The IDEA Center: Student Ratings of Instruction

Our flagship service, the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction system, factors out extraneous circumstances, focuses on student learning of 12 specific objectives, and can be administered online or on paper. Research has shown there is no single, correct way to teach. As a result, The IDEA Center tailors each report to fit the instructor's selected learning objectives and offers recommendations for improvement based on our vast national database. In essence, IDEA builds in objectivity — while accommodating the creativity and artistry necessary to facilitate student learning.

What does it do?
Any assessment is only as good as the feedback it provides. The Student Ratings of Instruction system distinguishes itself by soliciting students' feedback on their own learning progress, effort, and motivation, as well as their perceptions of the instructor's use of 20 instructional strategies and teaching methods. In addition, the system surveys instructors regarding their overall goals and highlights for them in the analysis and report.


A focus on learning
The IDEA Student Ratings system looks at instruction in terms of its endgame. Rather than emphasizing teaching style or personality, the IDEA system focuses on student learning and the methods used to facilitate it.


A wealth of normative data
The Student Ratings of Instruction system is unique in its emphasis on using data-driven results constructively. In addition to measuring instructional effectiveness, the system draws upon a wealth of research from The IDEA Center’s growing national database. This crucial comparative data provides a firm basis for identifying strengths and diagnosing areas in need of improvement, while factoring out variables beyond the instructor’s control, such as student work habits, student motivation, and class size.


Useful and constructive reporting
Reader-friendly faculty reports not only summarize teaching success, but also provide insight on how to improve. These reports gain even more currency when combined across classes or years using the Group Summary Report. No other evaluation service offers such comprehensive, longitudinal reporting.


Learn More
•Read more about the Benefits of Student Ratings of Instruction
•Pilot Program
•IDEA Online
•Fee Schedule
•Sample Forms
•Sample Reports
•Student Ratings Knowledge Base
•Student Ratings Support


The IDEA Center: Student Ratings of Instruction

The IDEA Center Guide to Administering IDEA Feedback for Department Chairs System & IDEA Chair Coaching Service

Guide to Administering IDEA Feedback for Department Chairs System & IDEA Chair Coaching Service

The IDEA Center Guide to Administering IDEA Feedback for Department Chairs System & IDEA Chair Coaching Service

IDEA Center: Feedback for Department Chairs

This one-of-a-kind system is the only nationally available tool for evaluating chairpersons and providing a basis for their further development. The IDEA Feedback for Department Chairs system recognizes that different management styles and strategies come into play when addressing different responsibilities. The system measures effectiveness by soliciting faculty input on how well the chairperson has used different administrative methods to meet identified goals for the department. Combined with the Chair’s self-assessment, the resulting gap analysis can further guide the chair’s personal reflection. Chair and faculty responses are collected online and analyzed by The IDEA Center. The resulting report provides direction on specific areas of strength and strategies for improvement. Custom questions are available to further assess unique departmental and personal goals.



While the instrument’s feedback is useful at any time, ideally its first administration would occur early in ones’ appointment (at the conclusion of the third or beginning of the fourth semester) to provide formative feedback. Then, it can be used in later terms to address both formative and summary evaluation questions (see Best Practices for IDEA Feedback for Department Chairs). The system combines ratings by both faculty members and the chairperson to yield reliable and relevant information. It is unique in higher education today and provides specific feedback to guide professional reflection. Both the Chair Information Form and the Faculty Survey are administered through the Internet by The IDEA Center for convenience, speed, efficiency, and respondent confidentiality.


Once the IDEA Feedback for Department Chairs instrument has been completed, The IDEA Center provides several coaching options to extend and enhance self-reflection and leadership development, through consultation with respected and experienced higher education administrators. The IDEA Department Chair Coaching Service guides chairs through an individualized process of professional discovery and reflection, with flexibility in pricing and structure.


Features of the Survey System

•Allows the chairperson to identify the relevance of 21 responsibilities in his or her role as chair, identifying 3 to 6 as highest priority
•Provides faculty ratings of administrative responsibilities, personal characteristics, and administrative methods
•Includes opportunity for chair to provide self-ratings on performance, personal characteristics, and administrative methods
•Results in a gap analysis allowing chairs to reflect on comparisons of their self-ratings to that of their faculty
•Assesses strengths and weaknesses associated with success for each duty
•Highlights specific recommendations for areas of improvement
•Includes detailed statistical information about how faculty responded to each question, permitting an in-depth analysis of specific concerns
•Summarizes faculty ratings of overall effectiveness
•Provides a report of responses to open-ended comments
•Includes the option to add up to 20 custom questions

IDEA Center: Feedback for Department Chairs

Blue Skunk Blog: Why I'm kind of excited about Google+ and schools

While my expertise is now nearly as lacking for Google+ as it's been for Facebook, I can't help but see how this tool, when available as a part of Google Apps for Education, may be a game-changer in how students and staff communicate for educational purposes.



