Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows 1
Introduction
For faculty, by faculty
December marked the first six months of the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence, CAFE, including a team of ten Faculty Fellows. Each of our Fellows came to their position with a strong sense of purpose and enthusiasm. We are pleased to present a mid-year report that is full of progress and plans for additional outcomes this spring. We have all been busy at CAFE and look forward to sharing some details with you. We wanted to spotlight the work of the CAFE Faculty Fellows for several reasons. We value the investment from UMKC Forward that has supported this wide-spread faculty-driven work. Not only is the investment providing leadership opportunities for faculty, it is also leading to enhanced visibility of UMKC’s talented faculty. UMKC is connecting with faculty expertise to build new programming and to conceptualize academic research. CAFE will continue to offer tailored programs and resources that are “for faculty by faculty.” Our focus with the CAFE Faculty Fellows began with close attention to the evidence-based area of inquiry, implementation science. This helped the Faculty Fellows be planful about need, evidence, fit, usability, capacity, and supports. Additionally, in hopes of being able to test the change resulting from CAFE, we are following a plan-study-do-act approach. This report begins with initial planning, moves to the results of the study phase, summarizes what the Faculty Fellows accomplished last fall and their plans for spring. The report features both updates from faculty and the results of our first survey. Thank you for your support of the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence Diane Filion Alexis Petri Lorie Holt Molly Mead
Figure 1. Hexagon planning tool compiled results.
2021-22 CAFE Fellows LaVerne Berkel Matthew Edwards Henrietta Rix Wood Arif Ahmed Sarah Tyrrell Rebecca Best Yong Zeng Hadara Bar-Nadav Peter Morello Billie Anderson
1 July – 31 December 2021
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Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows
Survey Overview The 2021-22 CAFE Fellows were selected in August and had their first all Fellows meeting on September 1, 2021. It was clear from the first meeting that several of the Fellows were interested in obtaining a better understanding of faculty needs through both survey and focus group data collection. Immediately following that first meeting, a sub-group of the Fellows began to meet to construct a survey instrument for dissemination to all UMKC faculty. Each of the Fellows involved in the survey construction studied similar survey instruments in the literature as well as working with peers and the CAFE team to determine the questions that would provide them with the information they needed to refine their CAFE projects. The sub-group of faculty who created survey questions was: Arif Ahmed, LaVerne Berkel, Rebecca Best, Sarah Tyrrell, Henri Wood and Yong Zeng. After survey questions had been submitted to the CAFE team, the question pool was refined and the survey was created in REDCap. The questions from each Fellow were kept separate within REDCap so that it would be easy to provide each Fellow their data directly. The survey was designed to branch to the questions pertinent to each faculty member, which kept the overall number of questions for each faculty member as low as possible. The completed REDCap survey was tested and approved by the Fellows and the CAFE team. The survey was sent to all UMKC faculty on November 3, 2021. In total, 297 UMKC faculty and staff responded to the CAFE Faculty Fellows Survey. Results from selected items from the survey are represented in this report. CAFE Fellows continue to work on the qualitative and quantitative examination of their survey data. Two of the Fellows will be following up with focus groups early in the spring 2022 semester. Survey and focus group data will be utilized to assist Fellows in tailoring their projects to address faculty needs at UMKC. Figure 2. Survey respondents by position.
8, 2% 17, 6% 18, 6% 61, 21%
62, 21%
114, 39%
14, 5%
Tenure-track faculty Tenured faculty Department / division chair or director Adjunct faculty NTT teaching faculty, ranked & unranked Ranked NTT research faculty Academic staff
Figure 3. Overview of types of support adjuncts currently receive and think would be helpful.
1 July – 31 December 2021
Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows 3
Pillar: Teaching and Learning CAFE Fellow
LaVerne Berkel
Focus
Increase support for adjunct instructional personnel with the goal of improving learning outcomes and retaining adjunct instructors.
Accomplishments to Date
Development and distribution of faculty survey. Review of services provided to adjuncts at other universities. Review and update of adjunct faculty orientation Canvas site.
Future Plans
Conduct focus group with representative groups of adjunct faculty. Complete qualitative and quantitative data analysis of survey data. Finalize updates to Canvas adjunct faculty orientation site, including updating the resource materials. Finalize recommendations for adjunct faculty website.
CAFE Fellow Focus
Accomplishments to Date
Future Plans
Matthew Edwards Develop three different frameworks that promote discussions concerning accessibility and disability understood broadly on campus. Collectively, the purpose of these frameworks is to promote a positive environment amongst faculty, primarily, but also across student and staff populations. Creation of a column in the Faculty Affairs Newsletter. Its purpose is to increase visibility around disability and accessibility. Collaborating on updating and expanding the content of the Faculty Institute for Teaching Inclusive Curriculum (FITIC). Create the online FITIC course and market it for a fall 2022 launch date. Partner with the Missouri Online Instructional Design team on the design of the online FITIC course. Continue publishing the “AccessRoo” column in the Faculty Affairs Newsletter.
