What characterizes a productive research department?

The correlates of average departmental annual research journal publication rates of faculty were examined in three disciplines: chemistry, history, and psychology. Variables studied included factual information about each department, faculty perceptions and ratings, and graduate students' perceptions and ratings. Content included academic programs, specific policies and practices, characteristics of students, faculty, facilities, etc., as well as the quality of teaching and human relations in the departments. Although the common results indicated the importance of able faculty and students, a strong emphasis on research and the provision of time and funds for faculty to pursue research, there were discipline-specific patterns of results. In chemistry the pattern of productive departments suggested large research laboratories, in history a scholarly apprenticeship approach, and in psychology an emphasis on research over practice. Discipline specific studies may be the best approach to understanding research productivity.     

Diagnosing and dealing with salary compression

Newly hired faculty members in certain disciplines demand and receive salaries that approach or exceed those of existing faculty at the same or higher professional rank. This phenomenon is often referred to as salary compression. This paper presents methods used to determine if salary compression exists and the extent to which it exists. In addition, the results of a phone survey of university provosts provide information on how university administrators address the issue of salary compression.Presented at the Thirty-first Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, San Francisco, May 26–29, 1991. Represents revision and enhancement of a paper presented at the 1990 SAIR/SCUP Conference.     

An analysis of the scholarly productivity of instructional technology faculty

The resumés of 132 instructional technology (IT) faculty were analyzed in an effort to assess the scholarly productivity of IT faculty. Faculty were surveyed to identify leading basic and applied IT journals and to determine overall publication patterns. The findings indicate that individuals who are now full professors have a higher publication rate than faculty at lower ranks in instructional systems/educational technology programs. On an annual basis, individuals in educational psychology programs published more applied, basic, and overall research than faculty in other academic affiliations.     

Factors relted to breadth of use in course management systems

A unique resource in course management systems (CMSs) is that they offer faculty members convenient access to a variety of integrated features. Some featurs allow faculty members to provide information to students, and others allow students to interact with each other or a computer. This diverse set of features can be used to help meet the variety of learning goals that are part of college classes. Currently, most CMS research has analyzed how and why individual CMS features are used, instead of analyzing how and why multiple features are used. The study described here reports how and why faculty members use multiple CMS features, in resident college classes. Results show that nearly half of faculty members use one feature or less. Those who use multiple features are significantly more likely to have experience with interactive technologies. Implications for using and encouraging the use of multiple CMS features are provided.     

Engineers as Information Processors: a Survey of US Aerospace Engineering Faculty and Students

US aerospace engineering faculty and students were surveyed as part of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Research Project. Faculty and students were viewed as information processors within a conceptual framework of information-seeking behavior. Questionnaires were received from 275 faculty members and 640 students which were used to determine (1) use and importance of information sources, (2) use of specific print sources and electronic data bases, (3) use of information technology and (4) the influence of instruction on the use of information sources and products by faculty and students. As information processors, US aerospace faculty and students are ‘information naïve’, seek out information alone or with the help of co-workers, tend not to make use of the information products and services oriented to them, make limited use of librarians, and make considerable use of computer and information technology. Little evidence was found to support the belief that instruction in library or engineering information use has significant impact either on broadening the frequency or range of information products and sources used by US aerospace engineering students.     

Design,implementation, and evaluation of an ePortfolio approach to support faculty development in vocational education

This article provides an account of the design, implementation, and evaluation of an ePortfolio approach to faculty development and performance evaluation at a Canadian post-secondary vocational education institute. The approach was piloted in two phases in 13 departments. Survey and interview data were collected and analyzed to determine adoption, reception by faculty, and impact of the approach on faculty development. While adoption of the approach in the pilots was limited, participants who adopted the approach reported collecting more and different feedback, developing increased awareness of areas for improvement, and planning their professional learning more explicitly. Further studies are needed to determine what design elements of the portfolio optimally support professional development and performance evaluation.     

Faculty evaluation of a faculty development center

There is relatively little firm information concerning the effectiveness of faculty development programs at the present time. This condition is not likely to be alleviated by any one study, including the present one. The study does, however, offer a rationale for the faculty survey approach it uses and reports faculty responses concerning importance and performance, to each of 19 functions that make up the faculty development program at the institution involved. The study was conducted in a large urban university and involved responses from both faculty who had participated in the program during the preceding year and those who had not. It was concluded that, despite the subjective nature and other limitations of the survey approach to evaluation of faculty development programs, the information provided is useful both as a basis for decision making and program improvement.     

