New Faculty - Lunch November 1oth

During the New Faculty Orientation I asked if you would be interested in a luncheon, with wine, to discuss your experience so far.  Enough people expressed interest that we're proceeding.  It's free.

• When - Tuesday, November 10th - 12:00-1:00 + time to linger till 1:30 if you wish.
• Where - Academic Bistro - Top Floor of Academic Building at 33rd and Arch.  A splendid away-from-it place with a great view and good atmosphere.
• Who - 20 New Faculty, 5 DCAE Fellows, 5 Organizers - First-come, first-serve within those groups.
• Food - By the Culinary Arts students - whatever they prepare for us that day - it's usually very good.
• What We'll Do - In the poll (below) that you'll complete if you're interested, you're asked to suggest a discussion topic.  I'll try and group people with like interests at tables.  We'll ask that the tables report to the whole group at the end of lunch.
• Will we repeat it - Yes, once a term for the balance of the year if you think it's worthwhile.

If you're interested

Please complete the poll that asks your name, email, category (new faculty, DCAE Fellow, Organizer), a question/issue you'd like to discuss and your food and wine preferences. Google Docs Poll.

We'll take them first-come-first-serve within the groups up to the maximum that we have available.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Jim Mitchell

A Few Tips for Faculty New and Old: Things I wish I had learned earlier.

A Few Tips for Faculty New and Old:  Things I wish I had learned earlier.

1.    Keep a clear set of classroom rules and stick to them. 

2.    Before you make an exception, consider whether you are willing to make the same exception, for the same reasons for any other student under similar conditions.  Would you be willing to publicly defend this exception?  If not, then don't make it.  I learned this the hard way when I kept making exceptions for a student with one sad story after another.  She never complied with the agreements to finish her work.  Then she said, "How can I fail the course?  I haven't done any work."  True story! 

3.    Students are adults, in theory.  I treat them as such.  I tell them that it is their job to notify me if they will miss a class due to illness, competing obligations, etc.  They have the syllabus the first day of class.  So, they know when assignments are due.  In the real world you suffer consequences if you miss a deadline without cause.  Similarly, I demand and model respect for all in the classroom.  You can discuss controversial issues without ad hominem or acrimony.

4.    Require that students submit their paper electronically through the Turnitin.com option in Blackboard.  This provides an easy way to check for plagiarism.  It also provides an organized, electronic record of who turned in a paper and who did not.

5.    Communication is key.  Stress to students that they can and should contact you if they have questions and problems.  Similarly, if you have to change something in the course, a brief explanation is helpful to students.  Remember number 2 above, if you might extend the date for the return of graded papers due to your own illness, then maybe you should accept a late paper from a student who can document an illness of similar severity.

6.    Enjoy the ride.  Parts of teaching are onerous.  But, there are also moments of pure bliss, such as when you witness a student grasping a difficult concept or when the class is truly engaged in the discussion.  These make the rest worthwhile.

This list doesn't cover everything.  But at least it is a beginning.

 

Constance Perry

Beloit Mindset List - Date-Based Facts about Entering Students

Beloit has become mildly famous for posting this annual list of "oh my god" date-based facts.  My most memorable was the year they told me that John Lennon was dead before "this class" was born - How to feel ancient in a big-big hurry.

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php

Jim Mitchell

 

Here's the introduction to this year's list. ***********

If the entering college class of 2013 had been more alert back in 1991 when most of them were born, they would now be experiencing a severe case of déjà vu. The headlines that year railed about government interventions, bailouts, bad loans, unemployment and greater regulation of the finance industry. The Tonight Show changed hosts for the first time in decades, and the nation asked “was Iraq worth a war?”

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Emeritus Public Affairs Director Ron Nief.  It is used around the world as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation. It is widely reprinted and the Mindset List website at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ receives more than 300,000 hits annually.

As millions of students head off to college this fall, most will continue to experience the economic anxiety that marked their first two years of life just as it has marked their last two years of high school. Fears of the middle class--including their parents--about retirement and health care have been a part of their lives. Now however, they can turn to technology and text a friend: "Momdad still worried bout stocks. urs 2? PAW PCM".

Members of the class of 2013 won't be surprised when they can charge a latté on their cell phone and curl up in the corner to read a textbook on an electronic screen. The migration of once independent media—radio, TV, videos and CDs—to the computer has never amazed them. They have grown up in a politically correct universe in which multi-culturalism has been a given.  It is a world organized around globalization, with McDonald's everywhere on the planet. Carter and Reagan are as distant to them as Truman and Eisenhower were to their parents. Tattoos, once thought "lower class," are, to them, quite chic. Everybody knows the news before the evening news comes on.

Thus the class of 2013 heads off to college as tolerant, global, and technologically hip…and with another new host of The Tonight Show.

Philadelphia Half-Day Escapes

As Center City dwellers, on weekends we want to see some greenery, leaving the sirens and bus fumes behind.  On this Google Map of half-day escapes I've collected some of our favorites.  They're clearly biased towards quiet walks in green surroundings, with very little that's adventurous or raucous. 

