Evaluating instructors will soon become easy as one, two, three. The University seems to be doing away with paper-based ICES, or Instructor and Course Evaluation Systems, forms and utilizing the power of the internet.

While some courses already have online ICES forms, there has been a recent push to put all the forms online.

Eric Keeley, computer programmer for the Center of Teaching Excellence, said in an e-mail the number of classes that have put ICES forms online so far this semester totals to 1,200.

He added that approximately 2,600 classes will put up online ICES forms by the end of this academic year, “assuming that the number of participating pilot departments doesn’t change.”

Chris Migotsky, head of measurement and evaluation and interim director for the Center of Teaching Excellence, said the benefits of putting the forms online include saving paper, cost and time.

“The faculty side, they get results quicker,” Migotsky said. “We’re moving in that direction.”

The paper-based ICES forms take four to six weeks for the results to get back to the instructors. After students fill out the paper ICES forms, they are sent in an envelope to campus mail. Scanning the forms, generating summary reports and sending them through campus mail to get back to the instructors completes the process. An online-based evaluation system would take less than a week, he added.

“It’s much more efficient from an office standpoint,” Migotsky said.

For the online ICES system, students would get an e-mail and be asked to click on a URL, log in and evaluate their instructors. Once the students hit the submit button, the results will come back in to the professors in less than a week, he said.

Molly Niesen, graduate student, said how important ICES forms can be to a graduate student out in the real world.

“When graduate students go on the job market, other universities will look at scores to evaluate their teaching performance,” Niesen said. “I think they tend to be a pretty good evaluation of teacher performance.”

However, there may be some downsides to an online system of evaluation.

“If you have ICES forms online, then the instructor is not there face-to-face to give specific directions,” Niesen said. “The ritual of handing them out at the end of class is important.”

She added that some students might forget to fill them out on their own time.

Migotsky said he has received mixed reactions from faculty and students alike regarding the push towards online evaluation forms.

“Less students are filling them out online,” he said. “The faculty prefer to have more of a higher response rate, and so would I. I do sympathize with the students putting this outside of class. It’s an extra, small burden.”

Connor Gaddy, freshman in Engineering, said he supposes the online forms would be easier. The purpose of these forms is to “instruct them (the professors) to try new things in different areas.”

Pauline Pinet, junior in LAS and foreign-exchange student from France, said she has online evaluation forms for professors back in her “home university.”

“It used to be a paper-based evaluation,” Pinet said. “My university did it online to make sure it’s anonymous, because teachers can recognize the handwriting. I think it’s faster online.”

Migotsky said departments make use of ICES results for promotion, tenure decisions, salary changes and teaching awards.

He added that the University student’s role is to give input, to improve courses and to evaluate instructors so that more learning goes on.