External factors associated with adopting a CMS in resident college courses

Course management systems (CMSs) have become a common resource for resident courses at colleges and universities. Researchers have analyzed which CMS features faculty members use most primarily by asking them which features are used. The study described builds on previous research by counting the number of CMS features a faculty member used and by analyzing how three external factors are related to the use of CMS features. The external factors are (a) the college in which a course was offered, (b) class size, and (c) the level of a class—such as 100 or 200. The only external factor showing a statistically significant relationship to the use of CMS features was the college in which a course was offered. Another finding was that CMSs are primarily used to transmit information to students. Implications are described for using external factors to increase effective use of more complex CMS features.     

Lights,Camera, Action: Facilitating the Design and Production of Effective Instructional Videos

This paper outlines a rudimentary process intended to guide faculty in K-12 and higher education through the steps involved to produce video for their classes. The process comprises four steps: planning, development, delivery and reflection. Each step is infused with instructional design information intended to support the collaboration between instructional support staff and faculty to produce video that will be meaningful to students and support their success in a class. In outlining this approach, the paper also explores technological and pedagogical considerations related to each of these steps that can help faculty and staff determine how best to incorporate video into online classes. Finally, supported by research on best video practices and with examples from our own experiences as instructional designers and instructors, the paper outlines how these steps relate to four broad categories of video: introduce, model, explain/inform and feedback.     

Evaluation of adjunct faculty in higher education institutions

The role that part‐time faculty play in higher education is changing. No longer are part‐time faculty used on an occasional basis at a few institutions. These individuals now play a critical part in the delivery of higher education to students. This study was developed to answer questions regarding how the performance of adjunct faculty is evaluated. The researcher gathered data on what sources of information were used to evaluate adjunct faculty, and how this information was used by various administrators during evaluation and reappointment decisions. The underlying goal was to develop a better understanding of current evaluation practices so that higher education administrators can ensure that quality learning opportunities are available in the classroom.     

Is there room for multidimensional learning in a standardized curriculum?

This article presents the results of a study that interpreted views of curriculum and practice of teacher education faculty at a public institution of higher learning in the USA. It offers information about the ongoing challenges of affecting a balanced approach to teacher education at colleges and universities in a standardized learning setting. Participants' responses indicated professors perceive curriculum and standardization differently than instructors. Professors are more likely to describe the curriculum they teach ideologically whereas instructors described course content or paraphrased course titles. Further, professors were more likely to question whether they were meeting the needs of students and the impact of the standardization of curriculum. These findings raise many questions about the intellectual integrity of teacher preparation programs that are increasingly standardized and increasingly reliant on instructors rather than tenured faculty to teach program courses.     

On the labor market for full-time non-tenure-track lecturers in economics

We examine AY2013 annual salaries, annual teaching assignments, and career publishing histories for more than 700 full-time lecturers and tenure-track faculty at 37 public Ph.D.-granting departments of economics. The roughly 15% of teaching faculty who were full-time lecturers were younger, more likely to be female and to teach at the program from which they received their Ph.D., and were assigned to teach both more courses and many more students. While lower than those for tenure-track faculty, the annual salaries paid to full-time lecturers compare favorably to those of tenure-track economics faculty at Master's- and Bachelor's-granting institutions. Regression results suggest that full-time lecturer salaries are determined by teaching assignments rather than research productivity while tenure-track salaries are determined by research productivity rather than teaching assignments.     

On the use of student ratings of faculty in determination of pay,promotion and tenure

Student ratings of faculty have traditionally been obtained in a manner designed to be useful to the individual faculty member or to other students. It is now sometimes proposed that the resulting data be used to determine faculty pay, promotion, and tenure. Recent articles and the reviews of past literature on ratings are analyzed to determine whether student ratings are usually associated with teaching effectiveness, whether they are sometimes biased by irrelevant factors, whether faculty can effectively revise their behaviors to improve their ratings, and whether improved ratings result in improved teaching effectiveness. The results tend to indicate that student ratings of faculty as they are currently collected cannot be trusted for considerations of pay, promotion, and tenure.     

