Research Projects

The purpose of this research is to maintain appropriate and accurate records for the evaluation of the FACD (Faculty Development) courses offered by the Rothwell Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. The evaluation will include: assignments included as part of the courses, end of course surveys, follow-up surveys and assessments. The review of these courses and their assignments will likely reveal common faculty misconceptions or faculty beliefs about teaching and learning which will not only aid the Rothwell CTLE, but other Faculty Development Centers looking to aid faculty with their teaching. The evaluation will also improve the Center’s faculty development process and help uncover future training needs that can be addressed by the Rothwell CTLE. This is an ongoing, department-specific report that can be reviewed by anyone in the university per request.

Results vary per year. The following summarize data collected between 2013 and 2015:

2013 - After compiling data from this year’s Rothwell Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) Climate Survey, the data was found to be favorable with regard to service offerings and perceived effectiveness of the center. While a few outliers were found, commentary shared under the headings of Other Results, those who participated in the survey (n=182) appear to be supportive of the center’s operations and provided much feedback in which to help improve the center’s effectiveness. Collection results increased by 3 percent in comparison to the 2011 survey. The demographics of those surveyed ranged in age (collected by groups) from the Over 60 category (n=75; 43%) to the 40-30 category (n=14; 8%), were primarily male (n=124; 72%), but surprisingly included 75 percent as belonging to the Adjunct category. While the majority, 47 percent, of those surveyed listed Online as their primary TEACHING modality (n=82), their preferred LEARNING modality, however, was identified as being divided between Online Self-Paced (n=47) at 27% to that of Face-to-Face (n=46) learning which represented 27 percent.
Lastly, 35 percent of those surveyed (n=62) indicated as teaching for another institution, and of that group, 51 percent (n=35), have been exposed to another center similar to the CTLE established at the Worldwide Campus. Happily, their feedback indicated, on more than one occasion, that “ERAU [‘s CTLE] is superior.”

2014 - After compiling data from this year’s Rothwell Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) Climate Survey, the data was found to be favorable with regard to service offerings and perceived effectiveness of the center. While a few outliers were found, commentary shared under the headings of Other Results, those who participated in the survey (n=232) appear to be supportive of the center’s operations and provided much feedback in which to help improve the center’s effectiveness. Collection results increased by 22 percent in comparison to the 2013 survey. Of the faculty who completed the survey, 140 (60%) were male and 72 (31%) female (with 20 not indicating their gender). A majority of the respondents were adjunct faculty (71%; n=164) with 17 percent (n=39) being full time faculty. Contract faculty and staff made up five percent (n=12) of respondents (17 did not indicate their faculty status). Online was the primary teaching (n=98, 42%) and learning (30%, n=70) modality for the responding faculty; followed by blended (both face-to-face (F2F) and using EagleVision) with 34 percent (n=79) teaching in this modality and 26 percent (n=60) preferring it for learning.

2015 - After compiling data from this year’s Rothwell Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) Climate Survey, the data was found to be favorable with regard to service offerings and perceived effectiveness of the center. While a few outliers were found, commentary shared under the headings of Other Results, those who participated in the survey this year (n=102) appear to be supportive of the center’s operations and provided much feedback in which to help improve the center’s effectiveness. Collection results decreased by 44 percent  in comparison to the 2014 survey. Of the faculty who completed the survey, 52 (51%) were male and 35 (34%) female (with 15 not indicating their gender). A majority of the respondents were adjunct faculty (71%; n=73) with 17 percent (n=17) being full time faculty (both 10-month and 12-month) (12 did not indicate their faculty status). Online was the primary teaching modality (n=56, 55%) for the responding faculty; followed by blended (both face-to-face and using EagleVision) with 12 percent (n=12).