I've identified those that are readily accessible by bicycle or public transportation, though many more are accessible if you take a bicycle on the train - which Septa allows, if not always gracefully.

If you like this sort of thing you might want to get "A guide to the Great Gardens of the Philadelphia Region" by Adam Levine - Temple University Press - 2007.

Jim Mitchell

Now It's Your Turn - After The New Faculty Orientation

Now you're "oriented" -  from comments I heard some think that "stuffed" or perhaps "deluged" might be more appropriate. 

I sat through all but the very last session attempting to put myself back 20 years and experience the orientation as you did.  I heard admirable welcomes from our President and Provost, very practical financial realities from HR and much well-intentioned advice from those of us no longer wearing a fresh coat of paint.

Now it's your turn.

• Did you complete the evaluation forms for DCAE?  If not I'm sure that an EMail with your opinions and suggestions to Antonis Asprakis would be much appreciated  aja22@Drexel.edu.
• If there are topics that you wish had been covered  or covered in more depth why not raise them here - I'm sure you'll get a response.  Just email to Newfaculty2009@lists.drexel.edu
• Feel free to contact any of those you heard from or met.  You can find most people and offices via Drexel's search - http://www.drexel.edu/search/

There will be at least one more survey, probably in mid-fall, and perhaps one in the spring.  By that time you'll be seasoned Drexel faculty ready to help next year's colleagues.

What we do with this online community is up to you.  I'll be submitting a few more posts as inspiration hits (including one I promised my table about "escaping Philadelphia"), but I plan to fade into the background as I prepare for classes. 

I hope that many of you will start submitting your own experiences/questions/opinions to keep this community alive.

 

Jim Mitchell

High School Project Interview - Detailed answers

Thanks to the web we quite frequently get requests for “interviews” from high school students who’ve been given a class project.  Usually these requests are broad, with indications that the student done little independent research other than find the names of many someones to write.  To those my polite response is usually to send them a couple of URLs with general information about the field and our department, with an invitation to follow up with more specific questions.  Rarely does anyone pursue it further.  Today one student did follow up.   I thought my response might be of more general interest, so here it is.

Jim Mitchell

****************************

Connor:

Thank you for your specific response. I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Yes you may use my webpage to answer some of the broader questions.

Why did I go into teaching architectural engineering?

I've always liked teaching. It has always seemed to me to be an effort to pass on the knowledge of one generation to the next, one that I honored greatly. More specifically, when I was in practice as an architect I realized that many of the problems in the buildings that we created arose from the lack of thorough coordination between the engineers and architects who designed the buildings. When an opportunity arose to address this issue, first part-time and full-time, I leapt at it. I've never regretted it.

What classes should a high school student take?

The same classes that you've undoubtedly heard your teachers espousing for a long time:

Mathematics - as much as you can get, at least through precalculus.

Sciences - physics is most important to our area, but chemistry and even biology are important as well.

Communication - particularly written communication. All engineers need to write in order to make proposals and report on what they've done. Many do it atrociously and their careers suffer in consequence.

Second-language - ours is an increasingly international world. A second-language will serve you well.

Technology for learning

My classes change continually to use what I think of as the latest technology.  I haven't yet found a use for Twitter, but I'm always experimenting. Students in my classes have to document their projects using the World Wide Web (Internet) for example and have done so for close to 15 years. We use computer programs extensively including energy simulation and structural analysis.

The Future of Architectural Engineering

I believe architectural engineering will be greatly influenced over the next 15 years by technological developments in many areas. Most important is BIM (building information modeling), but we will see increasing use of robotics, new materials, and the use of information technology more broadly.  Increased internationalization will have big effects as well, some of them quite difficult.

Hands-on in classes

In our curriculum we have multiple laboratory classes starting in the first year and extending into the senior year. Students have experience with breaking things (testing) in materials labs, shaking things (soil samples) in soils labs, and making things (many things) in a number of design classes.  There are also active student groups in “concrete canoe” and “steel bridge” competitions.

Student work

Because Drexel is a cooperative education school almost all of our students will have had three 6-month jobs in their industry before they graduate.  Even in these bad economic times virtually all of our students go right into jobs, many of which are nailed down months before they graduate.

I hope this helps.

Jim Mitchell

One View of Education's Future

Robert Cringely is a long-term, savvy observer of the tech industry.  Today he produced a piece about the education world, arguing that big change is coming.  His piece has already produced much intriguing discussion in the comment section below it.  For a challenge to business-as-usual I recommend the read.

http://www.cringely.com/2009/09/burn-baby-burn/

Jim Mitchell

Anticipating the New Faculty Orientation

Tomorrow, Tuesday the day after Labor Day, you'll get a chance to hear from many people at the university about the varied aspects of life here. Possibly just as important will be the opportunity to meet your colleagues who are new. While some of the sessions are straightforwardly information-oriented, some of them are intended to help you get to know each other and form what could be long-lasting and rewarding relationships.

If you want to get a sense of some of your colleague's backgrounds and interests before the workshops you might want to go to the VistaBB site "New Faculty Community - 2009-2010" which you can access at http://learning.drexel.edu using the credentials that were sent to you earlier - your Drexel ID and password if you are already in Drexel system. In that site you'll see under "Discussions" a link to "Introduce Yourself to the Community." There you'll find self-descriptions by approximately 25 new faculty as well as some of us older folk.

