IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction
During the 2012-13 academic year, GC is piloting the Student Ratings of Instruction system for course evaluations from The IDEA Center, a non-profit group based at Kansas State University. The resources below provide an introduction to IDEA and links to follow for further information.
IDEA Highlights
- Underlying Premise – Student feedback on instruction can provide info to a teacher that allows him/her to improve the quality of his/her instruction.
- Good instruction should be recognized by its effect on students. But, effect (learning) depends on subject matter and/or purpose, the level, and the intentions of the instructor.
- Thus, the basic premise of IDEA is that the effectiveness of teaching should be assessed by determining the amount of progress students make on objectives stressed by the instructor.
The Basic IDEA Model
- Ask teachers what they are stressing in their instruction, and ask about the details of their instructional context.
- Ask students how much they have progressed on the objectives the instructor stressed. Also ask questions of students that allow control for motivation and other sources of variation in student progress that are not under the instructor’s influence.
- Ask students about teaching methods in the course in order to identify pedagogical strategies that are associated with effectiveness (student progress on the instructor’s objectives). Results on the extent to which effective pedagogies are or are not used in the class provide insights into possible avenues for strengthening instruction.
GC is piloting the online version of its Student Ratings of Instruction. The online form allows the addition of up to 20 custom/local questions, which can be either multiple-choice or open-ended. Students are invited to complete the evaluation via email, with regular reminders going to those students who have not completed the evaluation.
Resources for Teaching Faculty
Sample faculty form(for gathering instructor’s intentions for the course)
- Webinar introducing IDEA for teaching faculty
- Resources for completing the Faculty Information Form
- (1) Basic Instructions for Faculty
- (2) Guidance for Selecting Learning Objectives
- (3) Disciplinary Selection of Objectives
- (4) List of disciplines with norm data available (for aiding faculty in selecting course disciplines)
- Resources for working with results
- Sample faculty results report
- Interpretive guide for faculty results report
- POD-IDEA notes on instruction – Succinct papers were written in collaboration with the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD). As a resource to support teaching improvement, each is useful to anyone wanting to address specific ways to employ different teaching methods – each of which is utilized in the Diagnostic Form of the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction.
For More on IDEA
- The IDEA Center’s Student Ratings of Instruction home page
- Sample student forms (long form & short form)
