Faculty Engagement Research Articles

Value, Support, and Advancement: An Organization’s Role in Faculty Career Intentions in Academic Medicine

PurposeFaculty engagement in academic medical centers is essential to advancing efficient healthcare delivery, research productivity, and organizational quality. The authors used turnover theory to empirically examine factors that influence faculty engagement, including both aspirational and attrition-related career intentions.MethodsUsing a convergent, mixed methods design, the authors surveyed 284 faculty at a large Midwestern public university’s school of medicine in Fall 2015, Fall 2016, and Spring 2017. The study’s questionnaire included a series of scales which informed three outcome variables (promotion aspirations, leadership aspirations, and intent to leave the organization) and four groups (role strain, work–family conflict, organizational commitment and support, and departmental commitment and support) of predictor variables, all of which have been previously validated with medical faculty populations. The scales were followed by open-ended questions which allowed respondents to further elaborate on their experiences in their organization related to each outcome variable. The authors used a hierarchical multiple regression model to assess the effect of each of the four groups of predictor variables on the outcome variables and then employed an iterative thematic analysis of open-ended responses to further elucidate faculty’s reported experiences.ResultsOrganizational commitment and support were significantly associated with faculty’s promotion aspirations, leadership aspirations, and intentions to leave the organization. Thematic analysis of participant responses to open-ended questions further revealed the specific career development support faculty desired, mainly, streamlined and transparent promotion and leadership processes; clear guidance to maneuver these processes; holistic professional development opportunities; feeling valued; and supports for clinical and administrative tasks.ConclusionAdvancing organizational policy that supports infrastructure for evidence-based interventions and programming for the intentional career development of faculty is an important aspect of a proactive talent development and retention model in academic medical centers.

Radiation Oncology Virtual Education Rotation 2.0 for Residents: Preliminary Results

<h3>Purpose/Objective(s)</h3> Radiation Oncology Virtual Education Rotation (ROVER) is a virtual education platform developed to support radiation oncology education for medical students during COVID19 when away and in-person rotations were suspended. Due to the positive reception of ROVER, we created ROVER2.0 tailored to radiation oncology residents. <h3>Materials/Methods</h3> ROVER2.0 comprises monthly case-based discussions on various topics with radiation oncology faculty from across the country and is tailored to radiation oncology residents. Sessions are 1 hour in duration and hosted over Zoom. Sessions were advertised on social media (Twitter) and on ARRO, ACRO, and ADROP mailing lists. Pre- and post-session surveys were used to explore resident perspectives on virtual education and assess the utility of virtual education as a modern learning platform. <h3>Results</h3> Five ROVER2.0 sessions have been held, led by 17 faculty from 16 institutions (3-4 faculty per session) with a total of 868 registrants (R), 445 attendees (A), and 152 post-survey respondents (P): gastrointestinal (R = 186, A = 103, P = 50), genitourinary (R = 159, A = 83, P = 29), central nervous system (R = 140, A = 58, P = 19), pediatrics (R = 177, A = 94, P = 27), and head and neck (R = 206, A = 107, P = 27). 43.5% of registrants were female, 6.1% were PGY-1, 37.3% were PGY-2/3, and 45% were PGY-4-5. Of all registrants, 82% signed up for ROVER2.0 for the "opportunity to hear from a diverse expert panel." At baseline, 73.5% reported that their home programs conducted mock oral exams and programs were reported to have a median of 5 hours/week of dedicated didactics. A third or fewer reported that COVID-19 negatively impacted residency didactics (22.8%), faculty engagement in teaching (30.8%), or access to faculty (33.9%). 24.2%, 37.3%, and 38.5% of respondents felt that virtual platforms are superior, equal, or inferior to in-person learning, respectively. 98.0% considered the sessions very valuable or valuable and that it was very easy or easy (94.1%) to learn through the virtual format. 83.6% strongly agreed or agreed that they felt more confident treating the disease site cancer as a result of the session. 84.2% reported that they had no difficulty attending sessions due to clinical responsibilities. <h3>Conclusion</h3> ROVER2.0 case-based sessions can augment radiation oncology residency didactics by providing exposure to different practices across the country as an adjunct to in-person learning. Most respondents felt that COVID-19 did not negatively impact educational quality, and a rapid transition to virtual platforms likely served as an important buffer. ROVER2.0 was met with enthusiasm and considered an effective teaching tool by radiation oncology resident participants. This virtual and open-access resource can facilitate accessible and equitable education to those negatively impacted by in-person learning restrictions and allow broader dissemination of information about radiation oncology.