I expect to be at the orientation for most of both days and very much look forward to talking with those of you who I know as only email addresses. Please feel free to grab me and tell me what needs to be improved with this first year's effort to help new faculty easily join the Drexel community. I can also answer questions or point you to those who can answer them.

Jim Mitchell - Editor

Time Management Advice to a nephew student

I've been a trustee for a nephew who's returning to college full-time, determined to become an engineer - for the last two years he's majored in surfing the entire Pacific coast of the Americas. To my surprise he's several times asked me seriously for advice.

The following is what I recently wrote him in response to a question about whether he could afford to study and have a part time job. It reflects my experience of advising engineering students over 20 years and is noticeably different from the "three hours outside of class for every hour in class" advice that students often hear - and don't believe.

Jim Mitchell

xxxxxx:

My experience is that the reality of what it takes to succeed, unless you have a really stinko professor, is an honest 40 hour work week. Generally I've found that the following is about right for classes and homework combined, NOT counting break time, TV+ time etc. - there are always a few exceptions that make the rest of us see bright purple spots of envy, but these are pretty reliable based on class surveys that I've conducted.

• <=25 hours/week = failures
• ~30 hours/week = Ds
• ~35 hours/week = C's
• ~45 hours/week = B's
• ~55 hours/week = A's

Since there are 168 hours in a week you can do the arithmetic with me:

• Let's assume 7 hours of sleep a night = 50 hours
• Let's assume 2 hours/day for meals and stuff = 15 hours
• Committed hours are therefore 65
• Add 60 hours for "A" goal = 125
• Hours left for other things = 168-125 = 43

It's a time management thing - TV and "hanging out" are the big killers, plus how much surfing you plan for (including transportation time). There are hours in there for a part time job if you choose, but something else is likely to be curtailed.

My experience is that good students are generally very disciplined about their time management. They don't give up a social life, but they're organized about it and willingly (if regretfully) forgo a significant number of fun things for the necessary work.

One thing that I and many others have found beneficial is to promise yourself a "fun" break AFTER you've accomplished a specific goal. In my case it might be a chocolate chip cookie or a half hour of watching a soccer match after finishing a problem set or something like that.

Drexel Information Site for New Faculty - Personal Picks

If you're an experienced Googler you can find almost anything at Drexel.  With some hesitation, therefore, I commend to you my own effort to gather and organize links that I wish I'd had when I started.  The categories are:

• Drexel Organization
• Students
• Facilities
• Online Resources
• Helpful People
• Grading and Course Administration
• Key Dates

It's a very personal, emphatically non-official, annotated guide that attempts to decode some of the many acronyms you'll hear and point you in the direction of further help.

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~mitcheje/Mitchell_Courses/Talks/NewFaculty2009/index.shtml 

There's a link to it as well in the Online Community's "Faculty Career" Resources page - along with several other helpful links.

Jim Mitchell

Results of the New Faculty Online Community Survey

What prompted the decision to start an email discussion list was the response to the survey that many of you took.  You were overall appreciative of the community, but many of you were "too busy" to follow it. 

Since the DCAE fellows felt the same way we took their suggestion and starting this email discussion group. 

If you want to see the details of what I concluded from that survey here's the link.

The quick summary is:

Overall Conclusions

• Most appreciated the choice of discussion areas and blog topics
• The dominant reason for minimal or non-participation was that people were "too busy".  (This observation is what led ultimately to the email discussion list.)
• - Some of the comments indicated that this would change as the start of the school year approaches.
• Technical Problems impeded almost no one.

Changes Desirable

Immediate Change

• No changes in the general approach or in the details appear necessary.

Future Changes

• At this point there's no reason to change the pattern for a future year.

· Qualification

We may change our minds about this after the workshop and as the year progresses. There may indeed become issues as we hear from those who did not participate in this survey. The faculty’s experience during their first year may also change their minds.

Jim Mitchell

Email Discussion for New Faculty Community

We're starting an Email discussion list (Listserv) for the Drexel New Faculty online community. 

We've begun the list because the DCAE fellows (those who are members of the community) said that most of them wanted "push" contact with the community rather than the current "pull" contact. 

In normal language that means that they wanted the discussion to happen via email rather than having to logon to the Drexel's VistaBB site.  That site, however, is still active and you're welcome to continue using it - we're not abandoning it.

To achieve this we've enrolled everyone in the email discussion list, having tested it first to be certain that you can:

• quit if you don't like receiving the list's emails.
• receive a daily digest rather than immediate copies of each discussion email. [We've set the default to immediate - you'll probably want to email me (see below) to request a change.]

How to Join in the email discussion

• Reply to any Email from the list, including this one.  That reply will go to the whole list.   Use the same address to start your own discussion topic with a new email. [Note that Listserv software is very picky about the email address.  If your email program uses a different email "from" address from the one that we sent to, an alias for example, we'll need to substitute that address - just tell me by an email to ME not the whole list (see below), we'll substitute the new one.]
• If you've decided to receive only a daily digest you might want to change the subject of your reply to the 'topic' you're specifically responding to.  That will inform your readers.

