Currently all seven academic units in CAST used IDEA (Individual Development and Educational Assessment) as the platform for student ratings of instruction. IDEA is meant to serve as not more than 50% of the overall assessment of a faculty member in the area of teaching. The remaining variables for the assessment of teaching very from unit to unit but often include peer evaluation, self-reflection of teaching, mentoring of students, updates to course materials, participation in professional development, and so on.
IDEA is short for Individual Development and Educational Assessment. This SRI platform is unique as it includes a focus on student learning. Individual faculty scores are also adjusted for extraneous influences beyond the control of the faculty member including the students’ desire to take the course, the course enrollment, student work habits, and course difficulty. Raw data are reported along with the adjusted scores so an informed decision can be made regarding which score to consider.