For persons new to academia both full timers and part
timers,
including from
mid-life career transitions
For presentation
on June 18, 2003 at the Hawaii International Conference on Business
Cited below are viewpoints and observations that I hope will prove helpful to any aspiring professor as an academic teaching career is pursued. Many suggestions are based on my own style and may not be subscribed to by other experienced professors. I wish to acknowledge the insightful contributions of fellow professors*
The bottom line should be “do as you are”--what is authentic
behavior for you.
1.
Meet with the
department chair to go over details of how the department operates and get as
much characterization as you can on the teaching staff and how courses are
taught within the department. Is there
an instructor’s or faculty handbook available?
Is there a counseling or student advising handbook available? What is the policy on office hours as well as
instructor absences?
2.
If a new hire hasn’t
already done so during the hiring process, then he/she may want to meet with
undergraduate and graduate student representatives to get a sense of student
perceptions of the department, the major, the college, grading and one’s
colleagues. This will provide
information that one can employ when designing courses.
3.
One needs to be VERY
clear on university policies about free speech, sexual harassment,
discrimination and outside consulting.
Although this information sometimes is contained in faculty handbooks,
there are instances when it has not been so.
Find out the local “war stories” in this area.
4.
Go over the details on
how you will be evaluated by the department as well as by the students. Ask to see the official teaching evaluation
form and ask to have the chair go over it with you. Ask if other faculty will
observe your work and what questions they will ask. Ask to see how statistics
are generated both individually and within the department. Ask if the student evaluations are only
numerical or are there also qualitative comments provided. Then, what happens to the evaluations:? Where do they wind
up? How are they used?
5.
Ask for profiles of
“typical” majors and the types of students that take courses in the
department/area in which one is teaching. At Cal Poly I take a show of hands at
the start of every quarter during the first week of instruction. I find in a typical class of 30 students
about half or more are working full time AND going to school full time plus
commuting to campus from all over
6.
Find out about brown
bag series, university centers and institutes, and department/college
partnerships with other universities (e.g. social sciences, engineering and the
like). These can provide speakers and learning opportunities for students. They can also provide new faculty with opportunities
for intellectual stimulation, money and research!
7.
Find out if there are
stipends for guest speakers?
8.
Go over details on
first day of instruction: taking roll, policy on adds
and drops; what sort of audiovisual equipment is available and how do you order
and deal with it, policy on guest speakers as well as class visitors to include
auditing students.
9.
Along the lines above,
find out what types of classrooms are available – AV/computer capable rooms,
seminar style rooms, smart classrooms – and then ‘put in an order’ for the type
of room that is desired for the course.
10. Find out about travel funds, mentor opportunities,
on-campus grant writing advisors and seminars, and internal conference/research
grants. This may have been discussed at the time of hire or during the
interview process.
11. Find out who is responsible for providing computer
equipment and software, and services such as technical support, training, web
page construction, and virus resolution.
12. Go over grading policy.
What are the parameters? When and where do you turn in grades at the end
of the term? Also, how are examinations
and/or quizzes to be conducted? Is there
any set number? Type? objective/quantitative and/or
subjective/qualitative (essay/written). What in testing will get me into
trouble? What if I want to have all cases, or entrepreneurial interviews, or
presentations only?
13. Get your payroll and parking situation settled. Get a
faculty ID card if available. This may
also be your library card.
14. What is the policy on office hours as well as instructor
absences? Find out where your academic office is and what my your required
office
hours, if any. If I have to share an office how do I
cope? Can I improve my situation? Can I get a student assistant?
15. Find about your campus office voicemail telephone
system—get it set up. Also, find out
about and set up your university email.
Make that your principal email vehicle with students. I recommend that you DO NOT use your personal
email in communicating with students. Keep your personal life separate from
your academic/professorial life. Along these lines, I would discourage giving
out your personal/home as well as cell phone numbers.
16. Visit the campus library and become acquainted with the
librarian in your field. (This is very important…like getting to know the cooks
in the Army.) Find out about the online library and catalog features so you can
inform you students. Get a library card.
