The institution provides evidence of ongoing professional development of faculty as teachers, scholars, and practitioners.  

   X   Compliance                    ___Partial Compliance                       ___Non-Compliance

Narrative

St. Petersburg College is in compliance with this comprehensive standard because all ongoing Faculty professional development is documented within annual performance appraisals as well as through workshop attendance records during initial and continuing education opportunities in the areas of instructional competence and currency in field.  Additionally, Human Resources maintains a Faculty database recording the completion of the required graduate classes. Finally, course completion of the online Adjunct training is recorded in the ANGEL Learning Management System.

Policy

Faculty professional development policy for all full-time and adjunct credit and noncredit Faculty is found in Board of Trustees Rule 6Hx23-2.022.  All Faculty and Administrators are expected to remain current in their discipline and strive to improve their instructional ability.  A systematic and comprehensive approach to Faculty professional development includes both initial and continuing professional development requirements for all Faculty and Administrators.  The Board Rule sets out a requirement for all full-time Faculty to complete six hours  of graduate level courses on college teaching and the community college  (or an equivalent noncredit course for new Faculty with doctorates) before they are offered continuing contract. Additionally, all full-time Faculty members meet annually with their Program Directors or Deans to discuss and finalize an individual professional development plan proposed by the Faculty member for the next two-year period.  All adjunct Faculty must successfully complete an online initial orientation and training course provided by the College prior to being hired for a subsequent semester.  Adjunct Faculty, after the initial evaluation, will identify the professional development activities they have completed over the previous two years.

Institution support

St. Petersburg College supports professional development of new Faculty and continuing education for full-time Faculty and Program Directors who serve as instructors, as well as Adjunct instructors by providing budget and programs to address training needs identified by senior management, the Professional Development Advisory Committee Program Directors, and Deans.

One of SPC’s nine Strategic Directions for 2006-2009 is to “provide Faculty and Staff professional development and support to improve productivity and performance.”  The institution’s Institutional Objectives provide additional objectives on an annual basis as follows:

Excerpt from Strategic Directions and Institutional Objectives

Academic and administrative unit plan objectives are then written to support the institutional objectives.  For example, the Staff and Program Development (SPD) office’s unit plan included an objective to develop an online initial training course for adjunct Faculty to support the institutional objective of implementing a new system of adjunct faculty evaluation and professional development.

Although the state of Florida no longer requires academic institutions to allocate two percent of their State General Revenue and Workforce appropriations budget for professional development of Faculty and Staff, SPC maintains that allocation, approximately $1,100,000 in recent years.  A substantial proportion of the professional development budget is distributed to Campus Provosts and Executive Directors for the primary purpose of funding faculty attendance at professional conferences in their discipline or for improving their instructional abilities.  In addition, SPD activities for upper division Faculty members are funded directly by the Office of Baccalaureate Programs to assure the Staff development fund has maximum effectiveness.  Besides funding conference attendance, each year St. Petersburg College funds new Faculty enrollment in the two required graduate courses at the University of South Florida and University of Central Florida, approximately $25,000 - $45,000 per year.  SPC also has a Collegewide effort to give all new Faculty members the opportunity to attend the annual National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) conference within the first few years of employment.  Since its beginning in 1978, NISOD has emphasized the importance of teaching excellence in open-door settings.

In addition to support for external professional development, the College provides in-house training on teaching skills, technology, and instructional technology through the Staff and Program Development (SPD) Office and the Web and Instructional Technology department.  St. Petersburg College also has actively sought grants to enrich the professional development offerings.  At present, grants that support professional development include Title III, Perkins, and Project Eagle grants.

Procedures

Faculty professional development procedures are identified in Board Procedure P6Hx23-2.022.  Each Faculty member must complete at least one major and two minor activities described in the BOT procedure during the two-year period.  Major activities include, for example, publishing textbooks or journal articles in refereed journals, developing or redeveloping courses, completing or teaching graduate courses at another institution, or service in an official capacity in a state or national organization.  Minor activities include conference presentations, participating in the annual Faculty Professional Development (In-Service) Day, attending workshops or seminars, publishing in a non-refereed journal, and serving on a Collegewide standing committee such as the Faculty Senate.

