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Advice for New Engineering Faculty: Insights Gained from Faculty Development Programs
Full text linkAthabasca Universit
A Case Study of Faculty Development Needs in Distance Education; presented at the International Council for Open and Distance Education, Santo Domingo, DO.
No full textThe ICDE conference was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and involved just over 400 participants. The conference was hosted by the Universidad del Caribe. About 90% of the attendees were faculty and administrators from the Latin American university community and the rest were from Canada, United States, Korea, Australia, and New Zeeland. On Sunday November 23, I attended convocation for 930 University de Caribe students at the invitation of the conference organizers. It was a very moving experience. Not only have these students faced and persevered in terms of academic achievements, but they live in a developing country where residents face severe socioeconomic challenges as well.
The conference itself took place from Nov 24-26, 2008. Key note speakers included:
• Dr. Michael Moore (Pennsylvania State University). His presentation was on his classic work on transaction distance in distance education
• Dr. Lalita Rajasingham (University of Wellington, New Zeeland. Her presentation was on her research and related projects on virtual reality, hyper reality and IT in terms of human communications.
• Several other key note speakers were from the Latin American countries.
Each day, after the key note sessions and panel presentations, we were able to attend several conference tracks. My presentation was on Monday November 24 and it was well received. It was very interesting to discuss with the participants, the challenges we face in terms of faculty development and to hear that they also face similar challenges. The paper I presented was one that Dr. Heather Kanuka and I had written. It was a final paper from the work we did on faculty development in our roles in the Take Time for Good Instructional Fun committee.
Prior to the conference, I had a more insular perspective of faculty development and distance education because my research and teaching experiences have been in North American universities. I tended to think of the cost, access, and quality issues in terms of what we face on a daily basis. I came away from the conference with a deeper appreciation of how issues in distance education go much further than cost, access, and quality, when we take the challenges that developing countries face into consideration. I was also very moved by the level of commitment that the attendees have towards improving distance education for their students. For example, one colleague spoke about his regular trips involving long commutes to remote villages in Colombia to meet with students taking distance education courses. Another discussed the need to offer university programs that would help graduates get meaningful work that would help improve the countries and their economic challenges. Still another spoke about telemedicine programs being offered through partnerships with Canadian and American universities using their old technology.
On Monday evening, we went to the Uiversidad del Caribe for a book signing session that Dr. Marta Mena (ICDE Vice President for the Latin America and the Caribbean) had edited with a number of colleagues. This was followed by a festive Dominican dinner.
Throughout the conference, we were able to network with many colleagues. It was very interesting to discuss distance education topics with them and to hear about the research they are doing. I also had the opportunity to talk to several students about their programs of study. In addition to my Power Point presentation, I am attaching a summary of the conference that was shared with us after the conference. I have uploaded my conference paper on my AUSPACE website. I received a conference CD at the conference and my paper and presentation is on the CD.
Our university especially benefited because we were represented by Dr. Frits Pannekoek at the conference as the President of the ICDE (Canada) and Dr. Rory McGreal was in attendance and also presented a paper on learning objects. Athabasca University was well known to participants. When Dr. Michael Moore used a slide from his presentation on noted academics who have conducted research on distance education using related theories, I was able to recognize at least 5 names of Athabasca University faculty.
