Carleton College April 3, 2006 Richard M. Reis, Ph.D. Reis@stanford

Carleton CollegeApril 3, 2006

Richard M. Reis, Ph.D.

[email protected]

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture. QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Contents

Description

Functions

Subscribers

Uses

Feedback

Impact

Future Directions

Tomorrow’s Professor Blog

How to Subscribe

CHECK OUT THE NEW MIT SPONSORED"The Tomorrow's Professor Blog"

A place for discussion about teaching and learning at: http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/

* * * * *

TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR(SM) MAILING LISTdesk-top faculty development one hundred times a year

Over 26,250 subscribersOver 650 postingsOver 650 academic institutionsOver 100 countries

Sponsored byTHE STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

http://ctl.stanford.edu

An archive of all past postings (with a two week delay) can be found at:http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/index.shtml

DescriptionDescription

Begun in March, 1998, the Tomorrow's Professor Mailing List (“desk-top faculty development, one hundred times per year”) is a twice per week, 1,000 -1,500 word set of postings on higher education sent electronically to over 26,000 subscribers at more than 650 academic institutions in over 100 countries around the world. The 700th posting was sent on February 21, 2006.

Tomorrow’s Academy

* New Faculty Reward Structures* Faculty Learning and Institutional Change

Tomorrow’s Graduate Students and Postdocs

* The Academic Job Talk.* General Principles For Responding to Academic Job Offers

Tomorrow’s Academic Careers

* Preparing for Changing Roles* Twelve Suggestions for Optimizing Academic Career Success

Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning

* Content Tyranny* How Students Learn, How Teachers Teach, and What Goes Wrong With the Process

Tomorrow’s Research

* Making Your Research Understandable to Your Colleagues Down the Hall

* How Graduate Students and Faculty Miscommunicate

FunctionsFunctions

• To provide provocative and practical material on current issues and problems in higher education

• To provide insights on how to prepare for, find, and succeed at academic careers in higher education

• To provide for a contemporary dialog on ways to improve teaching and learning

SubscribersSubscribers(March 1998 through March 2006)

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

20000

22000

24000

26000

28000

1 8 15 22 29

Time in Three Month Quarters

Nu

mb

er

of

Su

bs

cri

be

r s

Africa 320

Asia 595

Australia & New Zealand 387

Europe & Middle East 1,983

North America 15,494

South & Central America 349

Other* 5,994

TOTAL 25,122

* not able to determine location from e-mail address

Number of Subscribers World Regions

(As of December, 2005)

U.S. 13,111

Canada 923

United Kingdom 203

Australia 201

Sweden 168

South Africa 166

Germany 152

Kuwait 117

New Zealand 98

Jordon 88

Number of Subscribers Top Ten Countries


Stanford University 722

University of Michigan 389

University of Wisconsin-Madison 275

University of California, Berkeley 180

University of Minnesota 161

Pennsylvani State Univ. 138

University of Washington 134

Harvard University 133

University of Georgia 123

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign 121

Number of Subscribers Top 10 U.S. Colleges and Universities


Subscriber Percentages by DisciplineBased on a random survey of 600 subscribers

Life Sciences (including medicine)

9%

Physical sciences (including math)

16%

Social Sciences23%Humanities

13%

Education9%

Engineering (including computer

science)25%

Other5%

Subscriber Percentages by Professional Status

Based on a random survey of 600 subscribers

Assistant professor24%

Associate professor9% Full professor

20%

Higher education administration

9%

Other2%

Industry/government

2%

Postdoc5%

Instructor/lecteur6%

Part-time/adjunct faculty

5%

Graduate student18%

How Subscribers Became Aware of Mailing List


At a conference or professional

meeting17%

From a faculty member

26%

From a friend (other than the

above)3%

From a student17%

From an announcement sent

via e-mail21%

Other16%

Desired Frequency of Mailing List PostingsBased on a random survey of 600 subscribers

One per week37%

Two per week62%

More than two per week

1%

Uses of Mailing List Postings

• Posting category preferences• Postings read in their entirety• Posting applications• Examples

Preference Ranking of Postings Categories(1= lowest preference, 5= highest preference)


