Instructor Designed Questionnaire (IDQ) System

The Instructor Designed Questionnaire (IDQ) system was imported from the University of Michigan and adapted by the Department of Academic Information and Communication Technologies for use at the University of Alberta beginning in 1985.

The system addresses some of the problems and weaknesses that are inherent in other student course evaluation systems:

• • the IDQ system reduces the problem of irrelevance of items often associated with standardized questionnaires since the items on each evaluation form can be instructor-selected to fit an individual class;
  • the system allows for the inclusion of items relevant to the individual instructor, the university, the faculty, and the department;
  • the system allows for normative as well as individualized feedback on the quality of instruction.

In order to accommodate the use of this system in various environments, a number of catalogs have been created which are used independently of each other. For example, the Universal Student Ratings of Instruction (USRI) at the University of Alberta are supported by the GFC catalog while the collection of student ratings for formative purposes that are not mandated by GFC make use of the CITL catalog. Other catalogs which currently exist are CEMD, CLCQ, EXTN, MHC and MISC. Please note that the tailoring of the catalogs is such that a particular question number in one catalog might not refer to the same question text as does that number in a different catalog. Also, the normative data that are collected for a particular catalog are intended for use within the environment for which that catalog was created such that it is important to refer to the appropriate catalog throughout the course evaluation process.

A number of articles concerning students' ratings of instruction may be found among the IDEA Papers provided by Kansas State University.