The purpose of this study is to examine faculty perceptions of instructional satisfaction and support when teaching distance education at a university located in the southeastern United States. Two research questions were included to determine what factors of instructional support faculty perceive as promoting/impeding their satisfaction when they participate in distance education, and to determine if there are any meaningful and significant relationships or differences between faculty perceptions of instructional satisfaction and demographic information. Data were collected via email using Google Docs, then compared to determine any significant difference in any of the categories. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, ANOVA, and the follow-up Tukey HSD test were used to determine if there were significant differences among faculty members in different demographic categories. Male participants are more satisfied with technology support, appropriate workload, and fair tenure process than females. Females are more satisfied than males with the potential growth opportunities. Overall Caucasians are more satisfied than African-Americans and participants aged 40-49 are more satisfied than any other age participants when teaching distance education. Generally, faculty with higher academic rank (Professor and Associate Professor) are more satisfied than lower academic rank faculty (Assistant Professor and Instructor). Tenured faculty are more satisfied than non-tenured faculty, and full-time faculty are more satisfied than part-time faculty. Participants who earned the highest salaries are more satisfied than participants earning lower salaries. Finally, generally the participants with more years of teaching experience were more satisfied than participants in the early years of their career. Tenure is a positive factor and factor workload is a negative factor impacting faculty satisfaction when teaching distance education.

Over the last 50 years, research has explored the writing assignment types and purposes found in undergraduate courses, including discipline-specific writing for the business major, which is one of the most popular fields of study for international students in the U.S. Many studies have explored faculty perceptions of writing challenges students exhibit when writing for business; however, few studies have compared both faculty and student perceptions of student writing challenges. The purpose of this study was to investigate business faculty perceptions of the writing challenges exhibited by students for whom English is a second or additional language (EAL) compared to EAL perceptions of their own writing challenges. This study utilized parallel surveys distributed to faculty and students in Accounting, Finance, and Management in one undergraduate business school. Students self-selected as being a native English speaker (NES), an EAL, or having more than one primary language (multilingual or ML). Results of the study indicated statistically significant differences across faculty, EAL, and ML perceptions of developing arguments as an important purpose of business writing. No statistically significant differences were found, however, across all three populations in regards to perceptions of the student challenges of business writing.

This study explored faculty members' perceived importance of family-friendly policies in academia, the extent to which faculty perceive academic institutions as having a social responsibility to make the academy more family-friendly, participants' endorsement of gender-biased norms, and whether the faculty members who participated in this study are considering "opting-out" of academia. Key constructs that were explored include: the ideal worker norm, the motherhood norm, the maternal wall, and bias avoidance. Methodological limitations and the implications for this study were discussed. The participants of this study were 243 female and male tenure-track and tenured faculty members from graduate departments from six nationally accredited, public, U.S. doctoral-granting research universities. The results indicated that although most faculty do not intend to "opt-out" of academia, a substantial proportion reported that they are considering leaving their current institution, or leaving academia entirely. Further, although faculty members' perceptions of whether a family-friendly policy is of personal importance varied, the overwhelming majority of respondents expressed support for such policies. Finally, on average, faculty members did not endorse gender-biased beliefs toward caregiving, with women being less likely to endorse such beliefs.