How to Quit or Modify Your Preferences

• If you're familiar with listserv software all the standard commands will work.  Unsubscribing is covered succinctly on IRT's information page.
• If you just want to email me with what you want (quit, substitute another email address, change frequency to daily digest) that's fine.  My Email (with punctuation removed to avoid spam) is
  James.Mitchell(usual punctuation)Drexel.edu

Security

Until we have difficulties this is an open discussion to which anyone can add themselves and post.  If the address gets out in the wild then we'll have to put in place annoying security procedures.  Let's hope we can avoid that.

Blog & Discussion List Overlap

We're posting this description to the New faculty community blog as well.  We will also be sending out prior and future blog entries as emails to the discussion list because it's likely that many have missed those blog entries.  The email discussions resulting from specific posts will not be duplicated on the blog.

Jim Mitchell - Editor

Personal Productivity For New Faculty

In some ways it's laughable to address faculty about personal productivity.  You've all been enormously productive to get this far and have found ways that work for you.  Nonetheless you're adding responsibilities as a faculty member that you probably didn't have before as a graduate student, business employee or adjunct:  Classes; Advising; Committees.

If you're tenure-track you have an entire research program to develop and maintain.  If you're teaching faculty you have a heavy load.  Staying productive is a continuing challenge.

Is there a "right answer"? - Of course not

I'll offer some strategies that may assist you, with emphasis on your new responsibilities.  Pick and choose - mix and match - ignore me.

Classes Productivity

• Prepare a good syllabus and do your best to stick to it - that will avoid many student questions and time wasting problems.  Students will particularly appreciate clear expectations about: grading policies; homework expectations; mid-term exam and project/paper submission dates - that will save you grief.
• Check your plan against the academic calendar.  Avoid problems with holidays.  Remember the "drop" and "add" dates.
• If you have Teaching Assistants or graders plan out the term for them and make clear what are your expectations. 
• Define the mechanics and timing of submissions and returns of student work.  It's my belief, not shared by all faculty, that prompt return (within a week maximum) of all student work promotes better learning and eases your own load.
• Use technology to help - but that's a separate topic.
• Lots, lots more - I welcome additions.

Advising Productivity

• Office Hours - It's university policy that you must have office hours.  My experience over 20 years is that specific office hours are often little-used by students - usually because of their very busy schedules.   My own approach is to have an open-door policy when at Drexel, to include my email in syllabi and to reply within 24 hours (usually much more rapidly) to student inquiries.  When teaching a large (200+) class I used an electronic newsletter to address student issues. 
• Hideaway - Those with strong research programs often have to limit the hours they're accessible to students in order to be productive at the research.  A separate, non-published, research hideaway may be beneficial so long as you make yourself predictably accessible in your "regular" office.
• Other Resources - It's worth investigating the many, many advising resources at the university, both academic and extra-academic.  An appropriate referral with an explanation of what to expect can save you and the student a lot of time.  I usually close with - "and if you don't find what you want there feel free to come back and see me."  If you're expected to do a significant amount of advising it might be worth your time to physically visit some of the important offices and get to know a few key people.

Committees Productivity

• Pick your committees carefully - here's my advice
• Feel free to ask what is the time commitment for any chore that comes up in a committee.  It's generally a lot better to decline up front than not perform it.
• Be prepared to leave at the end of the scheduled committee time - citing your prior appointment.  Too many run over.

Technology Tools

I'm an extremist in believing in the benefits of technology to help you be productive.  You don't have to be as far-out as I am to benefit greatly.  I'll address some of my favorites in a separate post.

 

Jim Mitchell

Mobile Technology in the Classroom

With the proliferation of mobile devices, there is also great potential to use mobile technologies to enhance learning whether by mobile phone, a PDA, iPod with video, or combination of these. Now Google, YouTube and text messaging are all done with mobile devices, freeing up students to anytime, anywhere learning. In higher education, incorporating mobile devices for online and hybrid course formats has the potential to introduce new paradigms of learning and to expand opportunities for university learning.

I made a dramatic discovery in the fall of 2007 when I asked education students in an online course on instructional design to develop a podcast of a demonstration – a technique, process or procedure, starting with something they really understood. The assignment counted as a performance assessment.

I can only say that the results were amazing. One podcast was authored by an artist who demonstrated a technique in art (she used video), sequencing the process from start to finish (it reminded me of a cooking demonstration on TV), with another person who acted as the novice student, asking questions and getting feedback. This enactment was better evidence of best practice than a written test!

I was fortunate to have the technical support of our college’s media support team who provided a podcast website for the course and helped students upload their work.

