Case Study #8: Academic Affairs Calculators (Instructional Minutes; Part-Time Percentage; Program Review)

ISSUE:

There is a plethora of day-to-day tasks that must be accomplished in an academic affairs organization. Many of these are repetitive over the course of an academic year and are accomplished by multiple staff and faculty. While generally driven by an overall internal process, the implementation of the tasks is frequently left up to each individual to find their own methodology. To enhance the productivity of the organization, as well as to improve the reliability and consistency of the results, it would be helpful if some common tasks were automated in a user-friendly framework that all users could access.

SOLUTION:

Many of the above Case Studies involve comprehensive and major initiatives for an institution. However, there are likely numerous college-level processes and procedures that could benefit from a detailed evaluation and, if warranted, the development of simple but valuable productivity enhancement tools that would support these processes. Of course, an automated tool is only as good as its underlying process. If a process is confusing or ambiguous, then any tool developed to promote this process will also have shortcomings. The three tools described below each provide a standardized approach to common calculations undertaken by many college administrators.

The Instructional Minutes calculator uses the proposed days and times for a scheduled class section across a given week in the semester to determine if the number of instructional minutes for the course aligns with the credit hours awarded for the course. This can be used during credit hour audits (a frequent condition for reaccreditation) or simply to ensure that the proposed class schedule is adequate to meet the minimum seat time requirements.

The Adjunct Faculty Part Time Percentage calculator evaluates the percent of full-time status for any part time or adjunct instructor. Many adjuncts wear multiple hats at a college, for example, in addition to teaching they may also work in the Writing Center or have program chair responsibilities if no full time instructor is available in that discipline. This calculator, based on the requirements set by Human Resources (and therefore programmed into the tool), determines the equivalent full-time percentage for all of their college contributions. This is especially important if adjuncts teach in multiple disciplines as the regular communication between Division staff may not be adequate to catch violations of the college regulations.

The following image shows a standardized Program Review rubric used by one college to evaluate programs that are up for evaluation. Each key performance criterion is given in the lefthand column and the program assessment results are entered in the “Program Descriptor” column through provided dropdown options. Each reviewer evaluates each program independently, and then the results are combined. Of course, there are many different ways to accomplish Program Review, but whatever the process defined by Academic Affairs is, a tool can be constructed to assist in the process and make it easier for all involved to execute.