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Open Class Celebration

Open Class Connections: Faculty Visiting Faculty Program

Do you ever feel stuck in a teaching routine? Would you like to see how your colleagues engage students in their classes? Would you like to demonstrate how you teach?

The Open Class Connections: Faculty Visiting Faculty initiative provides faculty members with opportunities to connect with colleagues by opening their classes and visiting in-person or online synchronous classes for one's own reflection and learning.

The purpose is to promote collaboration, learn from colleagues, explore effective ways of teaching and engaging students, discuss challenges, and share experiences. Faculty and instructional staff are invited to participate in Open Class Connections as part of CETL's support for "making teaching and learning visible."

Please note that this program is not intended for gathering feedback about your teaching; please contact CETL to learn formative feedback programs such as the FACT and class observations.

See the Key Dates below to View the Schedule and Sign Up to open your class or visit a class.

Sign up to Visit a Class View the Schedule

Fall 2025 Open Class Visits

The purpose of the Open Class Connections program is to foster community among faculty members.

Potential benefits for participants (both visitors and hosts) include opportunities to:

  • Engage with other colleagues in a pedagogical community
  • Foster curiosity and prompt self-reflection
  • See your colleagues in action in various learning environments
  • Share how you incorporate effective and evidence-based teaching techniques and tools
  • Learn new approaches to teaching and engaging students
  • Experience what students feel as they are in class as learners

For faculty members opening their classes:

  • Sign-up to open your class. This will let us know that you invite faculty colleagues to visit your classroom or synchronous online class. The sign-up form requests brief information about the class topic, instructional strategy or class context, and visitor capacity. It is important to keep in mind safety and your students’ learning; please adhere to the physical capacity and balance the number of visitors with class enrollment.
  • A list of participants will be emailed to you 1 day in advance.

For faculty members visiting classes:

  • Sign up in advance to visit a class. Registration closes 1 day before the open class date.
  • Faculty members (full-time, part-time, adjunct) interested in collaboration, learning new ways of teaching, discussing challenges, and sharing experiences are invited. You are encouraged to visit classes outside of your department/program. The Open Class Connections visit is not for evaluating or critiquing the instructor.
  • Visit open classes during the designated dates. You will receive an email confirmation of the class time and location.
  • During your visit, please take care to minimize disruption to the learning environment. Engage in the discussion and activities only if invited by the host instructor. Learn something new from the lesson and take note of interesting teaching approaches.

For all faculty participants:

  • You are encouraged to discuss and reflect on the Open Class Connections experience with faculty who opened their classes and those who visited.

The Open Classroom Connections program is sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) at the University of Southern Indiana. It is based on programs at Vanderbilt University, Yale University, and Northern Illinois University.