Many different parties are involved in trying to promote student success: faculty, student affairs professionals, parents, mentors, and students themselves. All may speak of their endeavors to work toward the goal of "student success", but if success is defined differently by each party, then each pursues a different goal. With this in mind, this study was designed for three purposes. First, the researcher sought to define student success based on the perspectives of student and faculty populations within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. Second, the researcher sought to identify the barriers to student success. Finally, the researcher sought to identify strategies that would foster student success. Qualitative methods were employed to conduct this research within the population of undergraduate students and faculty within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. Eight focus groups were conducted in the spring of 1997 with a total of 27 students participating and two focus groups were conducted the following spring with 7 faculty participating. Questionnaires and the transcripts of the focus groups were analyzed for this study. Findings showed that faculty and students have somewhat dissimilar perspectives on student success. Faculty participants were more interested in the academic elements of being successful, while students placed more weight on what they felt were personal indicators of success, such as happiness. In terms of the barriers to student success that were discussed, students were much more likely to discuss barriers that were outside of their control, such as the classroom environment. Faculty, on the other hand, concentrated on the personal characteristics of students, feeling that students ultimately had personal responsibility for their own success. Based on the questionnaires, the groups were fairly well balanced and represented a fairly wide range of collegiate experiences. Faculty and students have demonstrated through this study that they are quite valuable as a resource to consult when conducting needs assessments or developing student interventions. Many of the solutions that were suggested, interestingly, dealt not with the creation of new programs but with improving communication within the university to ensure the awareness of programs that already exist. Participants also felt that orientation activities for new students should be extended well into their first semester at the university. From a research perspective, this study provided a great deal of insight into the ways that faculty and student perspectives are both similar and different. It would be interesting to see whether perspectives are similar across colleges within the university, or even similar between universities with similar characteristics. In trying to determine the nature of the collegiate experience, few would deny that no groups are more intimately involved in that experience than the faculty and students. Ultimately, then, the answers concerning the nature of student success must lie with them. / Master of Science

Purpose To assess radiography faculty perceptions of the effectiveness of online courses. Methods An original survey instrument was created by selecting items from 3 instruments used in prior research and adding unique questions designed to elicit demographic data from faculty. The sample included a national dataset of radiography faculty members employed in Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology-accredited programs in the United States. Results Findings showed that faculty perceptions of online course effectiveness are not affected significantly by faculty position, type of institution, faculty age, or years of teaching experience. Positive perceptions of the effectiveness of online courses moderately increased with years of teaching online courses, number of online courses taught in the past 5 years, and perceived competence with the use of technology. Faculty satisfaction with interaction in online courses moderately increased as the years of teaching online courses increased. However, the number of years of teaching online courses was not related to faculty satisfaction with teaching online courses or faculty satisfaction with institutional support. Online technology acceptance had a moderately positive relationship with perceived ease of use and a strong positive relationship with perceived usefulness of online technology. In addition, the use of technology-enhanced learning methods had a strong positive relationship with technological self-efficacy. Conclusion Radiography faculty perceptions of the effectiveness of online courses improved with experience in teaching online courses and competence with use of technology. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of online technology were related directly to online technology acceptance. Furthermore, faculty members with technological self-efficacy were more likely to use technology-enhanced learning methods in the online environment.

During the past several years an increase in use of Course Management Systems (CMS) in higher education’s instructional infrastructure had been witnessed (Morgan, 2003). As a result, increased online education placed an emphasis on CMS because CMS were able to provide information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Faculty, staff, and students were increasingly dependent on information and learning services provided by the colleges and universities (Carey & Gleason, 2006). The flexibility provided by the CMS had led campus faculty, staff, and students to expect continuous availability in campus systems (Carey & Gleason, 2006). This study examined faculty perceptions of a course management system used to enhance teaching and learning. Faculty members’ perceived motivation reasons and barriers were analyzed in this study using descriptive statistics. The important motivation reasons for using a course management system were to provide course information, augment student learning, and provide diverse teaching methods. In addition, the study revealed that faculty members were satisfied with institutional support in terms of training and technical support but not rewards received. Demographic variables (gender, age, faculty tenure status, faculty rank, college of teaching, location of course delivery, and time spent per week preparing materials) were examined to see if there were differences in faculty members’ perceived satisfaction of pedagogical effectiveness. An online survey was sent to 300 faculty members who used CMS in their academic courses at Mississippi State University. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the survey data. The results revealed that the majority of faculty used CMS primarily to: (a) distribute information to students, (b) augment student learning and (c) provide diverse teaching methods. In terms of strengths and weaknesses of a CMS some faculty members thought the tools were complicated to use while others thought it was easy to use. Overall, the majority of faculty thought that CMS was a great way to communicate with students. Faculty also thought that lack of time played a role in their ability to use CMS effectively.