1 July – 31 December 2021
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Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows
CAFE Fellow
Henrietta Rix Wood
Focus
Organize and publicize opportunities for professional learning for UMKC faculty about the teaching of writing. Cultivate the UMKC writing network. Promote research and innovation about the teaching and learning of writing.
Accomplishments to Date
Organize and Publicize Professional Learning. How Do You Teach Writing: A Multidisciplinary Discussion hosted on October 29th, 2021. Twenty-five faculty attended. Quick-Write Workshop: Creating or Revising a Class Writing Assignment in One Hour hosted by Crystal Doss on December 10th, 2021. Seven faculty attended. Publicized the following: Cultivating Antiracist Assessment Practices: A Faculty Workshop Series, and the Faculty Learning Community on Threshold Concepts. Cultivate the UMKC Writing Network. As Co-Chairperson of the University Writing and Reading Board (UWRB), maintain and update the website. Communicate with representatives from the three new schools about spring 2022 Writing Intensive (WI) courses. Work directly with faculty to convert courses to WI courses. Promote Research and Innovation. Attended International Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Conference. Met with the Park University Writing Across the Curriculum Director to discuss their writing program. Met with David Trowbridge to learn about Clio, an educational website and mobile application that he developed (www.theclio.com). Through discussions, David is applying for a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learning Societies to support the use of Clio in college writing classrooms. Created survey questions to determine faculty needs relative to writing support at UMKC.
Future Plans
Determine how to address faculty requests for assistance as expressed in the survey. Organize faculty workshops on encouraging revision and helping students engage in effective peer response. Collaborate with the UWRB to review and possibly revise WI course requirements, the WI course proposal review process, and other ways to better serve the needs of students and WI faculty. Collaborate with UWRB Co-Chairperson Thomas Ferrel to create a process for providing individual consultations to writing instructors. Organize a multi-institution, Zoom-based, orientation led by David Trowbridge of the UMKC History Department about Clio. Plan an informative session about teaching writing across the campus for the proposed CAFE Symposium in May 2022.
1 July – 31 December 2021
Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows 5 Figures 4 and 5. Assignments and resources for writing instruction.
To teach writing in my classes, I use:
Resources and supports I recommend:
Figure 6. Faculty perceptions of supports, resources, and opportunities available at mid-career.
1 July – 31 December 2021
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Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows
Pillar: Faculty Life and Leadership CAFE Fellow
Sarah Tyrrell
Focus
Work in this area aims to initiate measures that could begin to fill the gap for Mid-Career Faculty (MCF), tenure-track or NTT, by framing real solutions related to open communication and data accumulation, collaboration and networking, and independent and divisional career planning and positioning.
Accomplishments to Date
Gained a thorough understanding of the complexities of the MCF by immersion in relevant MCF literature. Identified key attributes of MCF to better identify/categorize this part of the university population. Gathered valuable data (from one-on-one conversations with UMKC faculty and survey data) related to the personal experiences of MCF toward advancing the goal of hosting dedicated Focus Group meetings. Formulated the implementation of specific resources/tools to support, sustain, and advance UMKC's MCF population.
Future Plans
Conduct focus groups to collect additional insights from faculty at UMKC that consider themselves to be MCF. Finalize proposals for resources across three distinct platforms: Selfreflection, Networking, and Collaborative Networking
CAFE Fellow
Arif Ahmed
Focus
The aims for the work in this area are to assess the specific needs of chairs and program directors at UMKC and subsequently plan leadership development opportunities to be sustained at UMKC.
Accomplishments to Date
Conversations with the Provost to ensure a commitment from the University to pursue this work. Gathered information to design future programing from the following sources: department chairs’ surveys, dean interviews, internal stakeholder discussions, UM campus peer discussions, and external resource discussions.
Future Plans
Program framework conceived comprising of three major areas: knowledge/skills; resource depository; networking. Develop program mock-up. Develop budget for programming/resources. Develop recruitment plan.
1 July – 31 December 2021
Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows 7 Figures 7 and 8. Skills and knowledge development areas chairs identify would increase their effectiveness as department/division leaders. Top two areas of skills/knowledge development chairs identified as increasing their skills in organizational relationships and stewardship.
Top four areas of skills/knowledge development chairs identified as increasing their effectiveness related to communication and relationships. Effective communication & negotiation Motivating & developing people
Providing constructive feedback Building collaboration
60% want to increase conflict resolution skills
60% want to increase skills for making and communicating difficult decisions
Figure 9. Top three areas of skills/knowledge development opportunities that would increase chairs’ effectiveness as strategic managers.
Strategic capacity building = 70%
Boosting faculty morale = 70%
Team dynamics & engagement = 50%
Figure 10. Supports likely to lead to increases in number of grant proposals submitted.
1 July – 31 December 2021
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Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows
Pillar: Research and Creativity CAFE Fellow
Rebecca Best
Focus
Public-facing scholarship and co-developing Supporting Our Academic Researchers, SOAR, mentoring program.