Liz Haslam

Sports for Faculty Members

Playing

Many faculty take advantage of the Drexel facilities for exercise and recreational competition.  My own passion is squash, served by courts in the bowels of the Daskalakis Athletic Center (DAC) on the north side of Market between 33 and 34th streets - currently experiencing a major addition.  That same building includes facilities that are available (mostly scheduled) for:

• Badminton
• Basketball
• Exercise machines
• Free weights
• Squash
• Swimming
• Table Tennis
• Volleyball

There are also available for recreational use

• Tennis courts
• Soccer/Lacrosse field

To make use of the facilities you need to purchase a quite inexpensive athletics pass.  You can also sign up for an inexpensive locker.  Inquire at the DAC entrance.

Watching

As you might expect, Drexel has an active varsity sports program, conducted in multiple locations.

• Basketball is the big varsity sport with pep-rallies and large attendance at games in the DAC during the season.
• Swimming, Diving and wrestling all occur in the DAC as well.
• Field sports take place at "Drexel Field" at 43rd street North of Market.  As a futbol (soccer) fan I've enjoyed a number of games there.  But they also host: Lacrosse, Tennis, Field Hockey
• Drexel Crew has a boathouse on boathouse row on the Schuylkill River.
• Drexel Golf occurs as well, but not close to campus so far as I'm aware.

Advising

If you have an interest in a sport there are many non-varsity sports that need a faculty advisor.  I found myself the advisor to the Drexel squash club despite my mediocre abilities and have seen them flourish to my great pleasure with very little active effort on my part - and much highly-disciplined effort on the part of the students.

Jim Mitchell

Committees – Career Benefits

Pick your committees carefully.  They’re everywhere.  If there’s a faculty meeting and a contentious issues comes up there will almost always be a committee created to study it.  If you want to change something that’s currently done one way you’ll probably have to get committee approval to do it differently.

From a very crass point of here are the criteria that I’d recommend in picking your committee memberships.

• How visible is it?  Will service there be perceived as a “good thing” at tenure or contract time?
• How much time does it take?  Some committees meet often and have considerable outside work.  They can be immensely valuable (e.g. Faculty Senate committees), but can also be great time sinks.  Others meet a couple of times a year with only discussion necessary.  Both occupy a single line on an annual report.  Check the expectations and match them to your responsibilities and goals.
• Who will you meet on the committee?  Committees that go beyond your immediate discipline or department can be very beneficial in making you known.  This can help both in forming alliances for projects (grant proposals or other) and how opinions are formed – particularly for tenure decisions.
• How controversial is the committee?  It’s wise not to irritate senior professors making  judgments about your future.  Of course “visible” and “controversial” are sometimes synonymous.

Notice that I didn’t talk about the benefits to the profession, the university, or your department.  All those are obvious and indeed should enter into you thinking, but early in your career you’re probably focused on establishing yourself so you can continue.

Once again I emphasize that these are my own opinions and are not official.

Jim Mitchell

Living In Center City

We're fortunate that we were able to buy at the low end of the market, 30 years ago, just before our daughter was born.  As a result we live in a four-story house at 21st and Locust streets, a block from Rittenhouse Square, one of the most balanced, loved small urban parks in the country.  Housing at my corner is no longer cheap, but within five or six blocks there are still possibilities for younger faculty.

What do I love about living here?

• Almost everything we need for daily life is within walking distance: groceries, hardware, books, ice-cream, flowers.
• Curtis Institute, one of the world's great music schools, is just across the square, with free concerts two or more times a week.  The concert quality ranges from good to world class.
• We have only one car, whereas we'd need two if we lived out.
• I can ride my bicycle to Drexel in six minutes - I waste almost no time commuting.
• We're surrounded by excellent restaurants - diner to among country's best - again all in walking distance.
• Our daughter got a fine education at a private school - admittedly not "free", but we didn't have that second car and commuting expenses, and our property taxes were reasonable.
• A branch of the Free Library (you can get a card since you work in Philadelphia) is a block away, with the main library a five minute bike-ride on the parkway.
• When we want "country" it's easy to get to in all directions. We've tried the suburbs (Lansdowne) which allowed us a vegetable garden and a backyard larger than a large carpet, but we've been happy in Center City for many years.

Jim Mitchell

Vista Bb—Getting started

Drexel is a major Blackboard client—I’ve heard us called a “flagship” Blackboard school—and what that means is that you will find that Bb Vista is ubiquitous and quite well supported here. Every Drexel course automatically has an accompanying Bb Vista course Website, which you can access via either one.drexel.edu or https://learning.dcollege.net (which may well be the way you are accessing this site). There are a number of templates you can choose, and you have some flexibility with the look and feel of your course, but the main piece of advice I’m going to provide is this:

You should get to know the folks at our Instructional Resources & Technology (IRT) Department’s Faculty Development Center (FDC): http://www.drexel.edu/IRT/faculty.html.

The FDC has an onsite home base on the first floor of the Korman Center. I think you will find the members of the FDC ready, willing, and able to provide you with assistance on all aspects of teaching through Bb Vista. And "teaching" is the key word here. Sure, it's great to learn to zoom around with a new technology, but we're teachers, and we are seeking educational applications for learning technologies, not just digital bells and electronic whistles. The IRT folks understand this.

