Higher Education Administration Commons^™

Just Ask: Using Faculty Input To Inform Communication Strategies, Krista Hoffmann Longtin, Megan M. Palmer, Julie L. Welch, Emily C. Walvoord, Mary E. Dankoski

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty members today are bombarded with information, yet limited in time and attention. Managing communication with faculty is an increasingly important function of faculty development offices. This study explored how communication frameworks can be paired with web design principles and attention economics to increase the effectiveness of communication with faculty members. We developed and tested communication approaches designed to enhance faculty members’ identification and involvement with our programs. The advantages, disadvantages, and effectiveness of each model are presented. Ultimately, the study reframed our understanding of communication strategies, not as static tools, but rather as opportunities to engage faculty.

Stereotype Threat–Based Diversity Programming: Helping Students While Empowering And Respecting Faculty, Isis Artze Vega, Leslie Richardson, Adrienne Traxler

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

As college student populations grow increasingly diverse, centers for teaching and learning are often charged with promoting inclusive teaching practices. Yet faculty cite many affective barriers to diversity training, and we often preach to the choir. These challenges led us to seek alternate routes for diversity programming, and stereotype threat has become the centerpiece of our endeavors. This chapter describes stereotype threat and related interventions, outlines our efforts, and offers evidence of its surprising impact. It also identifies the features of stereotype threat that appealed to faculty, led them to make pedagogical changes, and inspired them to spread the word.

Measuring The Promise: A Learning Focused Syllabus Rubric, Michael Palmer, Dorothe Bach, Adriana Streifer

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

To enrich the resources for measuring the impact of educational development work, we have created a rubric to assess the degree to which a syllabus achieves a learning orientation. The rubric provides qualitative descriptions of components that distinguish learning focused syllabi and uses a quantitative scoring system that places syllabi on a spectrum from content focused to learning focused. It is flexible enough to accommodate a diverse range of levels, disciplines, institutions, and learning environments, yet nuanced enough to provide summative information to developers using the tool for assessment purposes and formative feedback to instructors interested in gauging the focus …

Reflections On The State Of The Scholarship Of Educational Development, Deandra Little

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Introduction to volume 33, number 1 of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development from 2014 by managing editor Deandra Little of Elon University.

Preparing New Faculty For Leadership: Understanding And Addressing Needs, Anne Kelsch, Joan Hawthorne

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A perceived decline in effective faculty participation in campus leadership and governance is well documented, both in the literature and via anecdote. Characteristics common within the culture of higher education make nurturing campus “citizenship” among junior faculty challenging. This essay describes findings from an interview based study of junior faculty in which understanding of professional responsibilities beyond teaching and research was explored. The study documented the deep sense of unpreparedness with which new faculty approach key issues in higher education, including those associated with governance and leadership. Two possible strategies for redressing that unpreparedness, both showing preliminary but positive results, …

Peer Collaboration: Improving Teaching Through Comprehensive Peer Review, Shelley L. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article includes a brief rationale and review of the literature on peer review of teaching (PRT). Based on that literature review, it offers a proposal for an optimal formative review process that results in a teaching portfolio that would reflect a faculty member’s efforts and successes in a critically reflective PRT process, and contributes to ongoing teaching improvement. It then looks at potential areas of faculty resistance and concern and offers a discussion of potential strategies to overcome those concerns.

Tracking Pod's Engagement With Diversity: A Content Analysis Of To Improve The Academy And Pod Network Conference Programs From 1977 To 2011, Stacy E. Grooters

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This study examines the degree to which sessions from the annual Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network Conference and articles from To Improve the Academy engage questions of diversity. The titles and abstracts of 3,946 conference sessions and 560 journal articles were coded for presence and type of diversity. A significant variation in inclusion of diversity over time was found for the conference sessions (p < 0.001) but not the journal articles. Overall, the findings suggest that the organization has been inconsistent in its scholarly engagement with diversity and should work to encourage more regular engagement with diversity by its members.

Emotion In The Classroom: An Update, Janine Bowen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Fourteen years ago, POD member Edward Vela drew attention to the role of emotion in learning. In particular he emphasized the need for faculty to express positive emotions in the classroom. Since then researchers continue to measure the effectiveness of positive emotion in student learning but the field of emotion in the classroom has expanded since Vela's essay. The purpose of this article is to not only update Vela's citations on emotion and learning but to provide a broader perspective on the topic and assist faculty developers. Ashkanasy's five level model frames the discussion.