Accomplishments to Date
Authored a short white paper on publishing public facing scholarship, such as blogs, that includes links to the submission guidelines for a variety of scholarly and policy outlets in different fields, featured on umkc.edu/CAFE. This promotes research and creativity by amplifying impact of scholarship for a broader audience including policy makers, practitioners, and the general public. Academic blogs are currently being assigned in courses, cited in Supreme Court decision(s), and read widely. Developed academic blogging workshop series launching in February (blogging used as short hand for public facing short-form work based on research). Hosted research networking events – one in-person and one virtual.
Future Plans
Building out initial Art of Grantsmanship asynchronous course prototype with new readings and short interviews. Begin first academic blog workshop in February aimed at beginning academic bloggers. Plan future workshop with academic blog editors. Identify and host new research and creativity activities to motivate and inspire busy faculty. Schedule organized networking meetings in the Wonder platform to allow faculty to meet new collaborators and/or mentors/mentees in a virtual setting.
CAFE Fellow
Yong Zeng
Focus
Enhancing grantsmanship by providing professional learning and interdisciplinary networking opportunities for faculty developing large grant proposals.
Accomplishments to Date
Collaborating with Office of Research Services, co-organized and facilitated an eight-week workshop series, Large-Scale Interdisciplinary Grant Proposal Development. The two-hour-long workshops covered team building, research hypotheses development, tips for writing winning proposals, and logic flow, interdisciplinary studies, computational and inferential thinking, broader impacts, and budget construction and pitfalls. Organized panel review for small grant proposals from The Art of Grantsmanship.
Future Plans
Offer a second workshop series as a follow-up to fall workshops. The second eight-weeks will provide structure for the participants to complete their draft proposals and provide networking and feedback among the faculty. 1 July – 31 December 2021
Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows 9
Pillar: Service and Engagement CAFE Fellow
Hadara Bar-Nadav
Focus
Increasing visibility of UMKC faculty accomplishments and promoting faculty expertise to engage prospective students.
Accomplishments to Date
Edited and proofread each issue of the Faculty Affairs Newsletter (FAN) to present cohesive and highly polished materials that celebrate UMKC faculty and staff. Created a Faculty Awards Calendar, regularly updated and disseminated to increase access. Conceptualized, researched, and built structure for the Roos Rock column in the Faculty Affairs Newsletter (FAN) and on the CAFE website. Collaborated with MCOM by pitching stories based on faculty accomplishments that led to Internal and external news features. Collaborated with Recruiting and Admissions to share news of faculty research, which turns out to be especially exciting to prospective students.
Future Plans
Continue all efforts: update the Awards Calendar, produce interviews, produce Roos Rock column, collaborate with MCOM, collaborate with Recruiting/Admissions, and edit the FAN and CAFE website. Interview individual faculty with compelling stories to tell about their research. Expand Roos Rock column to include faculty publications. Create social media content through CAFE to further highlight faculty and staff accomplishments.
Cross-Pillar CAFE Fellow
Peter Morello
Focus
Creating support, resources, and programming for faculty interested in international partnerships, conducting international research, teaching abroad and applying for international awards/grants.
Accomplishments to Date
Conceptualized and designed CAFEGlobal, a website to be located within the CAFE site. CAFEGlobal will serve as a primary resource hub for UMKC faculty interested in international scholarly pursuits. Reviewed ideas and needs with faculty members from several units-including those in the professional schools, administrators with international interests, and contacted international award agencies (Fulbright, DAAD) for further guidance on promoting award opportunities on campus.
1 July – 31 December 2021
10 Spotlight on CAFE Faculty Fellows Future Plans
CAFE Fellow
Applying for Fulbright grant to participate in faculty award mentoring training. Working toward getting CAFEGlobal up and running, adding appropriate links, moderating chat rooms. Designing and promoting faculty-led mentoring programs for new faculty and students relating to international activities, awards, and grants. Organizing workshops/panel discussions that support international engagement.
Billie Anderson
Focus
Creating tools to assist department chairs and deans in using assessment data to identify potential barriers to student success, particularly in performing gap analyses to better understand factors that may underly differential student outcomes.
Accomplishments to Date
Attended the virtual Assessment Institute hosted by IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis). Met multiple times with Vice Provosts Cox, McNeley, and Filion to define gap analysis. The essential finding that was need to perform a gap analysis is that a program has to have a signature assignment in which each student has been assessed so that the demographics can be matched to the assessments. We identified three academic programs as potential pilot tests for creating a gap analysis process. Performed an initial gap analysis for one program (foreign languages) to determine if a difference exists between what the academic program expects students to be able to perform and the reality of what students can perform. The gap analysis was performed by demographic status for an undergraduate 'capstone' course. Provided the initial gap analysis to the department and to Vice Provost McNeley for review and feedback.
Future Plans
Create an initial gap analysis for computer science and history departments. Receive feedback from computer science and history to create a final gap analysis that is meaningful for their departments. Make changes to foreign languages analysis based on feedback from unit and Vice Provost McNeley. Work with Foreign Languages to implement the gap analyses on a second class using the template I have created. Meet with vice provosts Cox, McNeley, and Filion to discuss how the University can best use these gap analyses reports.
1 July – 31 December 2021