Also, for all my classes I have a special one hour briefing at the
library by the business librarian on how to do research for any particular
course.
17. Find out when your class list is released and how you are
supposed to handle it. Is there a corrected class list published and when.
18. Textbooks/teaching aids: Get your instructor copy/copies,
usually through the department secretary.
Find out how much students have to pay for textbooks. Are the textbooks
new and are used ones available? Do you
have a choice of the textbook to be used?
Does your school have a written policy on provisioning of required texts
as well as on obtaining copyright release of instructional material? Can
students order online (like Harvard Business Review cases)? Are there
alternatives to textbooks? Are there other bookstore options? What are the
merits/demerits of each.
19. Learn about where to get coursepacks (readers) produced. As
before, try to find out the merits/demerits of various options which may range
from a campus copy center, to college in-house copying to Kinko’s. Be very careful about obtaining written permission
to photocopy any copyrighted materials.
20. Course syllabus: Is there a prescribed one? Is there a model course syllabus? Ask to see the course syllabus used by the
most respected/popular professors and see what the course requirements and load
is. Find out the details on getting your
course syllabus photocopied and ready for distribution on or before the first
day of instruction. What about online
course syllabi or course websites? What
about WebCT (or similar)?
21. Find out the university’s policies and procedures on
student dishonesty and how you can inform students on proper and improper
behavior. You can use a couple of free
services for detecting dishonesty/plagiarism in student papers:
Google.com Just
copy/paste the text into the search box and see what comes up.
Plagiserve.com Check out their homepage to see how to use their service.
I also have students sign and date for turn in an Academic
Integrity Pledge which is attached. It is mainly a preventative and warning
approach; however, it will not fully stop students from academic dishonesty.
1. Locate your classroom and get there about 20 minutes early. Already have gone there and checked it out as to room size, tables and seating, lighting, audiovisual equipment, doors and exits.
2. Have all your course material ready such as course syllabus. Print about 10 copies over the maximum number of students that can be registered for the class. Give a couple copies of your course syllabus to the office staff person for filing, as this may be required. Learn how student course shopping works. Students may lay some real con jobs on beginning faculty persons.
3. Check with the bookstore beforehand on availability of textbooks. Go there in person so you know exactly what’s in stock and where students can find such. Don’t go on first day of instruction because the bookstore will be a zoo. Set a last day to for students to purchase the textbooks. You may want to have students purchase texts on the first day, as some commuting students will find it difficult to return to campus soon. Should you run into problems, such as the required texts not yet in the bookstore, ask your departmental staff person to follow up with the bookstore.
4. Pay attention to perception and set on the first day of instruction. Make sure you are and appear super organized and in charge. I always wear my double-breasted power suit on the first day and am totally businesslike, complete with “serious professor game face.” This approach is strictly a matter of personal style and every professor approaches this differently. The intent is to project to the student the seriousness of the commitment to instruction and achieving academic excellence.
Don’t let students call you by your first name, always Dr. or professor—roll distance/professionalism. Wait about ten minutes before you start
class because some will have difficultly getting there or finding you. Thereafter, ALWAYS start class on time and insist that students get there
and be in their seats ready to go. During the first hour go over your course syllabus in detail, covering all the important points. Then, ask for
questions. Then, take roll after that and/or in the second hour. Emphasize the course workload: generally four contact hours per week and add to that two hours preparation per contact hour or 12 hours per week. If they can’t handle it suggest they not take the class this term. You will find
that a few students will opt out before you take roll and start the second hour. Have any such identify themselves to you before they leave.
5. Suggest you provide a brief oral (and even one page written) bio on yourself and ask students to do the same: name, major, career goals, course load this term, hobbies/interests, foreign travel, foreign languages spoken. Also determine if English is a second language and number of hours per week the student is working as well as number of courses being taken that term. Since I use WebCT in all my hybrid instruction I have students respond to the above on “Student Homepages” and to be done by a certain date so all can see and reference.
