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Survey of Faculty Practices
In response to a request from the Committee on Planning and Priorities, a "survey of faculty practices" was designed and implemented a during the Fall 2005 semester. The survey instruments and results of the initial analysis are posted here. Faculty members who would like to do their own analyses on the original data can contact the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment for the SPSS data file.
Background and Directions
(copied directly from the Microsoft Word document as presented at Academic Leaders)
The College’s ongoing commitment to the success of the academic transformation necessitates that we confirm the rigor and integrity of the new system. To that end, the Committee on Planning and Priorities has asked the Office of Academic Affairs to gather information regarding current practices in the area of course assignments. This request is based, in part, on the May 2001 joint document from CAP and CFA -- Student and Faculty Work at TCNJ: A Final Recommendation – recommending that: (a) “students should be required to do substantial work outside the classroom” and (b) the administration create a calendar with a significant reading period and a class schedule that allows, at the discretion of the instructor, each course to have an additional time block reserved for it in the class schedule. When a new schedule was subsequently recommended, CAP called for a follow-up assessment of its effectiveness. In addition, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution ( 3/23/05 ) expressing confusion and concern about the reading week and final exam policies, and asked for clarification.
Department and program chairs are being asked to collect one copy of the following form for each course being taught at the College. Multiple sections of a single course being taught by a single instructor may be combined onto one form.
Please understand that no attempt will be made to judge any single course or instructor based on the information gathered. Rather the information is being gathered in order to review our practices as a whole and to evaluate whether to recommend changes in policy or practice in areas such as the schedule grid, the reading week, and final exams or assignments.
Please answer the following questions based on what is specified in your course syllabus.
Survey Instruments
Each academic department was given the option of administering the survey to their faculty in one of two ways: via the web or via a paper survey form created in TeleForms. In addition, some departments used copies of the Microsoft Word document discussed at the Academic Leaders meeting. PDF versions of each type of survey collected are available here:
Results
The Committee on Planning and Priorities requested that descriptive statistics and frequency distributions be reported at the institutional level, for each school, and for each department. The reports generated from the SPSS analysis at each of these levels are available here. In addition, the answers provided for the four questions in "long answer" format have been summarized and listed by department within school for each question.
- TCNJ Institutional Report
- School and Departmental Reports (links to files in table below)
- Summary of Comments for questions with long answers
| School of Art, Media & Music | Art and Interactive Multimedia (not submitted with individual department identifiers) |
|---|---|
| Music | |
| School of Business | School of Business Departments (same as school report - not submitted with individual department identifiers) |
| School of Culture & Society | Classical Studies |
| English | |
| History (department data not included in School or Institution report) | |
| Modern Languages | |
| Philosophy & Religion | |
| Psychology | |
| Sociology & Anthropology | |
| Women & Gender Studies | |
| School of Education | Counselor Education |
| Educational Administration & Secondary Education | |
| Elementary & Early Childhood Education | |
| Special Education, Language & Literacy | |
| School of Engineering | Engineering |
| Technological Studies | |
| School of Nursing | Undergraduate Nursing |
| Graduate Nursing | |
| School of Science | Biology |
| Chemistry | |
| Computer Science | |
| Mathematics & Statistics | |
| Physics | |
Summary of "long answers" and comments
- Comment on "Is there a final assignment for this course?" (125 responses)
- Response to "Please note 'other' projects or homework:" (292 responses)
- Answer to "Do you use a structured time period (e.g., a "fourth hour") to enable or facilitate student learning? If yes, how do you use this time?" (173 responses)
- Answer to "In the new schedule grid, what features work well and what needs to be changed?" (176 responses)
Data for the above are also available in Microsoft Excel format, with separate worksheet tabs for each long answer.