In the Freshman Writing Program, of which I’m the director, we use a lot of communication tools in Bb Vista, especially the message board tool, Discussions. We have run several collaborative workshops with the FDC folks, with an FDC person talking about the tech and one of our folks talking about teaching applications. These techies do an outstanding job of helping you find pedagogical applications for the technologies. Basically, there is no need to fly blind when getting up to speed with Bb Vista at Drexel. The University provides faculty with many user-friendly resources through IRT, and you should take advantage of them.

Scott Warnock

Advising Students

There's no single best way to advise students, the situations in which advice is appropriate vary too much as do the participants.  What follows therefore is one individual's take on some common situations and resources.

When in doubt - Ask Advice Yourself

Since advising is an area with consequences for mistakes, my first recommendation is:  When in doubt, ask.  Depending on the situation here are some of the resources that might be useful:

Situation	Resources	Comment
Course Content	Your colleagues Subject librarians	Self-evident, but worth remembering
Academic Advising	Departmental Advisors Student Resource Center (SRC)	Most departments have both faculty and/or staff members assigned to advising.  They're invaluable. The SRC has lists of advisors as well as many general advising resources and forms.
Teaching & Learning	Drexel Center for Academic Excellence (DCAE)	This resource is for faculty, not students, but you can get advice on handling many student issues there.
Student Personal Problems	Student Life Services	Many, many services to which you can refer students - It's amazing how many students aren't aware of the services - almost all of which are "free". I generally refer students rather than deal with tough situations.  In crises I've physically walked a student to the specific resource - e.g. counseling center.
Financial Problems	Financial Aid	Drexel goes a long way to try and help in the many situations in which students find themselves.  I generally refer students rather than try to give specific advice on this very complex area.
Judicial Problems	Office of Student Conduct	This is the office that becomes involved in cases of academic dishonesty and serious behavioral problems.  They can help you determine what the right steps might be.

 

Student Privacy

Remember that under federal law students are essentially regarded as adults with full privacy rights.  These rights and the policies that address them are mostly determined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy (FERPA) Policy. 

My (emphatically non-official) summary is don't communicate with anyone outside the university about a student without prior written permission from the student.  This specifically includes not talking to families, however concerned they may be.  It is, however, OK to discuss academic issues with colleagues and advising staff.  There are refinements to this, so ask before committing. 

Jim Mitchell

The Quarter System - 10 Weeks is not 14 Weeks

In large part because of our long history of Cooperative education (CoOp) the Main Campus at Drexel operates on a quarter system - 10 weeks of classes + 1 week of exams.  After the tightest terms, winter and spring, there's one week of break and then you start all over again.  After fall and summer there's close to a month of break.  Note that the fall term courses actually last 11 weeks, but nothing much happens during Thanksgiving week, though Monday and Tuesday are officially class days.

If one comes from a semester system the rhythm of the quarter system is different.  Everything is faster and one has adjustments to make.

Content Adjustment

The tendency is to try and fit a semester's worth of work into 10 weeks.  You're unlikely to succeed if you try that.  Instead you must decide what is essential and what isn't.  Remember on the positive side  that we have about 50% more courses required to graduate than semester schools.

Pace

While this is less tangible, most faculty I've talked to agree that the length of the quarter means that it's more of a challenge to make adjustments, to promote reflection, to achieve that magic "coming together" of ideas that initially seemed unrelated to the students, but are important to the overall understanding of the subject.  It's doable, but planning is important.

Effects on students and classes

We start the fall term late in order to not break over Christmas (some quarter-schools do break then).  We therefore finish the spring quarter much later than Semester schools. This timing has implications as well:

• If you're teaching first-year students they may arrive super-eager or somewhat anxious because their friends have been in school for a month already.
• Conferences scheduled around semester school's calendars can be at awkward times for us (I have one that I attended for the first time on sabbatical because it was always scheduled in the first week of fall-term classes).
• That one-week break after winter and spring terms can seem awfully short.  And of course the longer breaks after fall and summer can be a great relief.

All this can be complicated by our academic rules:

• Students can "drop" or "add" a course during the first two weeks without it showing on their academic record - and do.  You could have a student showing up for the first time 20+% of the way through the course.  You could also have groups carefully formed during the first week disrupted because members disappear.
• Students can and do "withdraw" from a course through the sixth week - it shows on their record.  Again there are implications for group projects.  Note also that it's your responsibility to provide students with adequate feedback before the end of the sixth week so that students can make an informed decision whether or not to withdraw.

Faculty Annual Schedules

The quarter system means that, again due to CoOp, the main campus is a year-round school.  In the summer there are regular classes, with about 60% of the number of students on-campus compared to the other terms.

What this means for faculty is that most departments need courses taught in the summer.  For faculty with a three-quarter contract that can provide opportunities to schedule the quarter break at a different time of year.

Jim Mitchell

Commuting to Drexel

Bicycles

As a Center City dweller I have it easy.  I open my front door, put my bicycle on the sidewalk and six minutes later I'm locking it to one of the bike racks by the Main Building.  I've had to brave the speedway that is the Walnut Street bridge over the Schuylkill, but otherwise it's wonderful.

If you live elsewhere the Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition has multiple suggested commuter routes.

