The IDEA Center

Congratulations to Pam Milloy at Grand View University who was a finalist for the POD Innovations Award at the 34th Annual Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education Conference for her work “Looking Beyond a Single Class:  A Tool for Extracting Themes and Trends in Student Evaluation Data.” Ms. Milloy, Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, developed an Excel worksheet that allows professors to synthesize IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction results from numerous courses and semesters.  Instructors then draw a manageable number of teaching methods and styles they might consider to enhance learning.  The simple worksheet has markedly increased the attention that faculty are giving to improving their teaching.

The worksheet’s simplicity became a catalyst for several significantly positive results.  First, it motivated additional faculty members to seek consultations about teaching, increasing from 23% of the full-time faculty in 2007-08 to 44% in 2008-09.  A workshop to encourage its use, supported by the Provost, was attended by 45 % of the full-time faculty.  Currently, many professors elect to include the worksheet and its accompanying development plan with their promotion and tenure portfolio.  Given its broad adoption, Grand View’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning is now using IDEA teaching methods/styles as the framework for its faculty development programming.