Higher Education Consortia
News and Updates for October – November 2015
Tom Eleuterio will be presenting at NEAIR Conference October 31, 2015 – November 3, 2015
Tom will be presenting a workshare at the upcoming NEAIR Conference entitled: Benchmarking in the Evolving Higher Education Domain.
Session Description: Using National Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity (Delaware Cost Study) data, we’ll explore strategies to: integrate data systems, identify metrics for aligning instructional costs and research expenditures, use best practices to facilitate unit and institutional improvement and use advanced techniques in statistical modeling. The workshop will address evolving patterns of course delivery and program selection related to benchmarking. Special attention will be devoted to on-line instruction and inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary study. To maximize the use of data in predictive analysis, the following modeling techniques will be discussed: cluster analysis, regression, and Monte Carlo simulation.
We are excited to announce two innovations that will impact data submission in the 2015 cycle of the study.
We will be requesting information to measure digital learning through the metric of online student credit hour productivity and to obtain a more complete measure of the average number of degrees awarded in a discipline. The data obtained in these areas will permit an exploration of longitudinal change across disciplines. Results will be shared with consortia members.
UPDATE:New Fields definitions can now be found on the Definitions and Calculations Page of Delaware Cost Study website.
The cost study data submission process will include the option of a web portal to provide an efficient method to upload and validate your data. This tool will facilitate a more flexible and timely review of data to be submitted. We will begin testing the portal with participants in late Fall 2015. We will be providing additional details in the near future.
UPDATE: Look for updated information on our new web portal in November, 2015.
Faculty Activity Trifecta (FACT)
In 2015, the Higher Education Consortia (HEC) in the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at the University of Delaware began a multi-stage research project to develop a comprehensive measure of faculty activity outside of the classroom. Ultimately, this metric will be used to launch a study supplemental to the Delaware Cost study. For more than two decades, the Delaware Cost study has providing invaluable benchmarking data concerning discipline-level instructional costs and productivity to colleges and universities all over North America.
Recent pressure regarding the cost of employing university faculty has created a need for a more thorough understanding of how faculty are spending their time both inside and outside of the classroom. The Faculty Activity Trifecta (FACT) study will allow colleges and universities to appropriately analyze the discipline-level faculty activity in the areas of instruction, scholarship, and service.
During the first stage of this research, the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness will work with school deans and department chairs around the country to analyze the usefulness and effectiveness of certain metrics currently being used to measure faculty activity. With the assistance of an advisory committee, the data yielded from this research will guide the development of a new metric. Finally, subsequent research will test the various components, including the validity, of this new measure of faculty activity.
For more information about the FACT study or to express interest in participating in the FACT study advisory committee, please contact Jennifer Snyder at (302) 831-6894 or .
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