OATdb Archive

2012 - 2013

Communication Studies, Department Of

Goal
Teaching Excellence
To perform with excellence in classroom instruction.

Objective
Teaching Excellence
Faculty members will sustain an above average level of classroom instruction.

KPI
Student Evaluation Of Teaching
The measure of teaching effectiveness will be the average IDEA System score for all classes taught during the evaluation period. The criterion for achieving this goal is an average score of 4.25 on IDEA system scores for all faculty.

Result
Student Evaluation Of Teaching
The average IDEA score for all faculty was 4.21, which is marginally but not significantly smaller than the criterion of 4.25.

Action
Student Evaluation Of Teaching
The Chair will review IDEA summary results to identify patterns of weakness and discuss results with individual faculty members during their annual performance evaluations.

Goal
Research Productivity
To establish and maintain an ongoing program of research and publication by the tenured and tenure-track faculty.

Objective
Research Productivity
Tenured and tenure-track faculty members will maintain an ongoing program of research and publication.

KPI
Research Productivity
The measure of research productivity will be the number of convention presentations and publications (published or accepted for publication) during the evaluation period.  The criterion for achieving this goal is a total of 2 convention papers presented or 1 paper published or accepted for publication.

Result
Research Productivity
All faculty members save one exceeded the criterion, and in most cases exceeded it by a large margin.

Action
Research Productivity
The faculty member who failed to meet the criterion has been made aware in his annual performance evaluation of the need to increase his productivity.


Goal
Professional Activity And Service
To promote regular faculty participation in and service to state, regional, national, and international professional organizations.

Objective
Professional Activity And Service
Tenured and tenure-track faculty members will participate regularly and perform service in the state, regional, national, and international professional organizations of the field.

KPI
Professional Activity And Service
Professional activity and service will be measured by the number of professional organization conventions attended during the evaluation period or by service performed as a member of a professional organization.  The criterion for achieving this goal is attendance at 2 regional or national convention or 1 international one.  Service on a professional committee is the equivalent of attendance at one national organization meeting.

Result
Professional Activity And Service
Every faculty member met, and all but one exceeded, the criterion.  International conference attendance during this period was unusually high.

Action
Professional Activity And Service
Although all faculty members met the criterion, the one faculty member who lagged behind the others in convention attendance has made a commitment to increase his convention participation next year.

Goal
Graduate Recruitment And Admission
To increase the enrollment of graduate students.

Objective
Graduate Recruitment And Admission
The graduate faculty will recruit and admit four or more new qualified applicants.

KPI
Graduate Recruitment And Admission
This objective will be attained by identifying qualified graduate applicants and admitting them to the program.  The criterion for meeting this goal will be the admission of 4 new graduate students.

Result
Graduate Recruitment And Admission
The department has recruited and is admitting 3 new graduate students for the Fall, 2013, semester.  6 more applications are in varying stages of progress.

Action
Graduate Recruitment And Admission
The department, with the help of the university's Office of Graduate Studies, is actively promoting its just approved online MA degree.  Active advertising of this new degree will continue during the coming year.


Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement Efforts to participate in a college Institute for Family Studies did not succeed.  A number of meetings to seek a grant were unsuccessful and plans to move forward with the Institute were discontinued.  The difficulties encountered involved differing priorities and research agendas on the part of the participating departments.  Efforts to recruit more graduate students were focused on offering the MA entirely online.  These efforts were successful, so that the online MA will begin in the Fall, 2013, semester.

Plan for continuous improvement The Communication Studies faculty continues to meet or exceed its department goals.  Increasingly, the department is moving toward offering the undergraduate major online as it has done with the graduate program.  Faculty are refocusing their research and convention attendance internationally.  The faculty anticipates a substantial increase in graduate student enrollments in the coming year.