Initial Professional Development for New Full-Time Faculty: Since 1992, St. Petersburg College has required all new full-time Faculty members to complete six hours of graduate level courses on college teaching and the community college.  With the intent of continuously improving the College’s academic program, this rule has recently been changed to accelerate the requirement from three years to two years for completion.  The contracts of new Faculty members who do not meet the requirement are not renewed unless a waiver is granted.  However, a waiver may be granted if the Faculty member has completed similar coursework to the required college teaching and community college curriculum.  The Office of Staff and Professional Development coordinates with the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida to ensure that sufficient courses are available each semester for the new Faculty in a variety of formats and locations.  In recognition of the increase in the number of Faculty with doctorates as SPC expands its four-year programs, an equivalent, online, noncredit course of equal rigor has recently been implemented for new Faculty with doctorates who are not seeking additional degrees.  Two hundred fifty-one of the 309 new Faculty and Staff members over the last three years have attended one or more graduate courses and 16 have received waivers for a completion rate of 86% of eligible employees.  The remaining 39 Faculty members plan to enroll during the Spring or Summer 2007 sessions. Additionally, three (3) Ph.D. Faculty members enrolled in the pilot online course for Fall 2006.

Continuing Education for Full-Time Faculty.  In addition to the graduate courses, all full-time faculty members meet annually with their Program Directors or Deans to discuss and finalize an individual professional development plan proposed by the faculty member for the next two-year period.  Each Faculty member must complete at least one major and two minor activities described in the Board of Trustees procedure during the two-year period.  All Faculty are encouraged to attend a conference in their field every other year and each campus is provided with a budget to support conference attendance.

Program Directors: Program Directors who teach courses at the College are guided by the same Board of Trustees rule and Board of Trustees Procedure regarding initial and continuing professional development.  Program Director initial training is designed to build management and leadership skills.  In addition, Program Directors attend three to four professional development meetings per year, which address problem-solving and process improvement skills, software training, and policy changes.

Adjunct Faculty Members for Credit Courses.  St. Petersburg College has long been at the leading edge of providing adjuncts with high quality training.  In the mid-1990s, a committee of SPC Faculty, Program Directors, and television professionals created a three-part, professionally-produced video addressing challenges adjuncts face, community college student characteristics, teaching techniques, and diversity issues, which was widely requested by other community colleges.  As part of a routine update, SPC redeveloped the training in the Spring of 2005 as an online course.  The online course continues with the objectives from the prior course but has added instruction in assessment methods and use of technology.

Beginning in Spring 2006, all new credit adjunct Faculty (instructors, counselors, and librarians) must successfully complete an online initial training and orientation course provided by the College before or during the first semester of teaching as a pre-requisite to their continued employment as adjunct Instructors.   Adjunct Faculty hired before that date were required to complete the adjunct training video series, but may use modules of the new online training to meet future continuing professional development requirements.  Annually, adjunct Faculty are required to attend a Provost orientation to receive relevant new information and training in new procedures for the College.  In addition, adjunct Faculty are required to complete at least one professional development activity every two years to be eligible for future teaching assignments. All new adjunct Faculty are advised of professional development requirements and opportunities during the initial Human Resources orientation program and are given a letter within their new employee information addressing the initial adjunct Faculty online training requirement.

Noncredit Adjunct Faculty Members:  As of Fall 2005, adjunct Faculty for noncredit courses are guided by the same Board of Trustees rule and procedure regarding initial and continuing professional development.  Noncredit Faculty teaching professionally pre-designed courses are hired on the basis of teaching demonstrations and qualifications in the content area and, as such, are only required to complete the orientation module of the adjunct initial training and other modules as determined by their Program Director.  They are required to engage in professional development activities to stay current in their field or in the content of the course (e.g., legal issues in the Child Custody class), as determined by the Program Director and Faculty member with the approval of the Center Director, Campus Executive Officer, or Provost.  Professional Development activities are documented at least once every two years in the noncredit adjunct Faculty evaluation.

In-House Professional Development Programs

The Staff and Professional Development Office (SPD), Web and Instructional Technology Office (WITS), and Academic Information Systems (AIS) office are responsible for developing training opportunities that meet the requirement for minor professional development activities.

