An examination of co-teaching in an online environment

Abstract

Co-teaching, employed as a pedagogical tool, is a teaching method commonly used to improve students’ collaborative learning. It can be defined as two or more professionals delivering substantive instruction to a diverse group of students in a single physical space or as blended delivery. Team teaching is an approach to co-teaching, a Business Education method since the 1990s. This case study examines tutor experience and observations of co-teaching on a level 4 specialist transport and logistics module delivered online in 2020-2021. We are the teaching team for the module at the University of Greenwich and worked as two co-tutors. Using a mixed methods approach, we have compared, across a range of parameters, student outcomes for a) co-teaching and b) teaching by a single person. The quantitative measures included attendance, marks awarded and student satisfaction (EvaSys scores) and the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME)/white module gap; the qualitative measures consisted of tutor observations. Across the quantitative measures, the results are consistent with the suggestion that students may have benefited from being co-taught. Similarly, the qualitative measures indicate greater student engagement with co-teaching than with teaching by one person. We feel that the initial findings from our analysis demonstrate that there is potential for further exploration of the benefits that might be gained from a wider application of team teaching across the Business Faculty.