Sequential Online Course Redesign: When “It Just Takes Time” Works No Longer, Genevieve G. Shaker, Sarah K. Nathan, Elizabeth J. Dale

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Despite the increase in formats of online education, evidence suggests that the academic achievement gap could widen without iterative adaptation. This comparative case study analyzes the implementation of an online undergraduate course delivered consecutively in hybrid and fully online formats. Student feedback and instructor reflection address adaptive processes for online learning and adjustments to enhance the second course following a sequential redesign. Results include students’ challenges with technology and workload, benefits of cross course collaboration, instructor efforts to mediate challenges without sacrificing rigor, and advice for educational developers as they support online teaching through rapid adaptation by design.

Mapping Classroom Interactions: A Spatial Approach To Analyzing Patterns Of Student Participation, Sophia Abbot, Alison Cook Sather, Carola Hein

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article explores how mapping patterns of student participation in classroom discussion can both illuminate and complicate the dynamic relationships among identity, physical position in the classroom, student engagement, and course content. It draws on the perspectives of an undergraduate in the role of pedagogical consultant, a faculty member who worked in partnership with that student, and the coordinator of the program through which this collaborative exploration unfolded. The authors provide multiple angles of vision on the impetus behind, approach to, results of, and interdisciplinary possibilities of mapping classrooms and offer recommendations and cautions regarding the use of mapping.

Tracing The Evolution Of Educational Development Through The Pod Network's Institute For New Faculty Developers, Michele Dipietro

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Educational development is a unique professional field in that it is not defined by content taught in a single degree that qualifies individuals to be in it. The resulting heterogeneity in newcomers’ knowledge and skills is addressed in different ways by different national networks. Since 1997, the POD Network has held a biennial Institute for New Faculty Developers, geared toward socializing new professionals into the field. An analysis of the evolution of the Institute, therefore, focused on understanding how educational development has represented itself to newcomers, can chronicle the trajectory of the field and generate conversations about its future.

University Of Nebraska- Lincoln: Fact Book 2013-2014

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Administration: Reports, Papers, Publications, and Presentations

Fact Book Table of Contents

Cover Photo Captions................................................. 1

Introduction................................................................................................. 2

Table of Contents................................................... 3

General Information

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Core Values (LEADERS)................................... 6

The Role of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln .............................................. 7

The Missions of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln ......................................... 7

Teaching..................................................................................... 8

Research............................................................................ 9

Service................................................................................................... 9

Institutional and Professional Accreditations ................................................. 10

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Administrative Organization Chart ................. 13

Student Credit Hours (SCH)

Total SCH: Fall Semester Since 1979 ............................................................ 14

Total SCH: Spring Semester Since 1993 ....................................................... 15

SCH by College and Course Level, Fall and Spring Semester, 5 Year Trend ..... 16

SCH by College …

Being And Belonging: A Critical Phenomenological Study Of Undergraduate Chinese International Students’ Sense Of Belonging In Residence Halls, Christina W. Yao

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Despite the large number of international students from China in U.S. higher education, little research exists on these students’ perceptions of the racial climate in residence halls. This research study illuminates the experiences affecting the sense of belonging of first-year Chinese international students and provides insights on how these students perceive the climate within their new collegiate ‘home’. I used a phenomenological orientation to understand participants’ lived experiences. A critical lens was used to analyze and examine the contextual influences on the participants’ experiences.

