Why Idea?

The IDEA system features several attributes that make it an ideal tool for both evaluating teaching effectiveness and providing guidance to instructors for improving student success:

IDEA relies heavily on students’ ratings of progress on learning objectives chosen by the instructor and the effectiveness of the instructor’s teaching approaches and learning tools to accomplish those objectives.
IDEA adjusts scores on items to take into account extraneous factors that are known to bias ratings; these extraneous factors include class size, student motivation to enroll in a course, students’ work habits, disciplinary difficulty, and student effort. Adjusting for these factors permits more direct measurement and comparison of teaching effectiveness while also diminishing the most common objections that faculty raise about student evaluation of teaching.
The supporting IDEA website (www.idea.ksu.edu) provides extensive documentation of all aspects of the evaluation system and, most importantly, provides guidance to instructors for adopting strategies to improve teaching effectiveness. These latter resources, in the form of short downloadable essays regarding each of the 12 teaching objectives and the 20 core-diagnostic-questionnaire items, can be used by OSET to provide formative teaching-support services to faculty.

How Do I Get Started?

The table below compares how Faculty, Dept. Admins, Dept. Chairs, and ITS interact with one another to implement IDEA versus ICES:

ICES	IDEA
Comparison ICES / IDEA Procedure*
1. Dept. Admin orders Red Forms from ITS	1. Dept. Admin orders Blue Forms (Faculty Information Forms—FIFs) from ITS
2. ITS mails Red Forms to Dept. Admin	2. ITS mails Blue Forms to Dept. Admin
3. Dept. Admin gives Red Forms to Faculty to complete	3a. Dept. Admin gives Blue Forms to Faculty to complete (one for each class they are teaching) 3b. Faculty visit the UNM IDEA Order Forms web page to select either the Long or the Short Survey Form & to indicate the # of forms needed. Note: This step is unnecessary if you are using the modified blue forms that have the option for short vs. long.
4. Faculty return completed Red Forms to Dept. Admin	4. Faculty return completed Blue Forms to Dept. Admin. Note: Please do not write on the top edge of the blue form as this interferes with scanning.
5. Dept. Admin sends completed Red Forms to ITS	5. Dept. Admin sends completed Blue Forms to ITS
6. ITS mails envelope with Green Forms to Faculty	6. ITS mails envelope with either Maroon-Long-Forms or Red-Short-Forms to Faculty
7. [Students complete surveys-varies w/ dept.]	7. [Students complete surveys-varies w/ dept.]
8. [Dept. sends folder w/ completed surveys to ITS]	8. [Dept. sends folder w/ completed surveys to ITS]
9. ITS mails folder w/ report + completed surveys to Faculty + summary to Dept. Chair	9. ITS mails folder w/ report + completed surveys to Faculty + summary to Dept. Chair

* Please follows these steps in the order specified to ensure timely delivery and processing of your IDEA forms.

What About Evaluations for Online Courses?

This switch from ICES to IDEA is only for instructors who do paper-based student evaluations. Evaluations for fully online courses will continue as before (contact: New Media & Extended Learning, newmedia@unm.edu).

Deadlines for Returning Surveys

The deadline for returning completed student surveys to ITS is the same as ICES—1 week after the session ends or earlier if possible. Surveys turned in after the deadline may not be processed until the following semester.

Fall 2008 IDEA Faculty Brownbags

Thursday	September 4, 2008	12:30-1:30 pm	SUB Fiesta A&B
Tuesday	September 16, 2008	12:30-1:30 pm	SUB Lobo A
Friday	September 19, 2008	12:00-1:00 pm	SUB Fiesta A&B
Friday	September 26, 2008	12:00-1:00 pm	SUB Lobo A
Tuesday	September 30, 2008	12:30-1:30 pm	108 Mitchell Hall
Friday	October 3, 2008	12:00-1:00 pm	108 Mitchell Hall
Thursday	October 9, 2008	12:30-1:30 pm	108 Mitchell Hall
Friday	October 31, 2008	12:00-1:00 pm	108 Mitchell Hall

Fall 2008 IDEA Admin. Brownbags

Thursday	September 4, 2008	11:30-12:30 pm	SUB Fiesta A&B
Tuesday	September 16, 2008	11:30-12:30 pm	SUB Lobo A
Friday	September 19, 2008	11:00-12:00 pm	SUB Fiesta A&B
Friday	September 26, 2008	11:00-12:00 pm	SUB Lobo A
Tuesday	September 30, 2008	11:30-12:30 pm	108 Mitchell Hall
Friday	October 3, 2008	11:00-12:00 pm	108 Mitchell Hall
Thursday	October 9, 2008	11:30-12:30 pm	108 Mitchell Hall
Friday	October 31, 2008	11:00-12:00 pm	108 Mitchell Hall

idea@unm.edu • 277-2229 • 250 Scholes Hall • www.unm.edu/~idea