Here's why:


1. Google+ allows one to have a separate "professional-only" venue for online networking. Facebook suffers from having started as a "social" networking site - "social" having a recreational, personal, even, frivilous connotation. But with Google+ as a part of GoogleApps for Education, the teacher's Google+ account can be a school-only or professional-use-only tool. To keep kids and parents out of one's degenerate personal Facebook information (since one is not supposed to have multiple Facebook accounts), teachers have had to resort to Fanpages and other limited means of utilizing Facebook. Guidelines were needed. Google+ for work and Facebook (or a personal Google+ site for personal use) keeps things simple.


2. Circles in Google+ are easy to make, edit and delete. Hey, teachers are all about circles - reading circles, sharing circles, literature circles. Google+ circles seem easier than e-mail lists for communicatng with groups ranging from "all third graders" to "my seventh hour biology class" to "the team working on The Crucible presentation" to "the members of my PLC."


3. There is a possibiliy of a "walled garden" use of Google+ for younger students. I am hoping that, like with GoogleApps, the default setting for sharing will be "within the domain only." While e-mail, Docs and webpages should be shareable with those outside school, especially for secondary students, I still like the comfort of knowing that we might be able to restrict Google+ for elementary students to only those users within our own district.


4. There is already a familiarity with Gmail, GoogleApps, and other Google interfaces. When I ask students about whether we should offer students a school-supplied social networking tool like Edmodo or Saywire or a Ning, I invariably get: "No, let's just use Facebook since we already use it." Google+ might be an acceptable compromise. Students and staff are already using GoogleApps and have a regularly used account. Established school Google accounts mean not having to create yet one more user name and password. GoogleApps are easily accessed from the iGoogle portal (or just from Gmail). Google+ will be seen as an enhancement to our current tool set, not "just one more thing to learn."


I've always wanted our school to provide an educational networking tool that took advantage of Facebook's ease of use and popularity, but somehow remained dedicated to learning.


Google+ might be just what I've been looking for.


See also: What does Google+ mean for schools? Eric Curtis on Apps User Group, June 28, 2011

Blue Skunk Blog: Why I'm kind of excited about Google+ and schools

Full-Time Enrollments in Higher Education: Women Outnumber Men in 47 of the 50 States

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, in 2008 women made up 55.4 percent of all full-time enrollments in degree granting institutions nationwide. But in the various states, the range of women as a percentage of total enrollments ranged from a low of 49.4 percent in Utah to a high of 63.1 percent in Arizona.

There were only two states other than Utah where more men were enrolled in higher education than women. In North Dakota, women made up 49.8 percent of the total enrollments. In Vermont, there were 16,160 women enrolled compared to 16,186 men.


In addition to Arizona, the only other state where women made up 60 percent or more of the total enrollments was Mississippi. In the District of Columbia and Kentucky, women were 58 percent of the total enrollments.
MORE

Full-Time Enrollments in Higher Education: Women Outnumber Men in 47 of the 50 States

TLT Group Resources Collection: Brief Hybrid Workshops

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Vyl6dNRr53oJ:www.tltgroup.org/resources/farticles.html+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=encrypted.google.com

A “Brief Hybrid Workshop” (BHW) is an activity of less than 15 minutes (preferably closer to 5!) for participants that includes the use of one or more Internet-accessible media clips AND some other files, instructions, activities, documents, plans, guidelines, etc. It is intended to help a group of people produce or learn how to do something useful to them. Participants usually interact with each other and with a leader/presenter/facilitator during the activity. (When run without interruption, all the pre-recorded media elements – the eClips – require less than 5 minutes total. Of course, some groups may find the materials so fascinating that they extend the entire sessions well beyond 15 minutes!)

A “Brief Hybrid Teaching/Learning Module” (BHTLM) is the same as a “brief hybrid workshop” EXCEPT for purpose and audience. These modules are intended to help students to learn something in a course (usually undergraduate).

http://tltgroup.wordpress.com/brief-hybrid-workshops/bhw-design-steps/

TLT Group Resources Collection: Brief Hybrid Workshops

MindMeister Collaborative Online Mind Mapping

MindMeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. In brainstorming mode, fellow MindMeisters from around the world (or just in different rooms) can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other's changes as they happen.

MindMeister Collaborative Online Mind Mapping

Brainstorm online with bubbl.us!

Easily create colorful mindmaps to print or share with others. Almost no learning curve.

