SOTL [Scholarship of Teaching and Learning] is an important source – but not the only source – for the necessary knowledge, practices and resources. We need to consider craft knowledge and professional knowledge as well as research-based knowledge, and how to integrate pedagogical content knowledge with open educational resources. We will also need research on the processes and tools for these teaching communities to promote, support, share and mobilize their knowledge and resources. (Bernstein et al. 2010, p1)
The literature on peer observation and peer review in face-to-face contexts provides a solid basis for the practise of peer review, with many resources to help teachers engage with their peers to improve teaching. Recent ALTC projects have provided an Australian body of work on peer review including a picture of Australian university practice and resources as well as protocols and processes for peer review relating to promotion. Although there is a lack of agreement on the overall purpose of reviews in the literature, peer review can inform and provide evidence on our teaching to others, and can ultimately be used for both formative and summative purposes.
In the online and blended learning environments that are the focus of this project, literature is still relatively scarce, but studies that tease out subtle differences, opportunities and challenges are starting to appear. ALTC projects developing online peer review tools and a repository of role play learning designs with an associated peer review process are important sources of ideas about online peer review. These national collaborative projects, alongside the projects in principally face-to-face settings, have provided useful case studies, websites and resources.
Valued factors that have emerged in online and blended learning environments are trust, collegiality and conversation among review colleagues, who often work in isolated environments, both physically and conceptually. Through successful peer review, teachers are able to define and plan a way forward. This can be supported through the use of structure, materials and processes to guide exploration and provide a template for future action. The provision of a thoughtfully developed framework for the review process is important in order to support a broader perspective that goes beyond mere observation of teaching performance. Continuing conversations about the scholarship of teaching and learning can ultimately lead to course improvement and quality (Cobb et al. 2001).
Finally, although there has been little focus on the process and learning outcome phases of blended and online student learning in the literature to date, the empowering potential of peer review is reflected in Swinglehurst, Russell and Greenhalgh’s (2008) suggestion that universities need to ensure “sanctioned and protected time” (p391) for academics in all disciplines, to reflect on what counts as good teaching and learning in online and blended learning contexts.