Instructor ratings online

[Ryan-IKO]

Find good instructors easily!

IKO has created online instructor ratings to ensure quality of the instructors.

Instructors are now rated on the feed back forms they give their students after every IKO Kiteboarding lesson. This rating is online for all any one looking to find a good instructor. In the future we hope to help the kiteboard community by providing more tools so people can find what schools these instructors are ate around the world.

To take a look at the Instructor Ratings page, just visit the IKO home page http://www.ikointl.com and click "Instructor Ratings" in the left menu. Or click here--> http://www.ikointl.com/iko_ratings/inst ... rating.php
to see Instructor ratings now.

[Toby]

this is very good!
I hope many students will join and add their feedback!

[jamesmmm]

The whole system seems to come accross as quite negative to me.
An instructor who has taught a good few students and has 100% feedback had a tiny yellow bar looking like a terrible rating...

even a level 2 senior instructor with over 100 students and a thousand hours doesnt even get half a bar?

the feedback should have more of an impact on the bars, i.e. 100% positive feedback should look good right?

The ratings only lasting a year is also slightly short sighted as for many friends of mine instruct on a seasonal basis, sometimes being year between teaching periods.

i know that ratings wise, many instructors that i have spoken to feel the same.

cheers,
james

[Ryan-IKO]

James,

Thanks for your reply. The system is being developed and updated daily from feed back we receive from instructors, schools and students. It may not be as narrow sighted as it first seems. The longer term plan is to have school ratings as well and then build an instructor profile page so students can look up where instructors are working, and to get a better idea of facilities and such.

The reason for the one year was to keep instructors active, we can not have a good, fresh up-to-date instructor that has not taught in 2, 3, 4 years thus those that actively maintain their feed back gets a higher rating. Also it encourages instructors to keep certifying their students with IKO cards and does not allow them to become complacent in their teachings. The good instructors that are proactive will maintain the best ratings.

There is some complex logic and formulas behind the ratings to keep it honest for schools and students, to be able to truly identify GREAT instructors based on a number of criteria.

Each individual feed back form received is scored for every question up to a maximum of 200 points.

Below is a summary from the Online Ratings help section about its workings.

Feedback Rating


Every time an instructor gives a lesson they should ask for feedback from the student. IKO collects this information and keeps the score that the student gave their instructor. Only feedback given in the last 12 months is valid, this is to ensure we have information which is accurate based on the instructors' recent performance.

Hours Taught
This is simply the number of hours that the instructor has taught since they first qualified as an IKO instructor.

The color of the bars represents the individual instructor's IKO Level. YELLOW represents a level 1 instructor, ORANGE is level 2, GREEN is level 2 senior. (this information is also found underneath the bar itself).

Compliance Status

This status is NOT necessarily linked to the quality of teaching given by an instructor. Rather, it indicates (to the best of our knowledge) whether the instructor is following the standards which are set by the IKO for our instructors. For example, a yellow icon might be given to an instructor who has not passed his or her IKO Level 2 instructor exam within the allowed time.

Orange and Red icons, however, should be taken more seriously and are usually the result of complaints which might not otherwise appear in the standard feedback forms.

[Hairy]

Good idea in theory, but I think a friend of mine suffers because somebody in the iko lost his feedback forms. I don't think he bothers much with them now since they cost money.

How about letting the students log in using the number on their iko card and leave feedback?

[Ryan-IKO]

Moving forward (near future) the IKO will be issuing all cards with numbers and student training and certifications will not be officially completed until the student fills out feed back and registers their card number with the IKO.

Thus creating a tighter more monitored and system to ensure instructors are active and being always rated, and ensures students do not get a card till they provide feedback- making checks and balances for both sides of the system.

If you have any questions I'll be pleased to help out.

Ryan

[abel]

Moving forward (near future) the IKO will be issuing all cards with numbers and student training and certifications will not be officially completed until the student fills out feed back and registers their card number with the IKO.

Thus creating a tighter more monitored and system to ensure instructors are active and being always rated, and ensures students do not get a card till they provide feedback- making checks and balances for both sides of the system.

If you have any questions I'll be pleased to help out.

Ryan

Hey man...! I thought kitesurfing was suposed to be fun.
This is looking too much homework during the dark ages when you got physical punishment if you didn't do it.

Rethink: Aren't you pushing students and instructors out of the system?.

My 2c

[Toby]

I think the idea is good.
This way the IKO and the newbees who want to get into the sport can get a better quality control, which is needed if it comes to lessons.

How about letting the students log in using the number on their iko card and leave feedback?

I think this is what the IKO is going to do.

But how can you make sure no one is making any fraud with it, by not telling the students that they can do it and the instructor instead does it for them?

[stressedout]

I think the idea is good.
This way the IKO and the newbees who want to get into the sport can get a better quality control, which is needed if it comes to lessons.

How about letting the students log in using the number on their iko card and leave feedback?

I think this is what the IKO is going to do.

But how can you make sure no one is making any fraud with it, by not telling the students that they can do it and the instructor instead does it for them?

I am an IKO instructor and I have used the onlinefeedback and also the old paperfeedback.
The online feedback seems to be better. Before the student answered a few questions on a feedbackform, I don´t think a lot of students wanted to share a negative feedback with their instructor so maybe the gave a higher point. Now the Instructor must log on to the site and request feedback by writing the students email and then wait for the student to read his mail and make the feedback.

Problems with the online system that wont give the instructor any credit:

Student doesn´t have an email.
Student forgets to fill it in.

I have had both of the above problems but I still think it´s better than before. And last of all you wont have to send the papers around the world. The main reason for this anyhow must be to minimize the paperwork at IKO headquarter.

[abel]

I am an IKO instructor and I have used the onlinefeedback and also the old paperfeedback.
The online feedback seems to be better. Before the student answered a few questions on a feedbackform, I don´t think a lot of students wanted to share a negative feedback with their instructor so maybe the gave a higher point. Now the Instructor must log on to the site and request feedback by writing the students email and then wait for the student to read his mail and make the feedback.

Problems with the online system that wont give the instructor any credit:

Student doesn´t have an email.
Student forgets to fill it in.
I have had both of the above problems but I still think it´s better than before. And last of all you wont have to send the papers around the world. The main reason for this anyhow must be to minimize the paperwork at IKO headquarter.

The most probable reasons:
- The sutdent doesn't give a sh...
- He is lasy and not willing to invest the time (a student is a student ).

Sorry...sometimes you have to be realistic.
My estimation is that while the intentions are OK, in practice it won't work.