This study is centered on understanding how undergraduate Chinese international students’ experiences with domestic students affected …

The Role Of Sports Clubs In University Recruitment And Retention: A Mixed-Methods Case Study, Andrea R. Mcclymont

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Opportunities for involvement on a college campus can have many positive effects on students. Additionally, opportunities for involvement can have positive implications for student recruitment and retention at a university. There are many ways for students to become involved during college through their campus recreation centers. Through these centers students can have the opportunity to participate in sport clubs. Although multiple studies have been conducted on the importance of student involvement, few studies focus specifically on student involvement in sport clubs. This study addressed six research questions: a) do freshmen student sport club participants have higher 1^st term GPAs …

Engagement In An Online Course: The Students' Viewpoint, Michael B. Miller

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Distance education is not a new phenomenon, distance education had its beginning with correspondence education through postal services in the 19th century (Daniel, 2000) and progressed into the 21st century with the use of computer-mediated instruction. Еvеn with аll оf itѕ соnvеniеnсе аnd роrtаbility, thе оnlinе сlаѕѕrооm iѕ ѕtill ѕееn by mаny аѕ lасking thе humаn “соnnесtivity” оf fасе tо fасе соurѕеѕ. Rесеnt findingѕ hаvе ѕhоwn thаt оnlinе lеаrnеrѕ’ lеvеlѕ оf ѕаtiѕfасtiоn, реrfоrmаnсе, аnd ѕеnѕе оf соmmunity аrе rеlаtеd tо thе intеrасtiоnѕ thеy hаvе with thеir inѕtruсtоrѕ, inсluding thе tyре аnd frеquеnсy оf fееdbасk thеy rесеivе оn аѕѕignmеntѕ аnd соurѕе …

November 8, 2013 - Alec Undergraduate Curriculum Committee Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Transcript (University Of Nebraska College Of Law), Volume 46, Number 2, Fall 2013

Nebraska Transcript

Dean’s Message, pg. 2

Faculty Updates

Profile: Richard Duncan, pg. 4

Profile: Glenda Pierce Retires, pg. 6

Faculty Notes, pg. 10

Schmidt Granted Tenure, pg. 20

Hurwitz Uses Computer Science Training, pg. 22

Sullivan Joins Civil Clinic Faculty, pg. 24

Feature:

College Opens Doors to New Clinical Experience, pg. 26

Around the College

Admissions: Introducing the Class of 2016, pg. 30

Poser Tours Air Force Base, pg. 33

CSO: Behind the Statistics, pg. 34

Levick’s Perry Fuller Program Lecture, pg. 38

Cline Williams Jurist in Residence:

Hon. Randall Rader, pg. 40

Pound Lecture Delivered by Levinson, pg. 42

Student Accolades, …

Institutional Governance Of New Program Development At Public Research Universities, Nathan Brad Miller

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Central university administration is often involved with guiding new programs through university and state approvals. A number of factors affect these processes. No studies discuss the role of central administrators in program approvals, however. This study addresses the gap through interviews with 13 individuals responsible for new program approvals in the provost’s office of 12 Research University/Very High public institutions. Five primary themes emerged in the interviews. The themes were used to frame discussion on the purpose, barriers, and self-described roles of the participants. Partial findings from this research were reported in Miller (2013).

Adviser: Marilyn L. Grady

October 11, 2013 - Alec Department Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Volume 14, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2013 (Complete Issue)

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Forum on Admissions and Retention in Honors

Forum Articles

Jerry Herron

Sean K. Kelly

Michael K. Cundall, Jr.

Scott Carnicom

Annmarie Guzy

Jeffrey A. Portnoy

Research Essays

Patricia Joanne Smith and John Thomas Vitus Zagurski

Robert R. Keller and Michael G. Lacy

Lynne Goodstein and Patricia Szarek

Timothy J. Nichols and Kuo-Liang “Matt” Chang

Emily Stark

Increasing Access To Post-Secondary Education: A Mixed Methods Study Of The Charleston Clemente Program, Mariane A. Doyle

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is an economic gap that favors adults who have higher levels of educational attainment (United States Department of Labor, 2010). With more than 9.3 million Americans over the age of 25 facing unemployment as of June 2012 and over 79% or 7.4 million of those unemployed Americans having attained less than a Bachelor’s degree (U.S. Department of Labor, 2012), the current need for college access measures and programs that address the adult population is an imperative one.

The Charleston Clemente Program provides a tuition-free course in the Humanities to economically-disadvantaged adult students for a total of two-semesters. Along with …

September 27, 2013 - Alec Faculty Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Exploring How Chinese Students With Master Degree Locate A Career Placement, Xiaoqian Ma

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative research study recruited ten subjects and explored how these ten Chinese students with master degree located their positions of employment successfully in the United States after they graduated. The research stated different perspectives of job searching methods, difficulties in the application process, preparation before graduation, visa limitations, and suggestions for the upcoming future graduates. The researcher conducted and scheduled ten interviews individually and all research subjects were asked the same questions in the interviews.

