"Elements does not evaluate faculty; Administrators and faculty evaluate faculty."
Following a successful pilot in 2024, all IU faculty will complete their Annual Reviews using the Elements@IU workflow module for the 2025 annual review cycle.
The Elements workflow module streamlines the annual review process into a transparent, paperless platform, capturing faculty activity, attachments, and context alongside reviewer scores and comments. Faculty and administrators have long-term access to the Annual Review exercise and reports in one shared location. The Annual Review Workflow is meant to supplement the in-person, performance management conversations between faculty and their supervisors and should not be seen as a replacement for those dialogues.
Access to review exercises in Elements is restricted to individuals with the necessary permissions. Reviews and review materials are only viewable by the faculty member, designated reviewers and viewers, and a limited number of system administrators.
Annual Workflow Process
Year-Round
Faculty members retain continuous access to Elements, enabling them to record activities at their convenience. Throughout the year, Elements is regularly updated with data from various Indiana University systems, including KC Grants and SIS Course information. Updating activities in Elements over the course of the year reduces the amount of manual entry and catch-up work required at the time of the Annual Review.
Mid-October
By mid-October, academic units will submit Annual Review User Assignments to the Elements Team, providing information about who is assigned to review each faculty member.
Mid-December
In mid-December, the Annual Review workflows become available for to all faculty in Elements.
Submitting the Exercise
When a faculty member first opens the Annual Review workflow exercise, the Elements system will import all the activities they have entered with reporting dates for the year in review (i.e. 1/1/25-12/31/25). The faculty member then ensures their review contains the information they have been asked to provide by their academic leadership. Within the exercise, faculty can upload attachments, provide additional context, add additional activities, and move activities to the area of review they prefer.
Once a faculty member has completed their exercise, they use the routing tool to submit it for review. The Elements system then routes the Annual Review to the designated unit reviewer(s).
Reviewing the Exercise
Reviewers are granted access to the submitted materials through Elements’ integrated, paperless platform in which reviewers can leave evaluation scores, comments, and upload attachments. Depending on the specific requirements of the unit, exercises may be routed to multiple levels of reviewers or to committees with view-only access.
Reviewers assigned to the final stage in the process will have access to a section regarding compliance with Indiana Code 21-39-5. All reviewer comments and attachments are visible to the faculty member being reviewed.
At the end of the process, these annual reviews will remain securely stored in Elements, still accessible and exportable to faculty members and unit leadership when needed.
Key Dates
October 15th – User assignments are due from all units to the Elements Team.
December 15th – Annual Review Workflows are made available to all IU faculty in the Elements@IU System.
Please contact the Elements team with any questions or to schedule a training for your unit by emailing: elements@iu.edu.