Community College Faculty: Perceived Value of Scholarship

ABSTRACT Scholarship, especially the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), can positively impact teaching and learning practices, yet there are many barriers to community college faculty engagement in these activities. Recognizing the important role of values in motivation and behaviors, the purpose of this study was to understand the perceived value of SoTL for community college faculty. A national sample of 348 full-time and 42 part-time community college faculty members teaching biology, chemistry, history, and sociology were surveyed. Based on the responses of the 390 completed surveys, there were three findings. First, community college faculty reported higher perceived institutional value of scholarship related to teaching (M = 3.08, SD .79) than they did for perceived institutional value of scholarship related to discipline (M = 2.53, SD .75). However, results indicated that there was a significant difference between perceived institutional value and individual value of scholarship related to teaching, with faculty reporting higher individual value as compared to perceived institutional value of teaching-focused scholarship. There were no significant differences in individual or perceived institutional value in terms of full-time versus part-time status, degree, or discipline. Suggested institutional actions to increase faculty perception of the value of the SoTL are provided.

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Once the province of missionaries and plastic surgeons, international surgical volunteerism has evolved under the umbrella term, “Global Surgery” to include both international and domestic outreach programs to low resource settings. It is inclusive of short-term surgical camps, long-term academic collaborations, research, professional societal exchanges and interprofessional networks, as well as advocacy and policy engagement. In academics, an ever-expanding number of global surgery training programs are taking root within departments of surgery, and faculty engagement is beginning to be seen not as a hobby or vacation activity but as a legitimate piece of an academic portfolio, with endowed chairs in global surgery and specialties now becoming part of the of the landscape.

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Open Access, Level-Specific, Core Content Curriculum for Emergency Medicine Residents.

Leaders in graduate medical education must provide robust clinical and didactic experiences to prepare residents for independent practice. Programs traditionally create didactic experiences individually, requiring tremendous resources with variable content exposure and quality. We sought to create and implement a free, open access, learner-centric, level-specific, emergency medicine (EM) residency curriculum. We developed Foundations of Emergency Medicine (FoEM) Foundations I and II courses using Kern's model of curriculum development. Fundamental topics were identified through content guidelines from the American Board of Emergency Medicine. We incorporated learner-centric strategies into 2 flipped classroom, case-based courses targeting postgraduate year (PGY) 1 and PGY-2 residents. The curriculum was made freely available online in 2016. Faculty and resident users were surveyed annually for feedback, which informed iterative refinement of the curriculum. Between 2016 and 2020, registration for FoEM expanded from 2 sites with 36 learners to 154 sites and 4453 learners. In 2019, 98 of 102 (96%) site leaders and 1618 of 2996 (54%) learners completed the evaluative survey. One hundred percent of responding leaders and 93% of learners were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with FoEM content. Faculty and residents valued FoEM's usability, large volume of content, quality, adaptability, organization, resident-faculty interaction, and resident-as-teacher opportunities. Challenges to implementation included resident attendance, conference structure, technology limitations, and faculty engagement. We developed and implemented a learner-centric, level-specific, national EM curriculum that has been widely adopted in the United States.

Role of entrepreneurship awareness in engineering education

Entrepreneurship education teaches engineering students in all disciplines the knowledge, tools, and attitudes that are required to identify opportunities and bring them to life. Despite an increased focused on developing and understanding engineering undergraduates’ entrepreneurial mindsets, best practices related to assessing this mindset remain nascent. While some of these existing studies sought to understand perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs, the existing literature is limited in direct attempts to measure students’ entrepreneurial mindsets or beliefs. In this article, we tried to examine the importance of entrepreneurship efforts in engineering education, national support for entrepreneurship, student and faculty attitudes and engagement. We then offer our perspective on the future landscape for innovation and entrepreneurship in engineering education.

Who are faculty assessment leaders?

The role of faculty in gathering, analyzing and using student learning data is growing and changing, but still underrepresented in the higher education research literature. While faculty are often expected and required to participate in assessment work, some faculty go beyond assessment work as service to take leadership roles. Using data collected and analyzed through a multi-phase exploratory sequential mixed methods research design, we combine data from administrator surveys, faculty interviews and analysis of faculty CVs to describe the role of faculty who take leadership roles in assessment work on their campuses: faculty assessment leaders. In this paper, we examine how faculty assessment leaders came to the role, if and how they were trained or prepared for the role, and how they describe their work. We recommend that institutions who seek to promote faculty engagement in assessment take a strategic approach to developing faculty assessment leaders, providing them with training and recognizing and rewarding their leadership.

