EASY Policies

An up-to date listing of new developments with the use of the EASY Survey system.

Review of current policy for completing the ACE surveys at the end of a semester.
(as extracted from Teaching Committee 2007 Final Report on 4/20/2007)

3. Review the current policy for completing the ACE surveys at the end of a semester.
Recommend changes to the end date (e.g., to last day of classes) if appropriate.

The committee met and discussed options for end of semester surveys. The schedule for surveys for Spring Semester (from Carrie Hogarty) is as follows:
Course Goals Assessment (CGA) Surveys: 5/6/07-5/12/07
ACE Faculty Surveys: 4/29/07-5/5/07
ACE TA Surveys: 4/29/07-5/5/07

This represents a change from earlier surveys in which the CGA was given first and the ACE given second. Based on this schedule the ACE Faculty Surveys would begin 8 days before finals and wrap up the day before finals begin. Some faculty believe such a schedule may induce more negative results from students, as it is a very hectic period with many class tests and assignments due. Additionally, based on student work load, fewer responses may be achieved at the busiest time of the semester. An idea discussed by the committee would be to slightly change timing of the CGA and ACE Faculty Surveys. Most students will have formed their opinions regarding the class instruction earlier in the course. While some exams may be administered over this period, we believe that the student's evaluations could be more objective than in the last two weeks of the semester. On the other hand, students should have a better grasp regarding the course goals and whether they were met by the end of the semester, suggesting that a later course goals assessment could be more accurate. The TA survey could be administered as is (during finals week) or in conjunction with one of the other surveys.

Recommendation: To enhance student participation and increase objectivity, ACE surveys should be administered at the start of the 13th week of the semester for one week. TA surveys should be administered at the same time. To prevent overlap, and allow the students to discern more accurately if course goals have been met, CGA surveys should be administered beginning at the end the 14th week of the semester and continued until finals begin.

Summary List of EASYs for Summer 2004

Copy of email sent to all Engineering Instructors on 7/6/04

You are receiving this email because an ACE EASY has been created for your course. Attached is a pdf file containing the list of ACE surveys currently in the EASY system for Summer Session. It includes the enrollment counts for each course and cross referenced courses, where appropriate. All students enrolled in each course will be able to take the EASY. The surveys will be available for students to take beginning Wed., July 21 through Sat., July 31 with exception to 052:041 SCA, which will run Wed., Aug. 11 through Sat., Aug. 21.

Survey results will be available after grades are posted on 8/5/04. Please let me know before July 20th if you would like the results sent to you as an email attachment, as well as any additional questions you would like added to the end of the survey. Additional questions include those from the UI ACE item pool (provide me with the question number(s)), the UISG "Student Core" or custom questions.

You may now preview/test the survey on the EASY Web application.
This must be done before the start date of the survey (7/21/04 ).

It's important you discuss the survey and its purpose with your students before it becomes available to take. Once the survey is available an instructional email will be programmatically sent out to inform the students enrolled in the course/section number.

Summary List of EASYs for Spring 2004

Copy of email sent to all Engineering Instructors on 3/24/04

The Engineering Faculty Council has decided to extend the electronic ACE EASY trial for this Spring semester. Specifically the EFC elected to have all faculty use the EASY system in which students perform their evaluation on the web, unless individuals opt to use the paper ACE system.

Recall that the ACE EASY system includes the same questions in a slightly different format that has been adopted for web implementation. As with the paper format the student responses to the 4 evaluative questions are reported to the DEO & Dean, as well as to the individual instructor. Responses to the mandatory formative and any customized questions will be available on-line to the individual instructor only. The instructor may also request that the results be e-mailed to them as pdf attachments. This request must be made to Carrie Hogarty (carrie-hogarty@uiowa.edu) by May 9.

The surveys will be available for the students to take during the following dates:
Course Goals Assessment (CGA): 4/23/04 - 5/2/04
Assessment of the Classroom Environment (ACE): 4/30/04 - 5/9/04

Note that while the ACE teaching surveys will use the EASY system, they will be separate from any other course-goals assessment surveys being conducted for your classes. Please contact Carrie Hogarty by April 5 to request a course-goals assessment survey.

If you do not wish to participate in the electronic ACE this semester, please notify me by 5 PM on April 5. You are required to conduct either an electronic or paper ACE survey for your courses, per College policy. By default, and with no additional action on your part, a standard ACE survey will be administered to all students in your class, using the EASY system.

In summary, by April 5:

1) Notify me if you do not wish to participate in the electronic ACE this semester.
(alec-scranton@uiowa.edu).

2) If you wish to include the UISG "Student Core" questions to your survey, please notify Carrie Hogarty by e-mail carrie-hogarty@uiowa.edu

3) If you wish to add additional optional questions from the UI ACE item pool, please consult the pool at http://www.uiowa.edu/~examserv/acepool.html and provide the NUMBERS of the optional questions to Carrie Hogarty.

4) If you wish to add additional custom questions, please provide electronic text of the questions to Carrie Hogarty.

5) If you wish to request a course-goals assessment for your course, contact Carrie Hogarty.

By May 9:

1) If you prefer to receive your results as a pdf attachment, send e-mail to Carrie Hogarty.

Copy of email sent to all Engineering Faculty on 10/20/03

To all:

At its 13 Oct meeting, the Engineering Faculty Council decided to extend the electronic ACE EASY trial for this Fall semester. Specifically the EFC elected to have all faculty use the EASY system in which students perform their evaluation on the web, unless individuals opt to use the paper ACE system.

