Engaging Faculty in Online Education: Rightsizing Incentives and Optimizing Support

: Colleges and universities of all types are pursuing increasingly ambitious goals for online education for a range of reasons—enhancing learning, increasing access, growing enrollment, managing costs. However, concerns about workload, support resources, autonomy, and course quality leave many faculty skeptical of online instruction, and most institutions expanding online offerings are struggling to get sufficient numbers of faculty both willing and prepared to teach online. This study presents best practices in managing the strategic and operational challenges associated with increasing the number of fully online and hybrid courses

Optimizing the Performance Evaluation Process for Non-Academic Staff

If conducted poorly and without support from all employee levels, performance management programs at institutions may devolve into annual evaluations that represent a staff burden rather than an ongoing career development opportunity. This brief analyzes the key components of successful performance evaluation systems for non-academic staff, incorporating insights from employers outside of the higher education sector as well. It examines the importance of midyear check-in meetings; employee goal-setting; simplified rating scales on evaluation forms; and core staff competencies that reflect institutional priorities. It also describes how institutions communicate modifications to the evaluation system and offers recommendations for the implementation of process change.