We all know the end-of-the-semester drill: The professor hands out the surveys from the Independent Council and IDEA surveys, designates someone to collect them, and leaves the room. Then it’s a race to see who can fill in the bubbles fastest and get out of class first. Just fill in all the bubbles in one of the columns without reading the questions, and you’re done. The process is, at best, a way to get out of class early and, at worst, a joke.
However, the results from these surveys are given a lot more weight than most students who fill them out consider. The IC survey is designed to help students learn more about the courses they plan on taking, especially when they don’t have the benefit of an older friend who’s already taken a specific course. The IDEA surveys are used as a method to evaluate professors. Furthermore, if there is a problem with a professor, the complaint seems less credible if the professor was ranked well on the surveys.
It is true that the surveys—especially the IDEA surveys—can be difficult to take seriously. There are some questions that simply don’t seem to relate to RPI students as a whole.
Odds are a teacher is not going to be truly evaluated on whether or not they helped you develop your personal values, so it’s probably not incredibly important to give a lot of thought to that kind of question. There are some questions that are fairly relevant to the course, like how much you learned. On these questions you should take the time to think about your responses and make sure you answer as honestly as possible.
These surveys are one of the ways that you are given a chance to provide feedback on the quality of the education that you receive. Make sure you actually take them seriously.