Staff and Program Development (SPD).  The wide range of opportunities offered through SPD support initial and ongoing Faculty development as teachers, scholars, and practitioners.  The SPD office:

• Provides a three-day initial orientation for new Faculty each Fall that covers important College policies on student attendance and security and federal policies such as FERPA, and introduces the new Faculty to the various campuses at SPC, its history, degree offerings, and some of its special programs.
• Is responsible for developing and managing the online adjunct training and the alternative noncredit courses for full-time Faculty on college teaching and the community college.
• Coordinates with USF and UCF to provide convenient access to graduate courses required of new full-time Faculty.
• Organizes the annual Professional Development (Faculty In-Service) day required for all full-time Faculty members.  SPD coordinates the topics for this event with the Faculty Governance Organization (FGO) and offers opportunities for Faculty members to develop and deliver presentations on the selected topic.
• Coordinates personal skills workshops delivered by Corporate Training, campus trainers, and online short courses open to all Faculty and Staff in topics such as communications, computer skills, and personal development.  Among the workshops delivered by SPD in recent years are Creating Time/Reducing Stress, Conflict Resolution, Customer Delight, and three levels of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access.  These workshops are offered at individual campuses and centrally at Corporate Training.  Element K online courses include the Harvard Manager Mentor series with topics such as Teambuilding and Giving Feedback, Computer Professional courses such as Cold Fusion and Active Server Pages, Design and Media courses such as Adobe Acrobat and Web Design, and, for those who cannot get to the traditional workshops offered by SPC, Office Productivity courses such as Excel and Access.

Office of Baccalaureate Programs.  The Office of Baccalaureate Programs sponsors a teaching and learning seminar day for upper division Faculty members across disciplines to meet each other and share innovative best practices.

Web and Instructional Technology Services (WITS) delivers instructional technology programs via workshops, one-on-one consulting, and online classes.  All Faculty desiring to teach online must complete the Pathways to e-Learning online course that covers use of the College’s course management system and best practices in online instruction.  Developed and facilitated in ANGEL by the Web and Instructional Technology Services Department, Pathways to eLearning integrates technical skills of the Learning Management System with pedagogical issues related to online instruction. Pathways to eLearning, which includes guided instruction, tutorials, peer and mentor interaction, and practice exercises, is followed-up with extensive support and resources.

          Screen shot of Pathways to E-Learning Table of Contents

As new instructional technology systems are delivered, such as the conversion from the WebCT to the Angel course management system or the introduction of the e-Portfolio module of Angel, WITS Instructional Technologists at each campus provide extensive workshops, online tutorials, and hands-on assistance to ease the implementation.  The Instructional Designers on the WITS team have recently developed follow-on instruction for course redevelopers to deepen Faculty knowledge of andragogy, including an excellent rubric for self-evaluation of course design.

Grants.  Professional development programs are also offered via workshops and conferences associated with various grants as described below.

Title III. The Title III  grant is a federally funded program under the Higher Education Act of 1965 designed to improve retention of “at risk” students who are underprepared for college level coursework.  Among its many professional development offerings, Title III sponsored the 2005 Faculty In-Service professional development day with a theme of Enhancing Students’ Learning Outcomes. Title III funded two nationally-recognized speakers and mini-grants for Faculty research in issues regarding at-risk students, including:

Examples from 2005 In-Service Day Agenda

In 2006, Title III sponsored three Professional Development workshops as described below:

Other faculty development offerings have included workshops such as Meet the Millenials, Critical Reading (co-sponsored by Carl D. Perkins Technical Prep Education Grant), and training workshops in Academic.com.

The Carl D. Perkins Postsecondary Career and Technical Education Grant provides opportunities to work with special population students.  Additionally, the Carl D. Perkins Technical Prep Education Grant funds work with Pinellas County schools working with students seeking A.S. Degrees or Certificate programs for vocational education.  Both of the Perkins’ grants provide professional development for teachers via conferences and workshops.  Among the professional development offerings provided by the grants is the annual Narrowing the Gulf conference focusing on providing accommodations for special needs students and a workshop on Critical Reading for AS degree instructors.  The seventh Annual Narrowing The Gulf For Disadvantaged Students In Post-Secondary Education Conference on April 6 and 7, 2006, sponsored by St. Petersburg College and Pinellas Technical Education Centers included a wide range of topics:

2006 Narrowing the Gulf Conference

One of the recent workshops for the new Disability Awareness Project/Faculty Training grant was on a new accessibility model, Universal Design, and was a one-hour online workshop delivered using the Universal Design model.  Emphasis was on Web site design with a focus on SPC’s particular needs.

