record up to five significant questions asked by students โ particularly questions that made the teacher think or could not be answered immediately.
In the Mechanics portfolio, students asked questions such as: How can zero-force members in a truss be identified, and why are they required if the force in them is zero? Other questions dealt with force-couple systems, the failure of brittle materials, the point of contra-flexure in beams and sign conventions in Mohrโs Circle.
The portfolio also records critical-thinking questions used in assignments and examinations, along with marks, answering time and student performance.
The initiative also attempts to capture something that conventional marksheets may miss โ what happens when a student begins struggling.
The portfolio has a section for identifying students who need special attention because of low performance or other difficulties. In the Mechanics course, several students with low attendance and poor performance were identified. They received counselling, additional doubt-clearing sessions beyond class hours and support from teaching assistants. Some subsequently improved their performance and received a โPโ grade.
In another case, a student had low attendance while undergoing medical treatment. The faculty member contacted the student's faculty adviser and advised the student to take a break and register for the course in the following semester. The student later returned and attended classes consistently.
Another backlog student faced a timetable clash with another course. Although he could not attend the Mechanics classes regularly, the teaching assistants conducted additional sessions for him. He later appeared for the supplementary examination and scored a โPโ grade.
The portfolio also requires faculty to document feedback given to students. In the Mechanics course, mistakes in assignments and examinations were marked, correct solutions were explained in class, reasons for errors were discussed and students were given suggestions on how to avoid similar mistakes.
Student feedback scores in the example also improved during the semester. The score for the statement that the faculty member taught well rose from 0.76 at registration to 0.86 at the end of the course. The score for whether course contents were exciting rose from 0.77 to 0.82.
Students described the use of real-world applications, repeated doubt-clearing and the combination of slides and board work as positives. One student said the professor helped a student who was initially scared of Mechanics understand the subject.
The approach has also drawn attention outside IIT Bhubaneswar.
According to the institute's director, several IISc faculty members came across the Teaching Portfolios while serving on selection committees. The faculty members were impressed by the approach and subsequently invited the director to deliver the inaugural address at IISc's newly launched annual workshop on education.
โSeveral IISc faculty members discovered the portfolios of IIT Bhubaneswar faculty while serving on selection committees. Impressed by this approach, they invited me to give the inaugural address at IISc for their newly launched annual workshop on education.โ
The director said the presentation was part of IISc's new annual workshop focused on education, providing an opportunity to present the institute's approach to a wider academic audience.
The teaching portfolio is part of a larger philosophy at IIT Bhubaneswar, according to the director - Professor Shreepad Karmalkar.
โWe call our classrooms Learning Halls rather than Lecture Halls, since research has shown that pure lecture is not the best method of imparting learning. Students learn better through activity sessions which should form a part of every class. Further, Active Collaborative Learning sessions build communication and collaboration skills required for success in life, apart from good understanding.โ
The portfolio itself similarly emphasises moving beyond pure lectures by incorporating activities, collaborative learning, discussion and problem-solving into teaching.
In the Mechanics course, for example, a typical lecture was broken into shorter segments involving introduction, discussion, doubt-clearing, examples and applications rather than relying entirely on continuous lecturing.
The institute is now looking to build this philosophy further.
โWe are setting up a โCentre for Teaching-Learning and Communicationโ with the vision โTransforming teaching-learning and communication through research-based pedagogical practicesโ,โ the IIT Director adds.
IIT Bhubaneswar also has a video recording studio that can be used to document teaching sessions.
โIIT Bhubaneswar has a high quality video recording studio which can be used by faculty to record teaching sessions for uploading on internet and build world perception about the quality of teaching, or for feedback and self improvement,โ Professor Karmalkar says, adding that the Teaching Portfolio, therefore, is not simply another academic form.
Its stated objective is to create a record of teaching practices, student learning and continuous improvement โ and to make teaching effectiveness something that can be demonstrated through evidence rather than student ratings alone.
For an institution where research output is routinely documented and evaluated, IIT Bhubaneswar's experiment raises a broader question: Can the same evidence-based culture be brought into the classroom?
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