0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Ranking

Tomorrow'sAcademy

Tomorrow'sAcademicCareers

Tomorrow'sResearch

Listserv Category

Tomorrow's Academy

Tomorrow's Graduate Students andPostdocsTomorrow's Academic Careers

Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning

Tomorrow's Research

Percentage of Mailing List Postings Read in Their Entirety


0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Percentage of Subscribers

Less than 10% Approx. 25% Approx. 50% Approx. 75% Approx. 100%

Percentage of Postings Read in Their Entirety

Uses of Posting Applications

20%

9%

4%

56%

56%

49%

11%

84%

91%

62%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

academic careers

current issues

teaching and learning

class discussions

faculty development

further exploration

support of research

dissertation topics

U.S./Canadian perspective

sent to colleagues

Uses

Percentage of Subscribers

Feedback - Example #1 As advice for faculty with new responsibilities

I am a new departmental chair--the previous chair is out of the country, and thus cannot really help me, and I am only 1 of 3 new chairs at Brandeis, which has no formal mechanism for educating chairs. Thus, I found your two columns on being a chair very helpful--I learned some new things, and became reassured about some others. As a result of my experiences, I have encouraged an associate dean to keep a file for future new chairs -- including your two postings --so that they might have an easier time than I.

Marc Brettler <[email protected]>

Feedback - Example #2As assistance in academic/faculty development programs

I usually skim each post, and if it seems relevant to anyone I know (in my university or anywhere else) I will forward it to them via e-mail. Occasionally, I will fwd a post to all my academic development colleagues in the Institute (5 others), so as to alert them to the publication it is extracted from, and the perspective it might be adopting on a particular issue. As I work in academic development, I find I am sharing your extracts and commentaries with colleagues, rather than with students.

Kim McShaneLecturer (Flexible & Online Learning)Institute for Teaching & LearningThe University of SydneyNSW 2006

Feedback - Example #3As an archive website for possible dissertation topics.

I link to postings in the archives that I think will be of particular interest to graduate students and post-docs at MSU, and use postings as starting points for searches for other interesting web material. In the short time that I have been a subscriber, I have utilized the list postings and archive website heavily and find them timely and useful.

Andrea L. Beach, M.A.Doctoral Candidate in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong EducationMichigan State [email protected]

On senior academic administrators

On college deans

On department chairs

On senior professors at major research universities

On assistant professors at liberal arts colleges

On non-university subscribers

ImpactImpact

On senior academic administrators:

"The Tomorrow's professor Listserv is fabulous and very useful. I really enjoy it.” Nancy Cantor, provost, University of Michigan

“I am very interested in knowing what our younger faculty find to be interesting and in keeping them informed about issues the Listserv raises. My president and I both read the list regularly.” Chuck Middleton, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, Bowling Green State University

On college deans:

“The Listserv has been of great benefit to our profession. It uses the medium (frequency of messages, excellent editing, and so on) in a way that allows the information to be easily shared.” Tim Snyder, dean of science Georgetown University:

((Selected from a sample of over 750 unsolicited comments)

On department chairs:

“The Association of Communication Administration is comprised of about 350 department chairs/deans of communication departments/colleges. Much of the TP Listserv would be of interest to ACA’s membership and would serve as an excellent source of on-line discussions.” Janesl Gaudino, Executive Director, National Communication Association

On senior professors at major research universities:

“I read it religiously and recommend to many of my colleagues.” Eric Mazur, Physics, Harvard University

On assistant professors at liberal arts colleges:

“It's like professional development right here at my office...and, being at a small college where it is sometimes difficult to have discussions on select topics, it really helps.” Markita Price, Mathematics & Computer Science, Stephens College

On non-university subscribers:

“The Listserv is a tremendous service to higher education, engineering education, and for young faculty in particular. The posts are timely and thoughtful, serving to connect and stretch the thinking and awareness of literally thousands of faculty members.” Carol Muller, executive director, MentorNet

“I think the Tomorrow's Professor is magnificent! It is my favorite list serve because it is the most informative and the articles are choice. When members of the disciplinary societies get together we all agree on this point. I have been meaning to write to tell you and I hope you already know how much many of us appreciate your work.” Noralee Frankel American, Historical Association

"The Tomorrow's Professor Listserv informs my work more than anything else I read. Carla B. Howery, Deputy executive officer, American Sociological Association

TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR BLOGhttp://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/

Established, February, 2006

A partnership between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University to create a forum for comments and discussion about articles from the Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing List and about general issues concerning higher education.


Posted by markep on March 7, 2006

#703 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AS THE NEXT GREAT FACULTY DIVIDE

March 03, 2006 Read Comments [14] Add comments

"There was a time not so long ago when the great faculty divide was between faculty who performed research and faculty who did not. Now, however, with most faculty engaged in research, the new line of demarcation is instead between faculty who engage students in their research and those who do not."