It was a privilege to have been able to attend this conference. In addition to the conference value, I was able to make additional academic contacts and learn/practice a bit of Spanish. I truly appreciate the funding support from the A&PDF Committee.As distance education practices continue to evolve, so do the needs for effective faculty development practices. Faculty development needs can be somewhat unique in distance education. Faculty concerns relate to centralized service delivery, technology, course development time, concerns over the lack of autonomy, a sense of isolation, and feeling overworked. Such issues, if not addressed or clarified in the context of how distance education courses are delivered, can further isolate and disillusion faculty. In light of these challenges, we were interested in assessing our own university’s faculty development needs. In this paper, we present an overview of the scope of faculty development programs, related issues in distance education, and critical success factors. Thereafter, we discuss our university’s experience with faculty development. We conducted an online survey of our faculty that included open-ended questions (n=182, 31% response rate). The open-ended responses from participants focused on the need for a mentoring program, concerns over course development processes, issues related to information technology (IT), feelings of isolation, and the importance of collegial social interactions. The most striking and positive finding is that a majority of respondents believe their contributions to the teaching process to be important; there is a deep desire for good relationships with colleagues and the development of an effective teaching environment. The desire to develop teaching skills is an essential foundation to improving teaching practices. The results of the survey indicate that the preferred delivery methods for learning activities include both digitally based Web-spaces and face-to-face workshops facilitated by invited experts (outside of the institution). The findings confirmed a four-factor model for faculty development: (a) Technical (Internet / Web resources); (b) Social (interpersonal); (c) Moderating (cognitive / pedagogical); and (d) Management (teaching). The commitment to faculty development warrants more attention. As supported by the literature, effective faculty development programs involve needs assessments, responsiveness to faculty concerns, meaningful incentives, and faculty involvement. Continuing learning opportunities can reduce feelings of isolation, provide social interaction, and help improve teaching practices. New faculty that feel engaged and well supported in terms of teaching effectiveness and instructional support will be essential to our ability to achieve our strategic goals.Academic & Professional Development Fund (A&PDF
Tangible and intangible project management practices - The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
Full text linkAthabasca Universit
Lessons learned from lessons learned: Project management research program.
No full textProblem Statement: When we fail to learn from our own mistakes or those of others, we tend to repeat the mistakes. This paper discusses lessons learned as important ways of gathering and sharing both formal and informal project knowledge. Approach: The paper presents findings from three studies from a research program on lessons learned. The first study is a content analysis of two sets of conference proceedings. The second study is a case study from the energy sector on lessons learned. The final study is a content analysis of the Project Management Body of Knowledge® Guide. Results: The conference proceedings study indicated that the topic of lessons learned was under represented within the conference proceedings. This was in keeping with the literature review that the topic of lessons learned is emerging. The energy sector study shed light on the lessons learned process, some best practices and challenges. The content analysis of the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide® indicated that the guide defines lessons learned narrowly, primarily as a set of administrative, documented outputs pertaining mainly to the closeout phase. This was also evident in the guide’s commodification of lessons learned (and related terms). Conclusion/Recommendations: This paper contributes to the fields of project management, knowledge management, and workplace learning. Academics and practitioners use various terms to refer to lessons learned. Negative events are often the impetus for companies to add lessons learned to their project management toolbox. In order to conduct effective lessons learned, there has to be management support, the right stakeholders should be involved, and knowledge should be shared in both codified and uncodified ways. Lessons learned are processes that involve formal and informal learning. Effective lessons learned can be embedded into a company’s practices, especially through informal learning and sharing practices, such as through Communities of Practice and by applying principles from workplace learning, such as situated learning theory
Project Management Assets and Project Management Performance: Preliminary Findings
No full textThere were nearly 500 attendees at the Portland International Centre for Management of Engineering and Technology conference. Over 760 papers were submitted and 344 were accepted. We presented our paper in the Project/Program Management Division to an audience of 40. A number of those in attendance were masters and doctoral students. The combined feedback on our paper/presentation from the audience was extremely helpful. The feedback reinforced the methodological rigor our study and helped us in clarifying several aspects as we work on a revised version of the paper to submit to the Management Research journal. During the evening reception, several individuals thanked us for my presentation and indicated that they found it to be clear and easy to follow.
I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the A&PDF committee for the generous funding and support to attend this conference and present at it. I thoroughly enjoyed the tracks, especially the constructive dialogue we were able to engage in at the sessions to assist each other with our research endeavors. This conference also enabled me to reconnect with my close research colleague and others in the project management field. I was also able to network with and meet new colleagues.
Thank you again. I appreciate all the support from AU.