Advisor: Miles T. Bryant

The Role Of General Education In The Development Of Ethical Reasoning In College Students: A Qualitative Study On The Faculty Perspective, Deborah J. Erie

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Historically, colleges and universities saw their purpose as educating individuals to be productive, civic-minded individuals. General education was the curricular structure used to provide students with the skills and knowledge that promoted moral and ethical behavior. As societal forces changed the complexion of higher education, the singular purpose of a college education also changed.

There has been extensive research on the ethical and moral development of college students, but little research on the faculty role in the development of ethical reasoning in college students through general education coursework. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the attitudes of …

Personality And Panhellenic Sorority Recruitment: A Quantitative Study Of Personality Typeology And Persistence In Formal Sorority Recruitment Practices, Laura Roof

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Since the inception of Greek life in the late 18th century, the organizations involved have gained attention for both their positive and negative contributions to society. One particular aspect of Greek life that has not always received positive attention, is formal sorority recruitment, which is the main method used by sororities to obtain to new members. In light of this negative attention, this study aims to investigate a positive characteristic of Formal Sorority Recruitment; the type of person or personality it takes to successfully complete the formal recruitment process.

The purpose of this exploratory quantitative research study is to explore …

How College/University Administrators Handle The Disgruntled Parent, Loreal E. Robertson

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative study explored how student affairs and academic affairs professionals communicate with parents of undergraduate students who attend MidPointe University (MPU). The literature review indicates that there has been little research conducted on the nature of the interaction between college and university administrators and parents. Available research studies indicate that administrators communicate with parents with more frequency than expected, considering the past findings. Millennial students are sheltered, pressured, unique, and are overly involved (Howe & Strauss, 2007; Elam, Stratton & Gibson, 2007). Parents of today’s students are making an extra effort to be involved in the lives of their …

Who You Know And How To Go: The Impact Of Social Capital On Higher Education Access For Black Males, Morgan E. St. John

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative case study explores the relationship between social capital, or the social networks in a young man’s life, and access into and persistence in higher education for a group of six Black, male, upperclassmen students at Heartland University. Heartland University is a predominantly White, four-year institution in the Midwest region of the United States. The literature review discusses reasons for the steadily declining rate of males choosing to pursue a college education, particularly young Black men, whom have been referred to as an “endangered species” in society (Johnson, Farrell, & Stoloff, 2000). Providing a framework of social capital theory, …

Expectations V. Reality: A Study About Chinese Students' Expectations And Experiences At A Midwestern University In America, Sarah J. Barg

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to add to the research regarding the expectations and experiences of Chinese students studying at an American university. In doing so, this study sought to examine newly arriving Chinese students’ expectations of what their experience would be like compared to the reality of what their experiences actually were while attending Midwestern State University (MSU). Ten participants participated in two semi-structured interviews. The first set of interviews explored what Chinese students expected their experience studying at MSU to be like. The following interview explored the actual experiences the Chinese students had while studying at …

Fulfilling An Institutional And Public Good Mission: A Case Study Of Access, Renee F. Batman

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Access to higher education has been and remains a critical issue, yet research typically focuses on students and programs which may overlook the role of the faculty. Through an in-depth case study, the perspectives of tenured and tenure-track faculty at a predominately White, Midwestern land-grant, research institution are described as they relate to issues of student access to higher education. The context of the case was instrumental in understanding faculty perspectives of access and centered on the fundamental notion of education as public good and its association with institutional history and mission. The findings suggest that faculty members uphold the …

Success Informs Success: Experiences Of Persisting First-Generation College Males, Taylor Weichman

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research focuses on the experiences of first-generation college males who have successfully persisted into their second year of college. The experiences of a first-generation student have been described as “a constant battle.” The students in this study have overcome the many challenges ascribed to them as first-generation college students, and persisted into their second year of college. Exploring the experiences of these men through their eyes allowed the research to examine the challenges and supports that the men themselves identify as important to their first year experience. This information has implications for future practice involving first-generation students, with the …