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PORT is the institutional peer review scheme at St George’s, University of London. There are a number of interrelated aims for PORT.  Some relate to your own professional development as an educator and some to the wider improvement of teaching and learning at St George's.

The updated PORT Scheme is designed to be:

  • formative and developmental for individuals
  • reciprocal between Reviewers and Reviewees
  • inclusive of a full range of educational activities beyond classroom teaching
  • a mechanism for sharing effective or innovative educational practices across the university and beyond

This means PORT is open to all staff who have teaching and/or support of learning responsibilities at St George’s and is driven by your own professional development objectives.

You can download a Quick Guide to PORT to find out more about the scheme or contact sweller@sgul.ac.uk if you would like to discuss how PORT could work for you or your wider team together.

 

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Why should I participate in PORT?

As both a Reviewer and Reviewee you will discover something about teaching and learning every time you participate in PORT.

For individuals, you can use your experience of participating in PORT for:

  • applications for promotion and in personal review
  • meeting required academic standards by undertaking PORT at least every three years
  • applications for Advance HE Fellowship recognition via the St George’s accredited fellowship scheme SHINE
  • evaluating new teaching practices or innovations you have introduced
  • identifying possible areas for your own professional development and plan for your professional learning.

 

What can be reviewed?

We use the term Reviewer and Reviewee in the PORT Scheme because, unlike a standard teaching observation scheme, what can be reviewed is not restricted to observable classroom-based or online teaching but also the wider educational activities teachers engage in.

In deciding what to review, you could consider, for example:

  • Design and facilitation of online learning
  • The curation of pre-recorded or flipped learning materials
  • Learning resources such as handouts, workbooks, PowerPoints and self-directed activities
  • Teaching at the bedside or other work-based settings
  • One-to-one teaching or supervision
  • Course or module curricula or individual session design
  • The design and operation of assessment tasks
  • OSCE or OSPE assessment
  • Examples of written or oral feedback to students
  • Approaches to engaging students to evaluate your teaching through feedback

This is not an exhaustive list of educational activities that can be reviewed. The important thing is to consider what aspects of your educational practice would benefit from review, feedback and developmental discussion with a peer.

What does PORT involve?

If you have previously engaged in a teaching review process either through a scheme similar to PORT or through a postgraduate teaching course then the steps of each PORT cycle will look very similar. There are 5 steps in the process:

The updated PORT Scheme aims to reduce the requirement to complete paperwork to record PORT and instead focus time and effort on the process itself.

The steps of the process are also designed to increase the teacher-led approach of the scheme and agency of each participant in shaping the experience to get the most out of it for both Reviewer and Reviewee.

How do you record your participation in PORT?

 For individuals

The PORT scheme is designed to support your own learning and development as an educator and as a result the way you record PORT for your own benefit is flexible.

As part of the scheme we provide a generic PORT Review Form but you do not need to complete this documentation in full if it is not helpful for the Reviewee or Reviewer, for example if the time required to complete this paperwork deters individuals from participating in PORT. You may choose to capture feedback in other formats, for example in an audio or video file, if these help you to discuss and reflect on your teaching.

If you are planning to use PORT for a specific purpose, for example for a SHINE application, then you may want to have a more formal written record of a PORT discussion.

For the institution

We also want to keep an institutional record of participation in the PORT scheme as part of our commitment to teaching excellence at St George’s.

To do this we ask the Reviewer and Reviewee to confirm that a PORT has taken place using MyWorkplace. Both the Reviewer and Reviewee are asked to record the date and their role in the process as a Personal Learning Event. This enables us to report on participation in PORT as an institution.

There are also opportunities to feedback on the experience of PORT and share examples of effective or innovative practice with the Centre for Innovation and Development in Education.

What support is there for PORT?

Self-paced PORT Canvas Module

PORT is supported by the Centre for Innovation and Development of Education. To help colleagues, we have developed a Canvas Module that you can work through at your own pace. You can self-enrol on this module (this module will then appear on your Dashboard). Or you can always find it from the Global Navigation in Canvas > Support > Open Staff Resources.

Online Live PORT Briefings

If you would like to learn more about PORT and how to get the most of the scheme, you can book to attend an online live, 1-hour PORT Briefing and Q&A with the PORT Lead, hosted on MS Teams, which can then be booked through Eventbrite via the link below:

Getting Started with PORT

These events are currently scheduled on the following dates and are open to all:

  • Wednesday 20 October 2021, 1500-1600
  • Tuesday 23 November 2021, 1400-1500
  • Monday 17 January 2022, 1300-1400

If you would like to schedule a bespoke session with a course team or group of colleagues then please contact the PORT Lead to discuss.

 

Get in touch

If you would like to discuss PORT or you are a Course Director and interested in introducing PORT across a team then contact the PORT Lead Dr Saranne Weller.

 

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