Abstract
This article reports the findings of a study on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders to online and blended learning. For the purposes of this study, faculty governance was defined as formally established bodies in colleges and universities such as senates, councils, and collective bargaining organizations that are affiliated with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). While there have been many studies on the perceptions of students, faculty, and administrators, there has been very little research on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders who hold critical positions in colleges and universities. Governance leaders are at the crux of approval processes that influence the development of curricula, faculty personnel policies, and academic programs, all of which can impact the implementation of online and blended learning initiatives. The research methodology for this study included a survey sent to a sample of governance leaders at U.S. institutions of higher education and follow-up phone interviews or email correspondence with a small number of volunteers. The sample was identified using an American Association of University Professors (AAUP) membership list. The results of this study provide important new information on the perceptions of this influential group of leaders on matters related to online and blended learning.
Highlights
Isador Isaac (I.I.) Rabi was a professor of physics at Columbia University who won the Nobel Prize in 1944 for his resonance method of recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei
Participants for this study were faculty governance leaders who were identified by searching through the individual chapter websites of the American Association of University Professors affiliated colleges (AAUP: http://www.aaup.org/about/aaup-chapter-websites)
Despite the fact that the demand for blended and online courses continues to increase in higher education institutions, along with faculty participation in blended and online teaching and learning, the current study demonstrates that faculty governance leaders remain generally skeptical about the academic quality and rigor of blended and online courses as compared to courses offered in a traditional format at their respective institutions
Summary
Isador Isaac (I.I.) Rabi was a professor of physics at Columbia University who won the Nobel Prize in 1944 for his resonance method of recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. He was widely regarded as one of the top physicists of his time and was a colleague of Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, and Werner Heisenberg. Rabi was instrumental in establishing Brookhaven National Laboratory and Nevis Labs (at Columbia University). He was generally credited with giving European physicists the idea for establishing CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) Laboratory in Geneva. In 1948, at their first meeting, Eisenhower congratulated Rabi on his Nobel Prize for Physics, adding that he was always happy to see "one of Columbia's employees honored." The remark, it is recorded, drew from Rabi a careful response: "Mr President, the faculty are not employees of the University—they are the University." This was the beginning of twenty years of friendship between the two (Devons, 2001)
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