Project Eagle.  Project Eagle is a multi-year strategic initiative by St. Petersburg College to build a national model for increasing access to four-year degrees and workforce training for students attending community colleges.  Through the Project Eagle grant, courses are recommended by Provosts and selected by a Collegewide committee for online development by a team of faculty and an assigned instructional technologist.  The goal of the grant is to re-develop 160 courses for online delivery.  The Instructional Technologist provides instruction and support on the best practices in online instruction throughout the redevelopment process.  This provides consistency and high standards in all online courses.  The Web and Instructional Technology Department (WITS) assists instructors in developing Reusable Learning Objects (RLO).  There are a number of courses that use these objects. Below are some examples:

1.      EDF 1005 uses video to enhance the content material.  Students are required to watch the video and complete a project.  The video format is a flash movie, which makes it easier for the student to view the video independent of the operating system and browser.

Student viewing video

2.      ATE 1100 – In this class, the instructor is using enhanced flashcards for the midterm and final reviews.  The enhanced flashcards allow the instructor to receive results from the students if they wish.  They can also contain images and sounds.  The students have to type an answer before they can flip the card.

Among the publications and research done within this grant, SPC publishes PERCs (Project Eagle Research Capsules), periodic summaries of E-Learning research and statistics, conference presentations, and BEEP (Best Educational E-Practices), a bi-monthly e-newsletter.  A typical issue of BEEP began with the following introduction:

Excerpt from BEEP (Best Educational E-Practices)

Ethics Tip of the Week.   St. Petersburg College has been a leader in the field of Ethics, having established a General Education requirement in the 1980s for an Applied Ethics course for all students seeking an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree.  The College’s Applied Ethics Institute (AEI) was established by the Board in 1999.   In 2006, as additional, periodic professional development, the AEI developed a series of Ethics Tips that are distributed collegewide by email on a weekly basis.  These tips include practical scenarios and guidance on such issues as copyrights, students’ privacy rights, and academic honesty and include appropriate excerpts from the Board Rules.

                         Sample Ethics Tip of the Week

Faculty Notification of professional development opportunities

New Faculty members are advised of professional development requirements and opportunities during the initial Human Resources (HR) orientation program and are given a letter addressing the graduate class requirements for all full-time Faculty and the initial online training for adjunct Faculty.  Each Fall, St. Petersburg College hosts Faculty Welcome Week with activities and programs designed to provide full-time Faculty with the knowledge they will need as new instructors to best serve their students.  HR provides new Faculty with a brochure describing the week-long activities, culminating in Fall Faculty Day.  Welcome Week includes a three-day orientation organized by the office of Staff and Program Development (SPD) addressing the College Mission, administrative policies and procedures, Faculty expectations, technology guidelines, legal issues, and budget. New Faculty are required to take a bus tour of all the SPC campuses and attend Fall Faculty Day where the President welcomes the entire Faculty at the beginning of each new school year.

All Faculty members are advised of Professional Development opportunities via the SPC Professional Development Web site and email messages, the Corporate Training Catalog and Web site, and communications from respective Program Directors.

Assessment

The Professional Development Advisory Committee reviews survey data from senior management, Program Directors, Deans, and Faculty and coordinates the delivery of Professional Development opportunities to meet Faculty training needs.

        Professional Development Advisory Committee survey data

The effectiveness of the workshops, seminars, and classes are assessed via participant surveys and are continually improved to meet the changing needs of faculty.  As an example, after receiving feedback during the pilot of the recently developed online initial training for adjunct Faculty, the course was revised to include Federal FERPA requirements and accommodations for special needs students, as well as an altered focus for adjunct Faculty who only teach online.

Completion of professional development activities is documented in the Faculty member’s annual evaluation which is retained for full-time Faculty in the Human Resources Department and for adjunct Faculty in the Campus Provost’s Office.  Faculty members are required to maintain supporting documentation for three years.  The annual evaluation, using feedback from Student Surveys of Instruction (SSI), personal observation from the Program Director, and input from the Faculty member on professional needs, is used to document revisions to the Professional Development plan each year.

Completion of required Faculty Professional Development is tracked by all Program Directors and recorded in annual performance reviews.  Completion of the initial Professional Development requirement (the graduate courses or equivalent noncredit, online courses) is monitored by SPD and Human Resources for the purpose of determining eligibility for continuing contract.

References