As per page 24 of the proceedings (Source: http://www.picmet.org/new/conferences/2011/Picmet11.pdf)
THE PAPERS
“Research papers and applications-oriented papers are explicitly identified in this conference. Separate evaluation criteria were used, and different referees were selected for each category to make sure that appropriate papers were included in the conference for the “Research” and “Application” categories. We emphasized research methodology, the use of the research literature, the theory behind the paper, the sample size, and the impact on the research community for the “Research Papers.” The important evaluation criteria for “Industry Applications” were the usefulness of the application, the importance of the case being discussed, the generalizability of the concepts presented, and the impact of the paper on the users of technology management. The “Research Papers” included in PICMET ’11 are listed with an [R] in front of their titles on the following pages; and the “Industry Applications” papers are shown with an [A] in front of their titles. Roughly 73 percent are in the [R] category, and the rest are in the [A] category. The Research Papers and Industry Applications are mixed in the sessions. This was done intentionally to assure effective exchange of ideas among those presenting research papers and those presenting applications-oriented papers.”The objective of this research is to examine the degree of competitive advantage from project management assets by exploring the link between the characteristics of project management assets as independent variables and project management performance outcomes as dependent variables. This paper analyses data from responses to an online survey by 198 North American Project Management Institute® members. Factor analysis is used to identify the characteristics of project management assets and the project management performance outcome factors. Seven factors that comprised the characteristics of project management assets, three factors that comprised organizational support for project management assets, and two factors that comprised the project management performance outcomes were extracted from the data analysis. Preliminary findings are presented in the paper. We draw on the Resource Based View of the firm as a lens to examine and validate project management capabilities as a source of competitive advantage. This paper contributes an improved understanding of project management as a source of competitive advantage for scholars and practitioners interested in project management
From Burnout to Engagement in Project Managers.
No full textWorkplaces are hypercompetitive and stressful environments. Stress and burnout affect bio-psycho-social-spiritual aspects of quality of life and the spillover effects disturb home and workplace dynamics. Project managers are not immune to burnout. Project managers are pressured to deliver projects on time, within budget and to changing client expectations on scope (often due to over optimism, inexperience or greed).
This paper bridges the psychosocial and management domains by describing a study designed to apply a burnout and work life instrument to project management. Burnout in project managers is an under researched topic. The proposed instruments for the study are well-known and based on research by Maslach and Leiter. The paper will discuss the literature on burnout and engagement as well as the limited research evident on stress in the project management field. The paper will also discuss the concept of care in management and its relevance to fostering and engaged workplaces. The mixed methods design involves surveys and interviews to gather information on how project managers cope with burnout.
Burnout consists of exhaustion, cynicism and professional inefficacy. In contrast, energy, involvement and professional efficacy comprise engagement. The areas of worklife span workload, control, rewards, community, fairness and values. The proposed benefits will contribute to employee well-being, healthier work environment and improved project success, thereby enhancing organizational productivity.
The paper will discuss the study design as well as the challenges of cost-effectively gathering data. Techniques to enhance response rates will also be discussed. The survey research questions focus on the predictive values of the six areas of worklife categories on each dimension of burnout. Sample questions follow: I feel emotionally drained from my work (burnout); I do not have the time to do the work that must be done (areas of worklife). The qualitative part of the study will involve interviews. Sample questions follow: What makes worklife more engaging (meaningful, important)/less engaging to you? How do you cope? Aspects related to grounded theory methodology including using software such as Atlas TI will also be highlighted.
Burnout is a societal challenge and presents opportunities for prevention and intervention. Knowing what may increase engagement could forestall burnout in project managers. This mixed methods study proposes to examine burnout and engagement self-perceptions and the social context of project work
The VRIO Framework of Competitive Advantage: Preliminary research implications for innovation management.
No full textAthabasca Universit
1) Distance Education MBA Project Management Program: A Case Study and 2) Advice for New Engineering Faculty: Insights Gained from Faculty Development Programs
No full text1. Distance Education MBA Project Management Program: A Case Study. This paper was presented in the Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management track
2. Advice for New Engineering Faculty: Insights Gained from Faculty Development Programs. This paper was presented in the Faculty Development track.
Dear members of the APDF Committee:
The ASEE holds an annual national conference that involves over 3,000 participants from around the world from academia, government, and industry. The sessions were extremely well attended. Copies of the papers are attached from the proceedings and I have updated my AUSPACE website. The papers are all double – blind reviewed. I had also reviewed papers for the conference.
Distance Education MBA Project Management Program: A Case Study. Following this presentation and in attending this and other sessions, I came away with a deeper appreciation of the challenges of establishing specialization programs without significant funding, particularly from industry. Other colleagues at the sessions discussed the processes and challenges of securing such funding as well as in ensuring that enrolment numbers remained high for programs to be viable. Discussions with other participants has allowed me to make contacts with new colleagues who are interested in my study on project management curricula and they are willing to pre-test the instrument as well as offer suggestions for improvement. I was also able to gain additional contacts through which I can secure mailing lists for the curricula study.