Comments about this article: [14]

“Its true. Nowadays, You barely find professors who do no research. In fact its a necessary part of faculty job, to be great in research, therefore new divide line is faculty who have great skill in teaching and the one who do not. Of course a part of teaching skill is engaging students in active researches”.


Combines elements of two types of discussion forums:

1. A loosely-formed online community built around a shared affinity

2. A facilitator-driven online learning activity.


Sample Research Questions

1) What are the various technical characteristics and efficiencies of the site itself?

2) What does a content analysis of the postings reveal about the interests, issues, concerns of faculty and graduate students related to teaching and learning?


Sources for data analysis:

1. Content of past and current listserv postings

2. Web statistics such as traffic, discussion board postings, sessions, unique users

3. Content of the online forum discussions

4. Online survey of forum participants (with possible email follow-up)


Analysis Models

Interactive Analysis Model (IAM)

Based on a uni-dimensional scale (from sharing ideas to applying newly constructed knowledge).

Social Network Analysis (SNA)

Used for discovering patterns over a large set of discussions.

Future Directions

Bring the benefits of the Listserv to more students and faculty, especially those outside the

United States and Canada

• * Argentina (55)• * Armenia (4)• * Australia (340)• * Austria (35)• * Azerbaijan (2)• * Bahamas (10)• * Bangladesh (11)• * Belarus (1)• * Belgium (56)• * Belize (2)• * Bolivia (6)• * Botswana (1)• * Brazil (150)• * Brunei (1)• * Bulgaria (22)• * Canada (922)• * Chile (48)• * China (116)• * Colombia (48)• * Costa Rica (27)• * Croatia (10)• * Cyprus (14)• * Czech Republic (38)• * Denmark (71)• * Dominica (4)• * Dominican Republic (7)• * Ecuador (3)• * Egypt (17)• * El Salvador (6)• * Estonia (10)• * Ethiopia (1)• * Fiji (6)• * Finland (68)• * France (265)• * Georgia (7)• * Germany (272)• * Ghana (3)• * Greece (67)• * Grenada (3)• * Guatemala (7)• * Haiti (2)• * Honduras (5)• * Hungary (44)• * Iceland (24)• * India (682)• * Indonesia (65)

• * Iran (43)• * Iraq (4)• * Ireland (87)• * Israel (62)• * Italy (324)• * Jamaica (7)• * Japan (215)• * Jordan (21)• * Kazakhstan (3)• * Kenya (4)• * Korea, South (85)• * Kuwait (6)• * Kyrgyzstan (3)• * Latvia (12)• * Lebanon (17)• * Liberia (2)• * Lithuania (11)• * Luxembourg (3)• * Macedonia, Former

Yugoslav Republic of (11)• * Malaysia (104)• * Malta (3)• * Mauritius (1)• * Mexico (169)• * Micronesia, Federated

States of (3)• * Mongolia (5)• * Morocco (4)• * Nepal (6)• * Netherlands (113)• * New Zealand (92)• * Nicaragua (5)• * Nigeria (3)• * Norway (40)• * Oman (4)• * Pakistan (56)• * Panama (7)• * Papua New Guinea (4)• * Paraguay (7)• * Peru (37)• * Philippines (129)• * Poland (85)• * Portugal (76)• * Qatar (2)• * Romania (47)

• Russia (119)• * Rwanda (2)• * Saint Kitts and Nevis (4)• * Samoa (2)• * Saudi Arabia (3)• * Singapore (8)• * Slovakia (17)• * Slovenia (6)• * South Africa (94)• * Spain (190)• * Sri Lanka (15)• * Sudan (7)• * Sweden (72)• * Switzerland (76)• * Taiwan (41)• * Tanzania (4)• * Thailand (135)• * Trinidad and Tobago (4)• * Turkey (94)• * Uganda (1)• * Ukraine (57)• * United Arab Emirates (32)• * United Kingdom (1032)• * United States@• * Uruguay (3)• * Uzbekistan (3)• * Venezuela (20)• * Vietnam (8)• * Yemen (4)• * Yugoslavia (Serbia and

Montenegro) (9)• * Zambia (4)* Zimbabwe (4)

Potential Subscribers

Yahoo College Search By Region (14,196)

How to Subscribe

Anyone can SUBSCRIBE to the Tomorrows-Professor Mailing List by going to:

https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/tomorrows-professor

Documents

Carleton College April 3, 2006 Richard M. Reis, Ph.D. Reis@stanford