No description available.

Yes / Aim To assess faculty perceptions and experiences when implementing team-based learning (TBL) across a pharmacy curriculum. Study design A total of 19 faculty members participated in a series of individual semi-structured interviews that allowed freedom of discussion within a structured framework of inquiry. Data were transcribed, coded using NVivo, and analyzed to establish common themes. Participant quotations were chosen to reinforce the themes and give a voice to the participants. Findings and discussion The benefits of TBL were perceived to be enhanced student engagement, peer learning, increased faculty enjoyment of teaching, and student development of transferable skills. Challenges included increased initial workload, writing effective application exercises, and facilitating learner-centered classes. TBL may be useful in optimizing course content to ensure outcomes and activities focus on important concepts. Peer learning appears to benefit student learning. TBL may help equip students with valuable transferable skills. TBL requires an initial upfront investment in faculty development and time to prepare resources. A student-centered approach to learning may be daunting for faculty and require new skill sets. Conclusions Faculty described their support for TBL concluding that the pedagogical benefits of engaging students in active learning, the development of transferable skills for the workplace, and the personal satisfaction felt after a TBL class, outweigh the initial challenges of transitioning to TBL.

Providing instruction using different instructional delivery methods allows the learner to absorb content in a way that fits the individual learner. Today’s students have grown up immersed in digital technology. However, many higher education faculty are still not speaking the same digital language as their students. The issue may be that the pedagogical and epistemological beliefs of faculty who are “digital immigrants” affect the teaching methods used in the higher education classroom today. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore design college faculty perceptions of the adoption of virtual world technology into the classroom. Diffusion and adoption theories, adoption models, and patterns of adoption provided a conceptual framework for this study. This mixed methods study collected data through a survey and post-survey interviews administered to faculty of 21 design colleges. The quantitative survey instrument included questions about the usage of technology, including virtual world technology, in the higher education classroom. A total of 309 faculty completed the survey. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, means, and standard deviations were used in the analysis. A correlation analysis was performed to determine if there was a relationship between selected variables and the survey responses. Post-survey semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 faculty participants who volunteered for the interviews after participating in the survey. In this study, I used the constant comparative open coding hybrid method for the interview analysis. The specific research question posed in this study was: What are the perceptions of design college faculty regarding the use of virtual world technology in their courses? Guiding questions included: (a) What are faculty perceptions about virtual world technology that potentially affect its adoption into the classroom? (b) What are faculty perceptions of the affordances of using virtual world technology in the classroom? (c) What are faculty perceptions of the challenges of using virtual world technology in the classroom? In general, the results of this study indicate that while higher education faculty perceive that virtual world technology has the potential to be a useful teaching tool in the classroom, the faculty also perceive that they do not have the essential software and hardware support from their colleges to adopt this type of technology as a teaching tool in their courses.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was the determination of group perception profiles of selected higher education faculties. These group perception profiles were based upon faculty perceptions of the ten most important criteria considered in evaluating faculty members for purposes of rank, promotion, salary, and tenure. Also, the study determined whether or not cluster profiles existed at three levels or types of institutions-- university, liberal arts, and junior college--and how such profiles differed between levels. This study had several purposes. The first was to determine how group perception profiles of higher education faculties clustered in response to perceptions of criteria considered in evaluating faculty members. The second was to determine if similar clusters existed at three types of institutions. A third was to determine differences in the proportion of teachers belonging to each identifiable cluster at each level of institution. The fourth was to determine differences in profiles according to proportions of teachers across common clusters. And finally, the fifth was to determine differences in profiles among faculty members in identified clusters at each institutional level according to biographical characteristics: age, rank, teaching experience, seniority, and highest degree held.