It should be noted that the ACE EASY system includes the same questions in a slightly different format that has been adopted for web implementation. As with the paper format the student responses to the 4 evaluative questions are reported to the DEO & Dean, as well as to the individual instructor. Responses to the mandatory formative and any customized questions will be available on-line to the individual instructor only. An overview of the EASY process is provided here.

Note that while the ACE teaching surveys will use the EASY system, they will be separate from any other course-goal assessment surveys being conducted for your classes.

The survey will run during the final week of classes, and students will be notified and reminded by email as for other EASY surveys. If you do not wish to participate in the electronic ACE this semester, please notify me by 5 PM on November 7. You are required to conduct either an electronic or paper ACE survey for your courses, per College policy.

By default, and with no additional action on your part, a standard ACE survey will be administered to the students with engineering accounts in your class, using the EASY system. Please review the summary of instructors and courses and let me know if there are any inaccuracies, by 5 PM on Nov. 7. Cross-listed courses will be collapsed into a single engineering course for the purpose of the ACE survey.

In summary, by November 7th:

1) Notify me if you do not wish to participate in the electronic ACE this semester.

2) If you wish to include the UISG "Student Core" questions to your survey, please notify Carrie Hogarty by e-mail.

3) If you wish to add additional optional questions from the UI ACE item pool, provide the NUMBERS of the optional questions to Carrie Hogarty.

4) If you wish to add additional custom questions, please provide electronic text of the questions to Carrie Hogarty.

Alec Scranton
alec-scranton@uiowa.edu

--
Alec Scranton
Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Programs
University of Iowa
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
4133 Seamans Center
Iowa City, Iowa 52242

Phone: (319)335-1414

Engineering Tenured Full Professors:

At its 13 March 2003 meeting, the College of Engineering faculty adopted the following motion regarding use of the EASY system to conduct electronic ACE teaching surveys this spring semester:

"The College of Engineering should continue to assess the electronic ACE/EASY student survey. For Spring 2003, all tenured full professors will use the electronic ACE/EASY evaluation in lieu of the normal paper survey unless they specifically opt out. The electronic ACE evaluation and the paper ACE evaluation will be considered equally valid for all College of Engineering purposes."

Note that while the ACE teaching surveys will use the EASY system, they will be separate from any other course-goal assessment surveys being conducted for your classes.

If you do not wish to participate in the electronic ACE this semester, please notify me by 5 PM on 11 April. You are required to conduct either an electronic or paper ACE survey for your courses, per College policy.

By default, and with no additional action on your part, a standard ACE survey will be administered to the engineering students in your class, using the EASY system. Please look at the attached summary of instructors and courses and let me know if there are any inaccuracies, by 5 PM on 11 April 2003. Cross-listed courses will be collapsed into a single engineering course for the purpose of the ACE survey.

The survey will contain the mandatory evaluative and formative questions required by College policy. The survey will run during the final week of classes, and students will be notified and reminded by email as for other EASY surveys.

1) If you wish to include the UISG "Student Core" questions to your survey, please notify Carrie Hogarty.

2) If you wish to add additional optional questions from the UI ACE item pool, please consult the pool at UI ACE item pool and provide the NUMBERS of the optional questions to Carrie.

3) If you wish to add additional custom questions, please provide the text of the questions to Carrie.

For items 1-3 above, Carrie must hear from you by 5 PM on 11 April.

You will receive your ACE results in hardcopy form through the usual channels some time after the end of the semester, but without typed student comments. College-wide statistics will be generated separately for the paper and electronic data sets. You will also be able to access both numerical results and student comments for your course immediately after the date for submission of final grades, using the EASY report procedures at

EASY Results Reports

An instructional email on how to run the reports will be sent at that time.

In order to maximize student participation in ACE in this new electronic format, I encourage you to remind your students of the importance of their participation. It is also important to point out to your students that the objectives of the ACE and course-goal assessment surveys are quite different, even though they are both administered with the EASY system.

Any questions, please let me know.

Forrest

Policy on Assessment Tools for ABET Reports
(as extracted from EFC Meeting Minutes on 4/2/2001)

The EFC intends to recommend the following policy guidelines for faculty action at a forthcoming faculty meeting. However, since EASY based assessment mechanisms are already being implemented, in the interim these policies will also serve as guidelines to be followed in the current use of assessment tools.

ABET related assessment tools should be used only for curriculum assessment. They should not be used in any shape or form for instructor assessment. As such any instructor performance related material that is inadvertently generated by these tools must be kept strictly confidential.
The use of EASY ABET questionnaires for course evaluation must follow the following guidelines. It should be noted that all core courses will require EASY ABET questionnaires. The use of these questionnaires for program courses is up to the specific programs, instructors and course coordinators.

Transcripts from all EASY ABET questionnaires will be separated into two distinct documents: (a) Summary of numerical response. (b) Transcript of written comments.
Questions used will only be determined by the course coordinator and instructor.
For multiple section courses, there will be only one set of summary numerical response data for each course. It will contain statistics that are not separated by Course Sections.
Transcripts of written comments will be separated on an instructor by instructor basis, i.e. multiple transcripts will be generated for multi-section courses.
Summary numerical response data will be accessible to all involved in the course assessment.
Transcripts of written comments will be provided only to the cognizant instructor. The extent to which this will be shared with a wider audience is entirely up to the instructor.

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