As the university moves toward more holistic feedback and evaluation processes, we have transitioned from the existing Instructor and Course Evaluation system and survey (ICES) to a new software system, Explorance Blue, and a new student feedback survey, Feedback on the Learning Experience (FLEX).
This transition was initiated in response to a 2020 report by a provost task force on teaching evaluation based on scholarly literature on student ratings of instruction, best practices from peer institutions, and feedback from Illinois faculty. This report noted that the current design of ICES’s global items (i.e., “rate the overall quality of this course” and “rate the overall effectiveness of this instructor”) did not align with best practices for reducing bias in survey responses and providing useful feedback to instructors. Additionally, ICES online is no longer supported by the vendor, necessitating a change in software.