Brainstorm online with bubbl.us!

Visuwords™ Online Graphical Dictionary & Thesaurus

Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.



Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.


•It's a dictionary! It's a thesaurus!
•Great for writers, journalists, students, teachers, and artists.
•The online dictionary is available wherever there’s an internet connection.
•No membership required.


Visuwords™ uses Princeton University’s WordNet, an opensource database built by University students and language researchers. Combined with a visualization tool and user interface built from a combination of modern web technologies, Visuwords™ is available as a free resource to all patrons of the web.


The Visuwords™ Interface
To use the applet you only need to type a word into the search query at the top of the page and press 'Enter'. A network of nodes or 'synsets' will spring out from the word that you entered. A synset is essentially a single concept that is represented by a number of terms or synonyms. Synonyms are words with different spellings that convey the same idea. For example when you lookup "seem", you see that the word is connected to four synsets each represented by a green circle. Green denotes verbs so all of these synsets represent verbs. Two of these synsets have the lone word "seem"; one has two terms: "appear" and "seem"; and the third has three terms: "look", "appear" and "seem". Each of the four synsets has its own definition. Hovering over a node with the mouse will reveal all of the synonyms for a given synset as well as its definition. Some synsets will also show a few examples of usage. These synsets link to each other and to other synsets according to entries in the WordNet database.


You can zoom the model in and out by rolling the wheel on your mouse. You can click the gray background within the applet and drag the mouse in order to shift the whole model around so you can explore. You can grab any node and pull it away from the others to clarify connections.


Understanding the links between Synsets
•"is a kind of" — hyponym/hypernym pair


With regards to "wheat" and "grain", we see a cyan link from "wheat" pointing towards "grain" we can understand this to mean that wheat "is a kind of" grain. Here, "wheat" is a hyponym and "grain" is a hypernym.


In the case of verbs this same cyan link can be understood better by "is one way to". So, for example, to trot "is one way to" walk.


•"is an instance of" — hyponym/hypernym pair


In these relationships, the hyponym is specific and unique. For example, "Einstein" is an instance of a "physicist".


•"is a member of", "is a part of", "is a substance of" — meronym/holonym pair


In these cases the meronym in some way belongs to the holonym. Examples: "robin" is a member of the "thrushes", a "wheel" is a part of a "wheeled vehicle", "caffeine" is a substance of "coffee".

Visuwords™ Online Graphical Dictionary & Thesaurus

WikipediaVision (beta). Anonymous edits to Wikipedia (almost) in real-time

© 2007- 2011 László Kozma.

WikipediaVision (beta). Anonymous edits to Wikipedia (almost) in real-time

Welcome to iRubric!

"The most comprehensive rubric design and assessment system."



iRubric is a comprehensive rubric development, assessment, and sharing tool. Designed from the ground up, iRubric supports a variety of applications in an easy-to-use package. Best of all, iRubric is free to individual faculty and students. iRubric School-Edition empowers schools with an easy-to-use system for monitoring student learning outcomes and aligning with standards.



Click. Click. Done. Scoring rubrics cannot be made any easier. Just pull up a rubric from the gradebook, click, click, and you're done. Rubric scores are automatically adjusted to the coursework grading scale and posted on the gradebook. All you have to do next is to press [save]. Students get a copy of the scored rubric securely... no more paperwork, no more calculations and no more confusion.


Finally, spend more time teaching and less time grading. Only with iRubric.

It's Free. Start Now! Here's How. http://www.rcampus.com/s_newmbreditc.cfm? 


Individual educators and students can use iRubric and a hundreds of other free RCampus features at no charge. All we ask is to tell others, especially your school, about our easy-to-use and powerful tools.

Welcome to iRubric!

Supporting 21st Century Learning Through Google Apps

Supporting 21st Century Learning Through Google Apps. By: Nevin, Roger. Teacher Librarian, Dec2009, Vol. 37 Issue 2, p35-38, 4p Abstract: The article presents the author's experience in developing and instituting pilot projects involving Google Apps as an e-learning tool supported by the Learning Commons at Adam Scott Collegiate and Vocational Institute (CVI) in Peterborough, Canada. The use of cloud computing and portability in educational technology are discussed which focuses on advantages and benefits in school settings. The use of Google Apps to improve assessment of student work, to offer increased opportunities for collaboration, and to provide a private way of uploading video content are examined. The article also discusses challenges faced in implementing Google Apps in educational settings. (AN 47500190)

Supporting 21st Century Learning Through Google Apps

University Business: Seven Breakthrough Distractions (Opinion)

Some call them “seven breakthrough solutions” to transform college education to new heights, while others deride them as the “seven deadly sins” certain to damn our higher education system to mediocrity. I’m more inclined to describe the whole debate as a dangerous distraction. Much of what we’re hearing about Texas’ higher education system is nothing more than some very passionate noise — a distraction from our core focus and the present battle we must wage and win.



