Demonstration Project
Demonstration Project
Faculty Development Advisory Committee
Introduction
Persons attending: Vern Allen-CFCC, Kim Ellis-SCC, Neill Foshee-UCF/IST, Elaine Greenwood-SCC, Barbara Martin-UCF, Jim McBrayer-UCF/COE, Pete Miniscalco-DBCC/WCEU, Lucy Morse-UCF, Pat Moskal-UCF/IST, Rusty Okoniewski-UCF, Gary Orwig-UCF, Bill Patterson- UCF, Barbara Truman-UCF, Lisa Valentino-SCC
Pat Moskal, chair, opened the meeting at 2:10 pm. Introductions were made and he restated the purpose of the committee. The minutes from the May 31st meeting were reviewed, and the committee discussed the proposed faculty assessment survey instrument section by section.
Survey Review
The suggestion was made to add another column to the survey in order to reflect faculty interest in the listed technologies. This addition would provide information on how proficient the faculty feel using various technologies, and if they desire training to use them. This change would be made throughout the survey. Another change in coding was suggested to make the number five selection "proficient" instead of "expert".
Discussion followed on whether to have the glossary kept in the back of the document or interspersed throughout the survey at the relevant locations. It was decided that it would be too redundant to have all the terms provided throughout the survey, and it would increase the survey's length considerably. With the glossary at the back, people can tear it from the body of the survey to use as needed.
The point was made that community colleges have no faculty rank, so this section needed to be revised. Information about whether faculty have home computers was deemed useful for indicating attitudes towards technology.
Ranking for certain issues was discussed and it was agreed that ranking would be too time consuming. Elaine Greenwood said that what we really want to know is the set of interrelationships: time + colleagues + equipment that would be necessary to promote distance learning possibilities. It was suggested that people could list the top three barriers and the top three influential factors concerning their use of distance learning methods.
Data Collection Issues
Gary Orwig asked about how the collected survey information data would be used. Many of the questions address the affective domain and the research collected might be different in two months. Discussion followed whether to collect some information now and some later, which is what was decided to do. Morse said the object was to train faculty in Instructional Systems Design rather than hardware and software. Lisa Valentino said many faculty are favorable towards distance learning while feeling uncomfortable about the hardware and software. The survey will address these issues and locate where are the needs related to distance education. Barbara Martin said that the survey would also help get information about the technology strata at all the campuses.
The question arose about how the surveys would be administered. It was agreed that the committee representatives would arrange focus groups of approximately 10-15 people back at their representative campuses. Because of the length of the survey, an interview format was preferred. Arranging a representative sample would be difficult because so much of the faculty is away for the summer, but timing requires an assessment to be done now.
Discussion followed about the anonymity of the survey and how useful disclosure could be attained to provide targeting training. Some background information could be obtained from departments rather than taking up space and questions on the survey. This issue will be resolved after initial pilot data is collected.
The importance of collecting information about problems encountered was stressed. Other points not addressed on the survey are accessibility to equipment and familiarity with designing instruction.
Conclusions
All the changes were noted on Moskal's master copy. The changes will be made and the revised copy will be faxed to members by Thursday, July 20th, 1995 for them to administer on their campuses. A cover letter with instructions sheet will also be attached. The results of the surveys will be presented at the next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, August 29th at 2:00 pm in room 100 of the UCF Research Pavillion.
The meeting concluded at 4:00 pm.