Tumult in Higher Education: An Open Systems Perspective of Faculty Reactions to Organizational Change at Christian Universities

Christian higher education has been experiencing frequent transformational organizational change (e.g., downsizing, elimination of departments, technological innovations, addition of majors, etc.). These changes are significantly impacting faculty members. In other contexts, researchers have asserted that organizational change correlates with interpersonal conflict for employees and that such conflict is associated with counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). If these associations are occurring for faculty members in Christian higher education, the result of CWBs as well as the consequences of conflict could result in lowered faculty engagement levels, turnover intentions, and other typical negative behaviors reflective of these variables in other contexts. Because faculty members in Christian higher education institutions are a vital link to student learning and faith integration within the curriculum, it is important for leaders to understand how change efforts might have unintended consequences that ultimately could undermine change efforts and impact the student experience. We utilized a multivariate analysis of theoretically identified variables related to CWBs, while examining faculty alignment with university values. A cross-sectional survey design assessed faculty (N = 267) perceptions of organizational change, interpersonal conflict, CWBs, and organizational identification at five Christian universities. The results indicated that organizational change was significantly correlated with interpersonal conflict and conflict was significantly correlated with CWBs. Organizational identification revealed an intervening effect on conflict and CWBs. A model applying open systems theory suggested that leaders in Christian higher education must consider the systemic effects of organizational change as they implement change initiatives.

Assessment resistance: using Kubler-Ross to understand and respond

Purpose Faculty participation in the assurance of learning (AoL) is requisite both for the effective operation of the system and for accreditation compliance, but faculty often resist engaging in AoL tasks. The purpose of this paper is to provide specific recommendations to address faculty concerns and to guide AoL systems toward maturity. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a comprehensive model of faculty resistance perspectives aligned to AoL maturity, provides specific responses to faculty resistance and introduces success markers of progress toward maturity. Findings Specifically, a three-stage model of AoL system maturity is presented and aligned with five faculty perspectives. For each faculty perspective, responses targeting causal factors are proposed and signs of progress toward the next level of faculty engagement are highlighted. Practical implications Faculty and AoL leaders will be able to identify their current stage of AoL system maturity and implement practical solutions to move to the next stage of system maturity. Social implications Understanding the motivations for faculty resistance will facilitate more meaningful and effective internal interactions as a school seeks to improve its AoL system. In turn, a more effective AoL system will promote better learning experiences for students; and better learning allows students to become productive in their chosen careers more quickly, thus improving society as a whole. Originality/value To the knowledge, no prior paper has organized faculty resistance along a maturity continuum, provided targeted responses based on the level of maturity or included signs that indicate growth toward the next level of maturity.

A flexible customizable virtual escape room approach for interprofessional learners

While educational escape rooms are a novel way to stimulate collaboration and enhance team learning, this approach has only been described a few times in the health professions and interprofessional education literature and has tended to be resource intensive. In this report, we describe two educational escape rooms built using freely available technology and implemented with two different cohorts of interprofessional learners in large-scale courses of over 500 students. We sought to demonstrate that a screen-based or virtual escape room approach was feasible, flexible in terms of content and format, and engaging for learners collaborating in small group teams. Cohort 1 of students from the Interprofessional Quality Improvement and Patient Safety course included 510 students on 88 teams. The activity was completed in person as a tabletop exercise utilizing a shared computer. Most students indicated the exercise was worthwhile and posttest scores on a subset of measures of patient safety learning (APSQ-III) were significantly higher than retrospective pretest scores with moderate effect size. Cohort 2 included 523 students in the Foundations of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice course. This cohort completed the activity asynchronously and virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reactions were generally positive though limited in number. An interprofessional educational virtual escape room proved to be feasible and well-received across two different learner groups, two sets of content, and two modes for group collaboration: in person versus remote. Piloting this approach required only resources that are freely available online and a sustainable level of faculty engagement, enabling implementation at any program size. Similarly designed educational escape rooms may be a worthwhile approach for interprofessional educators across many instructional contexts hoping to increase student engagement and collaboration.

