Reconceptualizing the Peer Review Process for Online Courses
Over the past two decades, academic deans, directors, and faculty have struggled to develop an effective peer review process for online courses. Most institutional review processes begin and end with the Quality Matters (QM) standard, the most widely accepted quality standard in the field of online education. But while QM...
Invest in Your Strategic Meetings by Engaging an Outside Facilitator
Meetings are not foreign to academic leaders, but strategic planning meetings and meetings aimed at complex problem-solving with partners are weightier than others. In these situations, choosing to use an experienced facilitator who is outside your department or college can result in these benefits: Clearly defined outcomes with measurable progress...
Getting Organized
Although academic leaders have looked to the promise of a “paperless office” for many years, that future vision never seems to materialize. While it’s true that many forms of communication that appeared in hard copy now reach us in electronic versions, we still seem to be inundated by a never-ending...
Establishing Effective Relationships Between Faculty and Instructional Designers
Faculty routinely engage the assistance of instructional designers when designing and developing courses. To build trust and respect between faculty and instructional designers, each has to realize that they are working toward a common goal—providing students with active learning experiences that facilitate deep learning. This relationship is important as each brings...
Educating Students: The Moral Judgment Challenge for Higher Education
In Our Underachieving Colleges (2006), Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, challenged higher education institutions to do more in providing an education more supportive of building character in undergraduates. While the number of ethics courses offered has increased, both in professional schools and in undergraduate institutions, many of these courses...
The Department Chair as the Engine of Diversity Transformation
The academic department chair is positioned to be the engine of change in diversity progress in higher education today. Serving at the core of the academic enterprise, chairs work collaboratively with faculty to empower students with the needed skills, knowledge, and competencies to participate as leaders and citizens in a...
Take a Vacation—Please!
Although workshops on academic leadership frequently devote sessions to the topic of “work-life balance,” that phrase is really misleading. It seems to imply that we’re either working or living but never doing both at the same time. However, this is a false dichotomy for most administrators. We’re obviously living while...
When the End Is in Sight
There comes a time in the life of an academic program when it is no longer viable due to dropping enrollments, lack of faculty resources, budget cuts, changing external contexts, or other factors. When the decision is made to close a program, the department chair’s attention to planning will be...
Why Getting It Done Is Often Better Than Getting It Perfect
Although the remark has been attributed to lots of different people, it was Voltaire who first observed (in his Dictionnaire Philosophique, 1764) that “the perfect is the enemy of the good” (Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien). It has become such a common saying that we recite it almost without thinking....
Considerations for Meaningful and Credible Strategic Planning
Formulating strategic plans is a relatively common activity in higher education. Some institutions have strong traditions in this regard, and all levels periodically engage in this process. Others participate occasionally. Much depends on the interest and motivation of the upper administration. In fact, planning of this type is often initiated...
