Observation Live can be used for Graded or Non Graded Observations or anything in between.

The following is a case study about how the Chichester College Group are using Observation Live for their formal Non Graded observations.

In this guide we will show the Observation Form and also the Reporting Dashboard. This highlights how you do not need to grade any component of the observation for powerful reporting to come out.

Let’s look at what information observers fill out in the form...

Provision type e.g. 16-19, Adult, Apprenticeships, HE etc

This allows for comparing different provision type within the dashboards.

Observation Notes - An overview of the observer's notes

Reflect on developmental targets set in previous observation

This shows the observer any developmental targets which came from the previous observation for the teacher.

These targets can be reviewed by the observer and a comment added and the completion status changed. Was the target completed successfully, unsuccessfully or is it still ongoing.

These targets can be viewed by the teacher and the teacher can add comments which the observer can view within the thread.

What Progress have individual students made during the lesson? Is there evidence of learning from previous lessons?

Initiate Intensive Support Process - used when there are major problems with the lesson. The reporting can show staff who are undergoing intensive support.

3 dropdowns for Areas for Celebration

The observer can select up to 3 areas for celebration from a 'toolkit' list which the college sets up.

The reporting allows the college to see in a pie chart where the breakdown of these areas for celebration.

Comment of joint working of LSA and Lecturer

Once this is down the observer can then set developmental targets which have come out of the observation.

A target is made up of a title, a description, a type and a due date. The type follows the same toolkit as the areas for celebration.

The completion of these targets is what makes up the bulk of the reporting

Each college can have a bespoke dashboard depending upon their observation process.

The following shows the dashboard used by the Chichester College Group...

The dashboard can be viewed at the entire organisation level or filtered in a myriad of different ways...

Organisation Structure - Up to 4 levels of organisation structure can be imported into the system or set up manually. The Chichester College Group use Campus and Curriculum Area. Each area can have a manager, courses and staff. This way the system knows where the observation sits and so each campus, curriculum area or manager can be looked at separately.

Qualification Aims - The qualification aim data can be imported into the system so the dashboard can be filtered by SSA, NVQ Level, Qualification Type etc

Filter for a specific Teacher or Observer.

Filter for a specific Observation Type or Provision Type or between two dates useful if you wish to see a trend.

We designed the dashboard for the college as part of the installation process. How the dashboard looks is up to the college!

One of the key elements to the report is looking at the Developmental Targets...

Look at the split of development target types...

Look at the overall completion of targets...

Look at the completion of targets by type...

Another key element of the dashboard is to look at the split of Areas to Celebrate.

The Chichester College Group were also interested in looking at each member of staff and quickly seeing whether they have:

• Their first developmental observation
• Their second developmental observation
• Their first drop in observation
• Their second drop in observation
• Whether they require intensive support
• The % of Development Targets complete.

This was a huge time saver for them!

The Chichester College Group were also interested on comparing Curriculum Areas

• The % of Development Targets complete.
• The percentage of staff with different types of observations i.e. developmental or drop ins etc.

The Chichester College Group found the following benefits of using Observation Live

• Highly configurable for their non graded observation process.
• Easy for observers to fill in the observation form and track targets.
• Simple for teachers to view their observations and targets.
• Reporting was a huge time saver. No longer did the college have to keep track with out of date spreadsheets. All the data was at their fingertips.
• This meant that more time could be spent improving the quality of teaching.

More information about Observation Live can be found here...