Regional Rail & Bus

Septa (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) has a "radial" train system that focuses on center city, with 3oth street station (adjacent to the main campus) and Suburban Station (near the health programs) being on most of the routes.  Their regional rail map will give you a good idea of how it works.  It includes trains, subways and trolleys (these latter can provide a very nice outing with kids in the western suburbs).  Their bus system interconnects and provides connections across the radii as well as radial routes.

For those coming from New Jersey there is easy interchange with the PATCO line at 8th street. There is a connection with the new ""River Route" light rail line run by New Jersey Transit in Camden as well.  NJT also has a number of buses that come to center city.

Google Maps has a pretty good public transit search capability(my example link shows the trip from Paoli to main campus) that includes the Septa Regional rail (Buses being included at the end of 2009).  My tests showed that it doesn't currently do a good job of showing links to New Jersey Transit or PATCO rail lines.

Drexel's Office of Campus Activities has a nice summary page on Public Transit options, including Philly Car Share for short term auto use.

There's a Drexel-sponsored "Compass" program for reduced fares.

Automobile

The automobile is still the most popular mode of travel. A good way to see the major routes is to look at the Google Traffic Map.  The terms you'll hear when listening to the radio (KYW 1060AM is "on the twos" 24 hours)  include:

I-95	Major NE-SW interstate along Delaware River
Schuylkill	Schuylkill Expressway, I-76, from NW to Center City and then I-95 and the airport (shortcut via Penrose Avenue Bridge).
Vine Street	Sunken connector (I-676) E-W across center city from Schuylkill to Ben Franklin.  Get off at Broad Street for Health Programs.
"The Curve"	Stretch on the Schuylkill in Conshocken that regularly has slow-downs.
Blue Route	I-476 Ring route from PA Turnpike (I-276) to Schuylkill to I-95 south of the city and the airport.
Ben Franklin	Bridge from NJ to Center City
Walt Whitman	Bridge from NJ to South Philly
Betsy Ross	Bridge from NJ to North Philly
Commodore Barry	Bridge from south NJ to I-95 in Chester
Tacony-Palmyra	Bridge from NJ to North Philly - It's a lift bridge that is periodically blocked by ship traffic.

 

Parking at Drexel is handled through Parking Services.

Jim Mitchell

Finding a Place To Live in Philadelphia

Many of you will be moving to the Philadelphia area and thus looking for a place to live.  I last had to move thirty years ago so I hope that others will add to what I put down here.  I'll focus here on what I think I've learned by living here a long time.

There are many general resources on the process of  moving available such as those that show up in this Google Search.  One that looked pretty useful to me was this About.com piece on planning and preparing.  Another pretty good site for those planning to buy a home is Trulia - it includes school information and demographics

Where Current Faculty Live

It may help you to know where current Drexel Faculty live.  This Google Mashup shows their location by zip code.

Area Descriptions

Here is my take on the general locations people live with some characteristics.  Note that I've  necessarily left out a number of areas without any intention of slight.

Location	Comment
"Center City"	The urban heart of Philadelphia, where Drexel's health programs are located.  Drexel's main campus is just over the Schuylkill river to the West.  It tends to be more expensive. WP Areas just north and south of Center City are also popular: Art Museum; Old City; Queen Village.
West Philadelphia	Drexel and Penn are both on the eastern edge of West Philadelphia.  Powleton Village is a residential area to the NW of Drexel. The residential area to the west of Penn & Drexel is usually known as University City.
Northwest Philadelphia	Northwest Philadelphia isn't a common term.  Usually you hear the neighborhoods:   Chestnut Hill tends to have larger houses and be more expensive.  Germantown & Mount Airy tend to have smaller, less expensive houses.
Main Line	The "Main Line" follows the old Pennsylvania railroad's main tracks to the Northwest and also Route 30.  It has many communities (and colleges) along it.  The general reputation is for larger and more expensive houses. WP
Western Suburbs	Houses here are often more modest and less expensive than in some of the previous areas. Areas include:  Upper Darby; Havertown; Lansdowne; Springfield; Swarthmore and many more.
New Jersey	Quite a few faculty live across the Delaware close to Philadelphia.  Towns include:  Cherry Hill; Collingswood, Haddonfield and many more.

Note:  WP = wikipedia - a number of other links are to wikipedia too.

Jim Mitchell

One/five years later – A Language Teacher’s Reflections on Students and Teaching

I’ve been teaching at Drexel as an Adjunct for 5 past years at the same time working as an administrator, but only last September I joined the force of the full time faculty. I’m new to ONLY teaching, but not totally new to the teaching itself.

As I come from different university system ( Poland), it was hard at first to remember that the subject that I teach ( Spanish) is not the most important here ( isn’t it?) and the only subject that the students need to focus on and dedicate to.  Students are required to take certain classes, but it does not mean that they need to shine in all of them. 

Although it would be a dream if all  students liked our subjects and were good in them, the reality is that they don’t have time for everything. Have an interest in asking your students what their major is and figure out, before you stress out too much about the students’ progress in your subject, if your subject is relevant for their future career.

