OATdb Archive

2009 - 2010

Geography And Geology, Department Of

Goal
Quality Faculty
The faculty of the department will provide quality teaching and engage in quality research.


Objective
Quality Teaching
The faculty will provide quality teaching.

Indicator
Effective Teachers
The department utilizes the IDEA system as the teaching evaluation instrument.  The IDEA system is a nationally normed, validated and reliable measure of classroom performance.  All faculty distribute the IDEA evaluations at the end of their classes each semester. The faculty member's scores are then compared to other faculty across the nation.

Criterion
Effective Teaching
80% of the faculty in the department will meet or exceed the IDEA score of 50 on the Summary Evaluation in at least half of their classes.

Finding
Effective Teaching
Eight faculty or 80% of the faculty evaluated met or exceeded the score of 50 on the summary evaluation of the IDEA in at least half of their classes.  Four faculty or 40% met or exceeded 50 in all of their classes.

Action
IDEA Reviews
Individuals IDEA scores course-on-course will be discussed as part the anual FES process. Mismatches between Introductory and lower level course scores will be reviewed.  Faculty who continue to need help improving their teaching scores will be referred to the PACE Center for workshops and one-on-one help with teaching effectiveness.

Objective
Quality Research
The department faculty will engage in quality, peer-reviewed research.

Indicator
Quality Research
The faculty in the department will publish peer-reviewed books and articles.

Criterion
Quality Research
80% of the faculty in the department will publish at least one peer-reviewed publication per year.


Finding
Quality Research
Seven faculty or 70% of the faculty published at least one peer reviewed publication (journal article or book).

Action
Research Reviews
Research and other scholarly outputs will be reviewed as part of the annual FES process and recommendations made to all faculty who have not published their research. Recommendations may include working with a more experienced researcher, presenting a lecture to the faculty on their research, or working with the chair to identify ways to help move projects forward.


Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement

Plan for continuous improvement The department focused their efforts on two areas: research and teaching effectiveness.  To improve faculty research output, each faculty member was asked to meet with the chair and several suggestions were made to improve, including working with a more experienced researcher, presenting a lecture to the faculty on their research, or working with the chair to identify ways to move projects forward.  To improve teaching effectiveness, the department met with each faculty member that was struggling and identified problems.  Faculty who continually have problems were referred to the PACE Center for teaching workshops and one-on-one development meetings.