Advice for New Engineering Faculty: Insights Gained from Faculty Development Programs”. Following this presentation, I will be sharing my notes and discussing some of the papers with my colleagues on the Take Time for Good Instructional Fun committee at AU. I will also share the proceedings with them as they are very relevant to our work on a proposal for faculty development services at AU. In particular, some of the bibliographies will help our research assistant (Ms. Terrie Lyn Thompson, ABD) work on the literature review for this study. It was extremely valuable to talk to colleagues at the conference and hear about their best practices and challenges in establishing and maintaining faculty development services.
I really appreciate the APDF committee’s support as it allowed me to attend the conference and present at it. Presentations such as this are important as they help me improve my papers for subsequent journal submissions. This was an excellent conference to attend and I will be keeping it in mind for future papers. Thank you very much.1) With its roots in systems engineering, project management is a relatively new discipline taught in the fields of Engineering, Business, Information Technology/ Management Information Systems, Computing Sciences, and Operations Management. Whereas in 1993 there were 7 universities offering master’s-level degree programs in project management, these days there are over 59 worldwide, yet only 5 offer such programs in the distance education mode. Distance education is no longer seen as a second-rate way of teaching; it is just different. Distance education addresses geographical, time, indirect cost, flexibility, and service needs for learners. Whereas naysayers challenge distance education on issues of student isolation, course time commitments, and program quality, strides in the field demonstrate that distance education programs do deliver high quality education. Academic teams address the isolation factor through engaging and interactive online discussions that develop a sense of community. They address the time factor by pacing students through courses, balancing the individual and team mark components, and ensuring that marks are allocated for participation. Program quality is assessed through formative and summative processes. In this paper, we examine some of the main challenges and benefits in distance education. We focus on the four roles that faculty and course development staff collaboratively undertakes to deliver courses online: the pedagogical, management, technical, and social roles. In doing so, we focus on our four project management courses and some of the practices we use in our own university to address distance education issues. We conclude with some recommendations for effective program delivery practices.
2) It is not easy being a new engineering faculty member (either as a newly minted PhD or as a new faculty member to the university) and harder still to find one’s bearings when faced with a demanding course load, the stress of demonstrating solid output from a new research agenda, and multiple service commitments. It is even more challenging to get established when the department (or university) lacks a formal faculty development program for newcomers, yet new faculty are expected to “hit the ground running.” As daunting as this may feel, and much as new faculty want to “hit the ground running and just run away,” there are some tricks of the trade that I culled from the literature and my own experiences that I share in this paper. These guidelines may help new engineering faculty in terms of job satisfaction and in addressing key sources of stress. In this paper, I draw from the higher education faculty development literature and outline the merits of a faculty development program and how crucial these topics are for new engineering faculty members. I examine faculty development topics in the broader context of teaching, research, service, and personal growth and development. Key sources of stress for new faculty members relate to finding time for research, effective teaching practices, the lack of collegial relationships, inadequate feedback/recognition, unrealistic expectations, insufficient resources, the lack of mentors, and little work-life balance. In the paper, I address the following topics:
a) An orientation helps new engineering faculty become familiar with policies, support services, regulations, colleagues in the department, and faculty development resources (e.g., teaching models, resources, and workshops).
b) New faculty requires different mentors for different needs such as teaching practices and possibly a senior research mentor.
c) An academic dossier encompassing a teaching, research, and service is very important for tenure and promotion purposes.
d) The dean has an essential role in ensuring that new faculty members are socialized into the department and have a reduced teaching and service load (at first) so that they can develop solid and successful research agendas. The dean also assists new faculty members develop reasonable annual work plans. In the efforts to gain their bearings in new positions, new engineering faculty members feel daunted in achieving a work-life balance and inevitably, the scale tips in favor of work.
As I address each topic, I examine the importance of the topic and suggest some guidelines for consideration. I also recommend some useful academic resources for new faculty. In sharing some of my tricks of the trade, I hope that new faculty will not have to personally learn all their lessons the hard way, because at times, it is easier and less painful to learn from the experiences of others.Academic & Professional Development Fund (A&PDF
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