I love Spanish and foreign languages in general and in my personal opinion, they should always be important, but the truth is that students have different learning potential  and we should let them choose how much they want to learn. I always encourage  and guide my students when they share with me their doubts, but I finally learned that nobody can be the best in all the subjects and still , having an A, does not mean that you are the best expert. 

No matter how much information your students decide to digest, you should always be prepared to give them your best.

Joanna Lyskowicz

New Faculty Information Website

For the last few years I've updated a site that brings together what I believe is useful information for new faculty.  It's not an official site, nor does it attempt to be exhaustive, just helpful.

Site Contents

Below I've reproduced most of the site's home page with the comments describing  what's in each section.

Drexel Organization

Facts about Drexel's organization of particular importance to Faculty

  Students 

Things that make Drexel undergraduate students unique

  Facilities

Key buildings and offices.

  Online Resources

Some sites at Drexel and beyond that may be useful

  Helpful People

Suggestions of People who may help you - not individual names, but by function

  Grading & Course Administration

I've given it a section of its own because getting it right is critical

  Key Dates

Dates for which you want to plan.

 

Jim Mitchell - Editor

Living in the PA suburbs

I have lived northwest of the city, in Upper Dublin township, for the past 12 years and love it. The schools are excellent, the township services are efficient and friendly, and there is an international mix of cultures. I loved the city (lived in the Roxborough neighborhood for 10 years) but wanted out once my children entered school. We are still close enough to get to the city for cultural events, restaurants, and parades.

Commuting

My commute is on regional rail, the R5 Landsdale line, which is approximately 40 minutes to Philadelphia. There are some express trains which make local stops to Fort Washington then travel non-stop to Market East, which then takes only 30 minutes. The new rule of the quiet car (no talking on the first train car) makes for a relaxing ride home after lecturing. Train travel should be looked into under Drexel HR benefits as it is worth checking into for the ease and cost. The center city stations are convenient to main campus and the center city campus.

Character of Suburbs

The PA suburbs each have their own community culture. There are well established areas like Glenside which have old homes, walk-able streets, and restaurants. There are also newly built homes on tracts of land which require one to drive everywhere with the advantage that stores are convenient and the construction is new. Several schools are expanding and rebuilding to accommodate the increased number of new families or are updating their facilities to have better auditoriums, labs, and other facilities. Taxes cover these expenses and can take a slice of your home budget. There are fun things to do, camps for the kids, pumpkin farms, outdoor music concerts.

Living near a SEPTA train station makes living out of the city an enjoyable experience for the whole family.

Jeannine Uribe

uribe@drexel.edu

Computing Resources At Drexel

Drexel quite reasonably calls itself a “Technological University”.  We have a good history of technology firsts.  In particular we were the first to:

• Require access to a microcomputer (the first Mac)
• Provide wireless access campus-wide

Today most departments and colleges have their own computing resources.  At the university level there is a rich computing environment with many resources, quite a few of which are not as well known to faculty as I would hope.  Our computing center (IRT) has fine staff, a help site and a facility devoted to assisting faculty.  There are many online services such as Vista Blackboard (the software underlying this online community) and an online portfolio that can help you keep track of your products and achievements.  IRT is also open to experimentation with new software and services, although that takes more initiative on your part.

Drexel Site Licensed Software

One resources that may be particularly useful to new faculty is the downloadable site-licensed software.  Drexel has licensed a much software that you can get for “free” on the understanding that you use it within the university’s licensing agreements.  There is software for both PC’s, Macs and Unix.  Some of the software available includes:

• Microsoft Office
• Adobe Acrobat
• Syantec AntiVirus (and other security programs)
• MatLab & Maple
• Microsoft Visual Studio
• Discipline-specific software

There’s even more software that isn’t on the  list such as many Autodesk products (ask at IRT), and IRT is very open to licensing new software if there’s sufficient appeal (and funds in their budget).  The university has a Computer Advisory Council as well that advises IRT on policies – your input would be welcome (though I couldn’t find a web presence).

For much of the software there’s support and training available through IRT.  It’s a great set of resources.

Jim Mitchell

Our Goals for the Online Community

In the period before joining Drexel physically you're probably interested in the many aspects of life here:

• What's important about starting to teach at Drexel?
• What's life in Philadelphia like? Where do people live, shop, play?
• What's it like getting started in the academic community: research, committees, tenure, etc.?

We hope to help you get started at Drexel before you actually arrive on campus. To do that we've set up an "online community" using VistaBB, the same tool that you'll probably use for some of your classes, but in a different manner than it's often used. Our goal here is to generate questions and discussions so that you can get answers to your specific questions and get to know many of the other new faculty members before you actually meet them at the New Faculty Workshop in September.

The main elements of this online community are:

• Discussion area - where you can ask questions of your colleagues (experienced and new to Drexel) - and you can give you own opinions, suggestions, experience.
  
• Posts - a series of brief pieces (this is the first) by faculty that will both provide information and provoke discussions.
• Resources - links that should be helpful to you - you can add your own.

One thing you might want to do soon is look through the descriptions that community members have posted about themselves in the Introduce Yourself to the Community discussion area, and then add your own post.

Jim Mitchell - Editor