I surely am not the only one that sees reforming higher education as not about being left or right; conservative or liberal; public or private; or, publish or perish.


If we are serious about higher ed reform, state lawmakers, our colleges and universities and the business community must work together and lead, not bury ourselves in lofty rhetorical arguments or burden our education system with misguided micromanagement. Together, we must drive the right kinds of reform that put more Texas students on the path to higher education, to earning a meaningful degree and ultimately to contributing to the future prosperity of our state as qualified members of the Texas workforce.


Texas repeatedly earns the top spot among cities and state rankings for business climate and job creation — yet if we do not immediately address the funding and structural reforms necessary to improve our graduation rates, reduce our dependence on developmental education and graduate more Texans with advanced degrees or certificates, we will surely falter.


The jobs of today – and even more so, the jobs of tomorrow – will not only prefer but require degrees from institutions of higher learning. That’s a fact. By 2018, the Business Roundtable estimates that 63 percent of new or replacement jobs in the United States will require at least some college education, while 45 percent will require at least a bachelor’s degree. Now look at Texas, and you can start to appreciate my concern. Today, just over 30 percent of Texans aged 25-34 hold an associate's degree or higher.


The volume of the debate over the value of research, teaching and tenure is rising to a crescendo. State lawmakers this spring pulled out their classic songbook to respond, forming a committee to defend our universities against these real or perceived threats to higher education.


In this brouhaha of academia versus the marketplace, we must do a better job representing the very people that matter most here: the taxpayers who fund public universities, the students who attend and, the job creators that rely on quality graduates who are workforce ready for the 21st century, knowledge-based, global economy that surrounds us.


Our focus as business leaders is singular, and we're resolute in our intensity and dedication to the cause: It’s all about completions. An increase of just 1 percent in graduation rates for associate's or bachelor’s degrees would produce a cumulative increase in national income of $291 billion by the year 2030, according to the Springboard Project.


Only about half of Texas students who enroll in a university today eventually graduate, and on average it takes 5.3 years to achieve a 4-year degree. Under those circumstances, we cannot expect to stay competitive in business and job creation.


That’s why, in the 82nd Legislative Session, the Texas Association of Business and its members led efforts to advance meaningful reform aimed at one goal: completion, increasing the number of students who enroll and complete college coursework and ultimately obtain adegree. Our “Prerequisite for Continued Prosperity” report and conference, in the fall of 2010, laid the groundwork for what would become the most substantial and, frankly, most meaningful reforms we saw in higher education this session.


Business led the charge on developmental education reforms. We were front and center calling for reforms to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Texas GRANTS program through the creation of a priority model for low-income student access to our colleges and universities (SB 28). We laid down the gauntlet, in our defense of HB 9, to tie part of institutional funding to student outcomes, rather than simply enrollments.


Yes, we can and must do more to address completion rates, and along the way we very much can and should ensure accountability for our tax dollars. That’s something on which I hope both sides of the “seven distractions” debate can agree.

Bill Hammond is President and CEO of the Texas Association of Business.

University Business: Seven Breakthrough Distractions (Opinion)

How to Become an Online Teacher

November 12, 2007

By Jennifer Williamson , Distance-Education.org Columnist

How to Become an Online Teacher

GOOGLE Apps for Education - Higher Education

"Northwestern University Our students approached us about a year ago, saying that we needed to improve our email and collaboration services. We actually had our student government tell us, we want you to implement Google Apps."
– Wendy Woodward, Director of Technology Support Services



"We believe that Google Apps was a way we could connect our faculty with our students... and make a bigger difference on campus and around the world."
– Michael Picket, CIO, Brown University


More efficient tools for more effective education



Secure – SAS 70 Type I and Type II certified. Your data is private and secure, with 99.9% uptime and best in class disaster recovery at no charge.


Open – Extensive APIs and support of open industry standards lets Google Apps easily integrate with existing IT systems.


Free – Google Apps is free (and advertising-free) for students, faculty, and staff at qualifying educational institutions.


Familiar – Gmail's 7GB of storage and integrated videoconferencing is what your students and staff already use (and love).


Collaborative – Get real-time collaboration across operating systems without attachments, expensive client software, or burdensome IT management.

GOOGLE Apps for Education - Higher Education

Breaking News: President Obama Says There's More Work to Be Done on Debt Reduction

Breaking News: President Obama Says There's More Work to Be Done on Debt Reduction