Coming to College Hungry

This exploratory descriptive, single-university study (N=700) joined institutional, external, and survey data to examine first-year students’ food insecurity links to non-cognitive attributes and first-semester performance and persistence. Regressions indicate LGBTQ, multi-racial, international, transfer, and first-generation students exhibit increased food insecurity. Food insecurity linked with psychological distress, financial stress, amotivation, and intent to engage with peers but not to faculty, staff, and academic engagement. Food insecurity is also associated with lower first-semester GPA and credits earned. Findings strengthen limited evidence that food insecurity links to college students’ experience, suggesting groups of already-underserved students may need immediate support to ease food insecurity.

Community college faculty engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning

AbstractThis study evaluated the connection between community college faculty engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and student success by investigating the frequency of individual community college faculty members engagement in activities that comprise the SoTL categories of classroom research and pedagogical content knowledge.

University president perceptions of part-time faculty engagement

ABSTRACT Research regarding engagement has received the attention of researchers for the past 30 years. However, research associated with the concept of faculty engagement and its effects on higher education are still recent. This qualitative study examined how faculty engagement was conceptualized in a higher education context where the majority of professors were hired as part-time adjuncts. Analysis of data gathered from interviews with 9 presidents of private universities in Panama revealed that university presidents had incomplete and varied conceptualizations of faculty engagement, framed by their low expectations of part-time adjunct faculty. The analysis also illustrated how the four areas of faculty engagement (teaching, research, outreach, and administration) contained the three sub-dimensions for employee engagement (behavioural, emotional, and cognitive). Practical implications for higher education decision makers, including the improvement and/or implementation of faculty hiring and promotion policy, as well as leadership development for faculty supervisors, were discussed.

A permanent Pivot to online learning, or will universities bounce back to normal?

Higher Education institutions are not strangers to sudden shocks or dips in the economic environment that sneaks upon them and create budget cuts and job losses due to poor enrolments, but quite often these situations have been gradual rather than abrupt, and in most circumstances had provided higher education the space to weed out unviable courses and unsustainable practices. The same cannot be said of the Corona Virus pandemic that has befallen much of the world currently. It came in quick and fast and spared none in its deathly grip. Higher education institutions scrambled to move students and faculty engagement and learning and teaching online. What are some of the effects of this abrupt move, and how has this impacted institutions and international students? This paper will attempt to provide some insights into the ways in which faculty and students are adapting to this new environment amidst anxieties, bereft of the usual campus camaraderie and day to day engagement in person.

Learning environment and evidence among professionals and students satisfaction (LEAPS), experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic required schools to transition courses to an online platform. This shift to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) created gaps in the literature about its impact on students.The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between learner and instructional attributes and learner satisfaction with ERT.A modified version of the Student Satisfaction Survey assessed learner and instructional attributes and learner satisfaction among a convenience sample of 12 graduate and 83 undergraduate nursing students. Open-ended questions assessed students’ responses to their satisfaction with ERT. Multiple regression analysis was used to test associations of learner and instructional attributes with student satisfaction.Overall satisfaction with ERT was neutral with a mean of 2.76 on a 1 to 5 scale; students rated instructional attributes higher with a mean of 3.64. Instructional engagement/technology use (single factor) and learner technology competence were associated with student satisfaction, beta = 0.93(0.09), p<.001; beta = 0.24(0.09), p = .008, respectively. Between-class technology use and prior experience with online courses were not associated with student satisfaction, beta = -0.08(0.09), p = .379, beta = 0.26(0.15), p = .079, respectively. Qualitative findings revealed faculty engagement was a major determinant in learner satisfaction with ERT.Supporting faculty competence for the use of technology may increase learner satisfaction with ERT.

Silent science: a mixed-methods analysis of faculty engagement in science communication

To address science literacy issues, university faculty have to engage in effective science communication. However, social pressures from peers, administration, or the public may silence their efforts. The purpose of this study was to understand the effect of the spiral of silence on faculty's engagement with science communication. A survey was distributed to a census of tenure-track faculty at the University of Florida [UF], and the findings did not support the spiral of silence was occurring. However, follow-up interviews revealed faculty did not perceive their peers to value science communication and were more concerned about how the public felt about their research and communication.