6. Never, ever let class out early the first day! Go the full duration. If you let them out early on the first day it sets a precedent that is really hard to break.
7. Remember: Start out hard and then you can ease up later. You can’t reverse the flow once it has been set. You can’t start out easy and then firm up later on in the course. Such will be resisted and resented.
8. Find out who the informal leaders are in the class and get them on your side. The informal leaders will establish the class attitude and flow.
9. Make an effort to learn every student’s name by the end of the third week of the term and call him/her by such in class. You will be able to relate better with them rather than having them believe they are just a seat in the classroom, just a number on the roll sheet. Some ways to help you do this include name tags (5X8 cards folded in half) placed on desks, taking photos of students, and entering the names of individuals in your spreadsheet for the class.
10. Show respect for every student and for his or her involvement in the class. Encourage questions. Keep others silent while a student (or you) is speaking. Be patient and tolerant of those whose English is poor. Avoid any phrase or statement that could be construed as sexist, racist, or harassing, especially if you choose to tell a joke.
11. I don’t tend to socialize with the students except for university or college events, including clubs. During final exams week I usually go out to a nice restaurant with graduate students and turn back all graded work and grades there.
1. There are several strategies that you can employ to improve your teaching evaluations by students. Here is what I do:
a. On the first or second day of instruction I ask the students to take out a blank sheet of paper and without inserting any names or student numbers write down on one side of the paper: “What I want to get out of this class? What I want the class to do for me?” On the other side of the paper write down: “What I don’t want to have happen in this class!” Write in bullet fashion. Instruct students to give their honest views. Give your honest views. Then have a student gather the papers. Then, several options: go through right there and read through and react to the input, or better yet, read through the papers, gather your thoughts and give your reaction/response at the next class meeting. This is an excellent way for you to gather environmental information on your class and give feedback so that they know you are listening. Tell them you will resurvey them later.
b. Midway through the course survey again. Ask the student to write down on a blank sheet of paper a response to the following two questions:
“How is the course going for you?” and “What needs to be improved/done differently in this course? You may choose to give feedback on these responses right away, but soon for sure.
c. Towards the end of the term/course, do another paper survey with these questions: “How did the course go for you? How did it meet your objectives?” and “What can or should be done to improve the course the next time it is taught?”
Be sure to run this last survey before you hand back all graded work and assign grades or do the formal course evaluation. I inform the students that the official evaluation form does not provide me with qualitative data to make improvements and that their input is highly valued.
On the last day of instruction, after turning back all the graded work and having assigned grades, I tell students what changes I’ll be making to the next iteration of the course. It is also a way of testing out and getting final feedback of your plans. Students like to feel that the professor will indeed make changes even though they won’t be implemented before the end of the term. I also tell them which ideas may not be implement and why. This all models the “open learning environment.”
2. Talk with other professors on how to deal with informal and formal course evaluations—pick their brains. Lately, I’ve been running anonymous student evaluations on WebCT midcourse and just before official end of course evaluations.
3. Always accept “critique in progress.” Have students inform you while the course is in progress about any problems, ideas, input, etc. which will make the course run smoother. When/if any comments are worthy of praise do so publicly.
4. Encourage students who cannot or will not make the time commitment to the course to drop early. Remaining in the class they will complain about
excessive workload, receive poor grades and eventually rate you low on the student evaluations. A problem avoided is a problem solved.
5. Turn back ALL graded work on the last day of instruction. It is unfair to students to not provide them with full feedback on their work, particularly end of term projects/papers. Seldom do they pick up the work the next term and so the evaluation loop is not completed. Your diligently written product critiques will not be read. So what then was the point?
6. Assign and hand out ALL grades on the last day of instruction, usually final exam day. In my classes students can readily access the online capability to ascertain grades on a current basis. The only grades not available until the end are on the project/paper and my instructor evaluation of each. I then hold in my office the “Cuss and Discuss Hour,” wherein all grading is thoroughly discussed with any questioning student(s) and agreement is reached on the grade before they walk away. If a student is on the borderline the deciding factor will be assessments of student participation from online capability statistics and my own subjective analysis. Too, all students assign scores on peer evaluations on their group work, which is factored into the group work grade.
