Selected Measures of Out-of-Classroom Faculty Activity
Welcome and Overview

February 2004

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to tell you that the Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity has once again received a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), this time to expand the scope of Delaware Study data collection activity.

As you know, over the past decade, the Delaware Study has become the tool of choice nationally for examining faculty teaching loads, instructional costs, and externally funded scholarship, all at the academic discipline level of analysis.  We have had over 350 institutions participate in the Delaware Study since its inception, and it has become the primary productivity and cost analysis tool for not only those institutions, but also for state higher education system offices, governing boards, and major data sharing consortia such as the Association of American Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE) and the Southern Universities Group (SUG).

While the current cost and productivity ratios generated from existing Delaware Study data are quite useful, they do not present a complete explanation of either cost or productivity.  It is quite conceivable that a department or discipline’s teaching workload might be low and instructional costs high, vis-à-vis national benchmarks, because faculty in the department are engaged in non-classroom activity that is central to the departmental mission.  In addition, there is a qualitative dimension of departmental functions that is not captured in a "student credit hours per FTE faculty" or "direct expense per student credit hour taught" calculation.

So it is that the Delaware Study has developed a methodology and data collection instruments that are designed to measure selected facets of out-of-classroom faculty activity.  As we did with the original Delaware Study data collection process, we have assembled an Advisory Committee comprised of nationally recognized experts in defining and assessing faculty activity.  Our objective is to establish an inter-institutionally comparable set of measures that describe what faculty do outside of the classroom.  The Advisory Committee has designed metrics directed at defining and measuring specific aspects of faculty scholarship and service to their profession, their institution, and their community.

This web site is intended to introduce you to the activities of the Delaware Study as they relate to out-of-classroom faculty activity.  As you browse these pages, you will become acquainted with the data collection instrument, its accompanying definitions, and answers to frequently asked questions.  While the data will be aggregated to the department/discipline level before reporting to the Delaware Study, we fully realize that many, if not most department chairs and units heads will have to get the information directly from their faculty.  To that end, we have also prepared a Faculty Checklist, designed to assist faculty in providing the required data in a format that is easily aggregated to the department or discipline level.  Faculty should also familiarize themselves with the data definitions.

We urge you to take the time to carefully review the data collection materials, and to give us your feedback and advice as to how they can be enhanced and strengthened.  It was feedback from our colleagues that made the Delaware Study the valuable analytical tool that it is today.  We are counting on you to continue that conversation as we expand the scope of our data collection to make the Delaware Study even more useful as a planning and management tool.

A significant improvement this year is that the data collection process for the departmental summary forms will be web-based. The link for the secure data collection tool is https://www.rdms.udel.edu/surveys/irp/fipse.

Heather Kelly Isaacs will be the key point person for day-to-day activity on data collection related to out-of-classroom dimensions of faculty activity.  Heather is extremely knowledgeable in this area, and is central to the activity of the Delaware Study Advisory Committee.  You’ll find it a pleasure working with her.

Both Heather and I welcome your comments and questions.  We can be reached via e-mail at hkelly@udel.edu or middaugh@udel.edu, respectively, or by telephone at (302) 831-2021.  We look forward to hearing from you and to working with you on this important project.

Sincerely,

Michael F. Middaugh
Assistant Vice President for
Institutional Research and Planning

Principal Investigator, Delaware Study of
Instructional Costs and Productivity



Heather K. Isaacs
Institutional Research Analyst

Associate Principal Investigator,
Delaware Study of Instructional
Costs and Productivity