The mobility of experiential learning pedagogy: transferring ideas and practices from a large- to a small-campus setting

ABSTRACT In this article, we examine the development of a new, experiential learning human geography and planning course at a smaller campus in Newfoundland, Canada. Our interest is twofold: to consider how pedagogical approaches can be transferred between a large urban campus and a small-town location; and to examine the benefits and complications of such transfers through a reflective examination of the resulting experiential learning program. The article captures the experiences of students, faculty, and university engagement staff in the deployment of the course. From these perspectives, we situate the decision to transfer an existing program across universities, the nuances of adapting such programs to the local context, and the challenge of meeting student desires for experiential learning amidst experimental pedagogical approaches. The paper concludes by suggesting that transferring pedagogical models across locations requires flexibility in terms of ensuring that new modules fit existing program constraints, and that such transfers have the potential to both challenge and positively transform experiential learning processes.

Registry-Based Trainee Assessments: Leveraging a Quality Collaborative for Surgical Education

IntroductionWe present our experience developing and embedding a registry-based module for resident feedback. MethodsAt our institution, entering operative data into the institutional quality collaborative registry is standard practice. In February 2019, a surgical education module was embedded into the registry to capture procedure-specific resident operative assessments. Faculty engagement with the sugical education module was assessed during its first year in existence (February 2019-February 2020). ResultsIn total, 1074 of 1269 (85%) operative assessments were completed by 27 faculty via the surgical education registry module. Median faculty engagement rate with the module following resident-assisted procedures was 91% [IQR 76%-100%]. Residents received a median of 7 operative assessments [IQR 2-19] over the study period. ConclusionBy embedding a surgical education module into an existing surgical quality collaborative registry, procedure-specific operative assessments can be routinely captured.

REAPing the benefits: development and use of a structured evaluation framework to codify learning resources for Global Health professionals

BackgroundThe learning opportunities for global health professionals have expanded rapidly in recent years. The diverse array of learners and wide range in course quality underscore the need for an improved course vetting process to better match learners with appropriate learning opportunities.MethodsWe developed a framework to assess overall course quality by determining performance across four defined domains Relevance, Engagement, Access, and Pedagogy (REAP). We applied this framework across a learning catalogue developed for participants enrolled in the Sustaining Technical and Analytic Resources (STAR) project, a global health leadership training program.ResultsThe STAR learning activities database included a total of 382 courses, workshops, and web-based resources which fulfilled 531 competencies across three levels: core, content, and skill. Relevance: The majority of activities were at an understanding or practicing level across all competency domains (486/531, 91.5%). Engagement: Many activities lacked any peer engagement (202/531, 38.0%) and had limited to no faculty engagement (260/531, 49.0%). Access: The plurality of courses across competencies were offered on demand (227/531, 42.7%) and were highly flexible in pace (240/531, 45.2%). Pedagogy: Of the activities that included an assessment, most matched activity learning objectives (217/531, 40.9%).ConclusionsThrough applying REAP to the STAR project learning catalogue, we found many online activities lacked meaningful engagement with faculty and peers. Further development of structured online activities providing learners with flexibility in access, a range of levels of advancement for content, and opportunities to engage and apply learning are needed for the field of global health.

Surgical Skills Olympiad: A 4-Year Experience in a General Surgery Residency Program.

Background The acquisition of operative skills is the critical defining component of general surgery training. Performing simulated tasks has been shown to increase a resident's technical skills. As such, we devised the Surgical Skills Olympiad, an annual simulation-based skills competition. We examined our 4-year experience with the Olympiad at a large academic general surgery residency program. Objective This study aimed to use competition to motivate trainees to increase the time they spent practicing basic surgical skills, resulting in improved performance over time. Methods Teams were formed from members of each postgraduate year (PGY) class. Competition tasks were level specific: knot tying for PGY-1, basic laparoscopy for PGY-2, handsewn bowel anastomosis for PGY-3, vascular anastomosis for PGY-4, and advanced laparoscopy for PGY-5. Task scores over a 4-year period (2014–2017) were analyzed and a survey of participating teaching faculty was conducted. Results Ten faculty members responded to the survey, for a response rate of 63%. A total of 50% respondents felt that the caliber of surgical skills increased since the Olympiad was implemented. Ninety percent agreed that the Olympiad was beneficial for residents to assess their skills against their peers. Over 4 years, there was an improvement in scores for suturing task, advanced laparoscopy, and bowel anastomosis ( p < 0.05 for all three). Conclusion A residency-wide surgical skills competition can improve resident performance in technical tasks and promote faculty engagement in resident skills training.