Mentoring Promotion/Tenure‐Seeking Faculty: Principles of Good Practice Within a Counselor Education Program

Approaches to mentoring junior faculty in counselor education departments have received minimal attention in the counseling literature. In this article, the authors describe a successful program based on the 10 principles for good mentoring recommended by Sorcinelli (2000). Application of the principles within a combined formal and informal mentoring approach is described, as are the experiences of junior faculty whose careers have been shaped within this system.     

RECRUITING HEALTH INFORMATION FACULTY: THE EFFECTS OF MONETARY RECRUITMENT INCENTIVES

This paper addresses recruitment of Health Information faculty for community and technical colleges, an issue of crucial importance because many faculty hired during the enrollment boom of the 1960s are retiring. The design for this research was a factorial experiment, involving a two-way analysis of variance. The participants (N?=?194) were medical coding professionals. The participants role-played as applicants for community and technical college health information faculty positions by rating jobs described in simulated recruitment advertisements. Offering a salary incentive and a signing bonus increased applicant attraction to community and technical college faculty positions. Implications for faculty recruitment are discussed.     

Toward Improving Student Learning: Policy issues and design structures in course-level outcomes assessment

Conscientious instructors at all levels are constantly making decisions about how to improve their teaching. This is a natural, intuitive part of being a good instructor, but even faculty who value student learning and work hard to improve their teaching can fail to make the connection between what they do in the classroom and the continuous improvement philosophy of outcomes assessment. The connection can be missed because understanding course-level outcomes assessment requires understanding evaluation policies and structures that differ markedly from those employed for unit-level program accreditation. The purposes of this paper are two-fold: first, to address policy issues that impede adoption of systematic, course-level outcomes assessment for improving student learning; and second, to describe a design structure for applying outcomes assessment that addresses factors under control of the instructor that affect students' learning. The paper concludes with observations on the crossed purposes of collecting information for judging faculty merit in the annual review process as opposed to collecting information for course improvement in the outcomes assessment process.     

Enhancing nursing home care for seniors: impact of a living classroom on nursing assistant’s education

ABSTRACT

Nursing Assistants (NAs) are the largest workforce in nursing homes, but often lack adequate preparation for their role. The Living Classroom (LC) is an integrated learning approach, whereby a NA program is delivered in a nursing home (NH) in collaboration with a community college. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the LC. Mixed methods were used to gather data from 48 NA students, 5 faculty, and 42 NH staff over 30 weeks. Students, faculty, and nursing home staff described the LC as a positive learning experience. Students’ gerontological knowledge increased over time (p = .0012). Students reported very positive relationships with program mentors and NH residents. The LC provides a unique approach to prepare NAs to work in nursing homes. This model could expand to other educational programs with a gerontology focus.     

An Evaluation of Factors Regarding Students’ Assessment of Faculty in a Business School*

Student faculty ratings are used at most institutions of higher learning for three important reasons. First, the ratings provide direct feedback to the faculty, and this enables faculty to adjust their teaching styles. Second, the ratings provide the administration with information intended to assist in guiding and mentoring faculty toward more effective pedagogical performance in the classroom. Third, the ratings also provide the administration with information to be used in the reappointment, tenure, and promotion processes, as well as for assignment of salary range adjustments and teaching awards. To be of real value, however, all of this is predicated on the use of a valid and reliable faculty‐rating instrument along with a system designed to provide both the faculty and the administration with norming reports that allow for appropriate comparisons of ratings. This article reports such a study conducted within a large department of a business school and recommends that the process used be adapted by other business school departments and other academic units across the university and at other universities to ensure a more universally appropriate usage of students’ ratings.     

DEVELOPMENT AND UTILIZATION OF A FACULTY TIME ANALYSIS SYSTEM ‐AN AID TO ACCOUNTABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

This article describes the development and utility of a time analysis system for higher education faculty members interested in self‐evaluation. Although many higher education institutions employ various student, peer, and administrative evaluations, an analysis of the types of services performed by faculty staff and the amounts of time allotted to these services can provide very useful information to a faculty person interested in self‐evaluation. A model is described herein and an example is provided.     

高职院校绩效考核问题与对策

高职院校教职工的绩效评价不同于其它企业组织和事业单位,必须建立起符合教师工作特点的评价体系和评价方法。提高对高职院校教职工绩效考核重要性认识,建立科学合理的评价体系,加强绩效沟通,日常考核与年度考核、定性考核与定量考核综合运用,公平、公正地评价教职工,才能提高考核结果的准确性和客观性,才能激励教职工的工作积极性。