The IDEA Center

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

Faculty Evaluation, Teaching Improvement, and Faculty Buy-In

The faculty evaluation system at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, has evolved over a number of years, including a major revision of criteria for tenure and promotion toward a portfolio approach in 1998. Faculty evaluation is, at some level, always ongoing. IDEA course evaluations play a significant role in this process, and have for more than fifteen years.

New faculty members coming to the college are evaluated in every course throughout the period before applying for tenure. In the first semester at Bethel, the Dean of Faculty Growth and Assessment meets with new faculty to discuss the process of course evaluation, including the use of the IDEA forms. This form is standard for most courses in the college, with the exception of activity courses in physical education, clinical experiences in nursing, and private instruction.

New faculty are encouraged to use the “diagnostic form” for at least one class, in order to gain a sense of student perceptions about teacher behaviors. They are also encouraged to use an additional supplemental sheet with several open-ended questions in order to gain more student feedback. They are given specific, written directions on how and when to administer the evaluations. After evaluations are processed and comments typed, the Dean meets with all new faculty members individually to discuss the results of the evaluations and to help them process student comments. This becomes an opportunity for early intervention, if needed, and for commendation if merited. Since the Dean also informally observes each new faculty member teach once a semester for their first two years, the relationship is generally cordial and non-threatening.

Bethel’s new faculty are reviewed annually until tenure by the Faculty Appointment Committee, a group of peers familiar with the standards the college expects for tenure and promotion. The committee reviews the full set of evaluations for the year, as well as a department chair’s evaluation of the instructor and the instructor’s self-assessment. They then recommend either the instructor’s reappointment or nonrenewal to the Provost. The committee also provides formative observations and commendation to the instructor, with a copy given to the department chair. The IDEA system gives the committee significant information on areas of strength or concern across course levels and types of instruction. When the committee considers aggregated information on teaching quality at the whole institution (using an institutional report), it can help individual instructors understand their relative performance.

A hallmark of the evaluation of teaching for many years at Bethel has been the inclusion of diverse voices in the process. Faculty members seeking promotion or applying for tenure are observed by three peer instructors and the department chair, and ask six alumni for evaluation of their teaching based on their experience in class. All this information is collected by the Office of Academic Affairs for the Promotion and Tenure Committee, together with the course evaluation file. The instructor also provides sample syllabi and other teaching materials in a portfolio for review.

While some faculty will always be either threatened by evaluation or dismissive of the process as too “consumer-oriented,” most faculty members find useful information in the IDEA form. When balanced by alumni and peer observations for tenure and promotion reviews, a “fuller” picture of the quality of teaching emerges.

While evaluation isn’t always pleasant, we attempt to make the process as user-friendly and responsive as we can. Our process at Bethel College in St. Paul begins with distributing information to faculty about the long and short forms. We invite faculty members to choose which type of form they want to use, and for which classes. All faculty previous to tenure evaluate all classes, while tenured faculty evaluate one course per semester. Faculty preparing for post-tenure review (every five years) also evaluate all classes for a year.

We have also tried to find ways to make the process rewarding and useful. At the same time as the forms are being sent to the instructors, the Dean also reviews all individual IDEA reports, focusing on new faculty for intervention. Within a few days, the Dean has an administrative assistant prepare a memorandum of commendation for faculty whose courses show student learning at the 90th percentile or higher. A copy goes to the instructor and to the instructor’s file. Within a week of the forms being sent to instructors, the Dean also provides an interpretation of the institutional report, focusing on institutional norms for learning objectives, types of instruction emphasized, and observations on the aggregated student reports, which may show some concerns.

Logistics

We have found some tricks to systematize and speed processing.
• The IDEA system is administered from the Academic Affairs Office. Information on faculty status is maintained in a database shared by two administrative assistants. As a result, faculty can be advised if they need to evaluate all courses in a given year. Faculty return information on preferences for short and diagnostic forms, which is then linked to information from our institutional database. This provides the number of forms needed based on official student enrollment in the class.
• This information is then used to generate a label with the instructor’s name, the course title and appropriate code, and the number of forms and of which type.
• The administrative assistant assembles the packages of student and faculty forms and directions, all of which are placed in bright red multiple-use envelopes. (This keeps them from getting lost on faculty desks!)
• A student assistant counts out and bags an appropriate number of half-length pencils in reusable “zip-loc” bags (one bag per teacher using the highest class attendance of his/her courses).
• Distribution is through faculty post office boxes about four weeks before the end of the semester, with packages available earlier for those who wish to use them.
• Several years ago, our carpenter shop constructed a wheeled cabinet with two “slots” on the front and two large storage areas into which these empty. One side is for completed evaluations, the other for bags of pencils. This sits outside the Academic Affairs Office during the evaluation period, and is wheeled in at the close of office hours. Students are directed by their instructors to return the completed packets and pencils to the appropriate location.
• As soon as completed forms begin to come in, the administrative assistant who supervises this process notes their return, keeping track of all evaluations still outstanding. She also checks the completion of the Faculty Information Form and reviews the completed headers on all student forms.
• The administrative assistant also begins typing any student comments written on the IDEA forms. Since many faculty now use additional sheets which we provide for comments, we can type these separate comments after completing those on the forms themselves. This enables us to get the forms ready for processing sooner. We prefer to type student comments to maintain the anonymity of the students. So far we have been successful and the volume of comments has increased dramatically. Faculty have commented that they find this information particularly interesting and useful.
• By the time forms have been returned from The IDEA Center with the reports, the typing of comments on the separate sheets has been completed, often times with the help of additional typists. Reports and comments are assembled and sent to the instructor, with a separate bound volume (usually two volumes!) of reports for review by the Dean. One copy is retained for the faculty member’s file, as well. The entire run of student comments is also bound, and like the bound volume of IDEA reports, is organized alphabetically by instructor.