The IDEA Center

Form Type: Diagnostic and Short Form
Areas of Best Practice: Faculty Evaluation, Teaching Improvement, Accreditation, Logistics, Student Buy-In, and Faculty Buy-In and Training.

Faculty Evaluation

In fall 1999, we switched from home-grown evaluations to the IDEA system. IDEA was introduced as a pilot — "try these and see what you think." Faculty members were told that after two years, we would revisit the faculty evaluation issues. For continuity that first year (especially for those applying for promotions or tenure), most departments continued to use their own surveys. To decrease the paper/time burden on faculty and students, short forms were used. Since that time, all departments have stopped using their own forms for their lecture classes (a couple departments with their own accreditation needs use their own forms for their clinicals and labs). If faculty members complain that the short forms aren't very helpful, I ask if they have tried the diagnostic forms. Each semester more faculty try the diagnostic forms. The Institutional Research (IR) staff strongly suggests that teaching assistants, new faculty, those who plan to apply for promotion/tenure in the next year, and faculty who change teaching methodology use diagnostic forms.

Faculty applying for promotion/tenure typically copy their IDEA reports and include them in their folders. This fall several faculty members called to ask for the department, university, and national norms for the Excellence of Teacher and Excellence of Course items so they could include those in their promotion packets. Each semester, one or two faculty make one-on-one appointments with IR in order to get help interpreting the reports and to get ideas of how to raise their scores. (Most need help limiting the number of objectives they identify as “important” and “essential.”) Many faculty are interested in having the norms that a national system affords; they are especially interested in the possibility of norms by discipline.

In a recent deans meeting, we revisited our use of IDEA forms. Everyone seemed satisfied that the system fulfills most of our needs. Problem areas include very small classes, team-taught classes, and highly specialized classes such as on-site clinicals. The small classes issue is problematic for faculty who only teach many sections of 1-3 people as can happen in art, music, independent senior projects, and for thesis direction.

Teaching Improvement

1. In several departments, faculty members who teach sections of the same course (e.g., developmental courses, languages) get together to choose appropriate objectives. The same applies to faculty, who are from several departments, who teach the freshman studies class. This helps them ensure a solid and similar base for all their students.
2. Soon after we switched to the IDEA system, one department got all their faculty together so they could choose objectives to reflect what they thought was important to concentrate on level by level so objectives and course emphasis would build on each other. Word of satisfaction with these practices has spread department-by-department and program-by-program.
3. Some departments started having faculty list their IDEA objectives on their syllabi. Then, last year before our SACS reaffirmation visit, the Institutional Effectiveness coordinator asked all faculty members to include the objectives on syllabi as a matter of routine.

Accreditation

To show compliance with curriculum and instruction MUST statements (which involved using various means of assessment and appropriate levels of curriculum), we used the College and University Summary Reports for last spring's SACS visit.

Logistics

1. Throughout the semester, faculty members receive email newsletters (done on a listserv) from IR with important information about upcoming IDEA deadlines, changes, reminders, etc. I began doing this during the current semester and sent 5 emails at various times throughout the semester. Early this semester, an introductory e-mail informed faculty about this practice and that it was important that they open the e-mails (the e-mail subject line reads "We Have an IDEA for You: [insert specific topic]". In the message body, we use a special header in ASU colors (see example).
2. At the beginning of the semester, I contact department heads and offer to visit their first faculty meeting to refresh returning faculty and introduce new faculty to the IDEA system. During new faculty orientation, IR also started holding its own training sessions for any interested faculty. Early in the semester we get class enrollment counts from IT and then send them to department heads and their secretaries as spreadsheets sent via e-mail to have them check them for accuracy. In mid-semester we send FIF's with instructions to department secretaries, who distribute them to faculty. They collect them and return them to IR where we (The "we" in all of this is the IR secretary and our student worker) make packets as time allows. In mid-to-late November, we hand-deliver all the packets to the department secretaries for distribution to faculty. As faculty complete packets, secretaries or trusted student workers bring the packets back to us. We offer to do bulk pick-ups from any department who wants pick-up service. During finals week (when the greatest amount of pick-ups are occurring), we also take a holiday card with our slogan, "We count on your support" and a "little something" such as a candy cane to each department secretary. (FYI: Our slogan for students is "We count on your opinion".)
3. For shipping, the IR secretary organizes the packets of evaluations alphabetically by college, by department, and by professor as they come in (she uses 1-2 large paper boxes for each college with dividers labeled by department). When she packs to ship, it's easy to then divide out diagnostic forms from short forms. She keeps the empty packets in the same order so that when the reports come back, they can be re-stuffed into the already labeled packets. Also, the cardboard IDEA uses as dividers between files is recycled when forms are shipped back. We've used the same dividers MULTIPLE times back and forth to IDEA.

Student Buy-In: Responding Thoughtfully

We have tried articles in the school newspaper, visiting the student senate, having student senators visit school organizations, and encouraging faculty to encourage students to be thoughtful. The common student complaint is that there are too many surveys and "no one reads the comments anyway." Our response is, "Yes, we do!"

To try to show students that we are listening, this year we are making displays in the University Center. At the beginning of the school year, we used a flat "jewelers" display case with a Back from the Beach theme. I have a number of small stuffed flamingoes that people have given me over the years, and we dressed them in beach hats, sun glasses, and flip-flops and put signs in the case that read "Welcome Back to School from Institutional Research and Assessment." At Halloween, we used a large, vertical case and made a flamingo dress-up party. Dracula had a sign on his coffin that read (you guessed it) "We Count on Your Opinion." At Christmas we made a three-tiered, lighted snow village. The sign had a holiday wish and our slogan and one of the houses had a miniature yard flamingo. When we did the Christmas display, we thought of putting a guest book next to the snow village so people could give us feedback. We will continue this practice at each display, which will be at least two more times this year.

Faculty Buy-In and Training

We introduce faculty as early as possible. I also call new department heads and deans and go visit in person with them. I make sure to take examples of the forms and reports with me. Besides going to department meetings, conducting IR training sessions, and inviting one-on-one appointments, I visit the faculty senate, deans, and department heads at their meetings. We also notify faculty one-by-one by phone and/or email of potential problems with FIF's, numbers of forms for processing. When I talk to them, I ask them to pass along any valuable information to others, and I invite them to encourage other faculty to contact me with questions or problems. Interaction is on-going throughout the semester.

I think the most important element — and one we keep trying to improve upon — is feedback. We offer help, and then we have to make sure we provide it when and where people want it. It's easy to let random requests fall through the cracks (especially during busy times), but I think it's really important that we don't let these opportunities slip by us.