7. Let’s admit it: grades do affect instructor evaluations heavily and, hence, have been a powerful incentive at all schools for instructors to inflate grades. I strongly recommend to the new hire to survey your principles on this issue and DO NOT inflate grades. If you get into the mode of inflating grades you are in the wrong profession! Be cognizant of information gathered in A1 and A4 when designing grading policies/curves.
1. Every academic department has a document called Retention, Tenure and Promotion (RTP) It provides very detailed guidance on
what behaviors are required for each action. Ask to receive and read a copy. Go through it thoroughly and then go back to the chair and ask
clarifying questions.
For example at the MHR Department at Cal Poly the document weights teaching and advising performance at 50%; contribution to intellectual
capital, such as doing research, writing and delivering professional papers at 25%; and service (to the university, college, department and/or
community) at 25%. Ask to see a recent successful RTP package that is akin to your situation.
2. If
you have prior academic and/or work experience you should be able to negotiate
getting tenure in less time. At Cal Poly
Pomona the regular
time to achieve tenure is six years. You may be able to get one or two years of
credit to reduce that time to
3. Make time to meet with all tenure faculty to gain their views on all of the topics discussed here as well as their guidance on how to go about getting started. See if you can find someone to mentor you.
4. Conducting research and publishing is very important at a four year university. You need to choose an area in which you want to do research (we call it a research stream), preferably an area in which you can become well known. It might be helpful to undertake collaborative research with a tenured faculty member. However, find out the ‘real story’ about joint interdisciplinary work. Some reviewers don’t know how to evaluate the contributions in a shared article and you could wind up being punished by tenure evaluators.
5. Make efforts to go departmental and college events such as faculty meetings and social events. By all means bring your significant other to social events
6. Take a look at this: “The Teaching Portfolio at Washington State Univ,” Office of the Provost.
1. I recommend that you rapidly gain knowledge of online instruction as this is the wave of the future, much of which is already here and now.
1. Start reading on how to teach online and make a plan to start doing so.
2. Check out books on online teaching on Amazon.com.
3. Check out “Teaching with the Web.”
4. Surf
through the
5. Surf
through the
6.
7. Page Design’s “Online Teaching and Distance Education.”
8. Merlot
9. “Course Server Software for Online Teaching” for discussion and links to various capabilities.
10.
11. Yahoo Directory of “Online Teaching and Learning.”
12. “Lessons Learned:
Exemplary Practices in Teaching Web Evaluation,”
14. Find out if your university has online teaching capability. At Cal Poly Pomona we use WebCT, a commercial product. However, there are many
competitors in the academic field.
15. If you are not able to use a university online teaching capability try Yahoogroups.com. I used it for over two years and it works well—it
has many features. If you need help in setting it up please contact me.
2. At
summer weeklong workshops on PageMill 3.0, Dreamweaver 4.0 (now MX), and WebCT. I am now learning Macromedia’s Flash MX in order to take my
web pages to the next level.
Please feel free to pass this Mini Manual along to colleagues. As it will undergo revisions suggest you have them contact me for the latest. If you are reading a version which is over six months old please contact to see if there is a later, more current version.
Feedback is always welcome. I would like to know what worked and what didn’t work for you. Please tell me if you would like attribution on your approach/technique suggestion.
*Credits: I wish to
express sincere appreciation to thoughtful critique and added wisdom reflected
in various sections of this Mini Manual to: Dr. Stanley Abraham and Dr. Gail
Waters, Professors, Management and Human Resources Dept, Cal Poly Pomona; and
to Dr. Jean-Marc Blanchard, Research Associate, Browne Center for International
Politics, University of Pennsylvania.
Management and Human Resources
Department
College of Business Administration
California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona)
email: pgrogers@csupomona.edu
Homepage: http://www.csupomona.edu/~pgrogers
If you’re not
having fun, you’re not doing it right!
Ó 2003, Jerry Rogers. All worldwide rights reserved.
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