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