III. A. 3b. The Organization Values and Supports Effective Teaching
III. B. Qualified faculty determine curricular content & strategies for instruction.
Purdue University has a large and diverse faculty dedicated to discovery, learning and
engagement. In the 2007-08 academic year there are 1,872 tenured or tenure track
faculty on campus. In addition there are 892 non-tenure track faculty, lecturers and postdoctoral faculty included the newly designated “Research Faculty” position starting in the
2005-6 academic year. One piece of evidence about the competency of the Purdue
faculty is the amount of extramural awards granted to faculty. In 2006-07 there were a
total of $292.2 million dollars of extramural funding. Of that amount, $164 million came
from the Federal government and there was $128.2 million in non-Federal funding. That
amount has more than doubled in the last ten years. A large number of faculty are active
in obtaining outside funding with 56.6% of all Full, Associate and Assistant Professors
receiving awards.
The faculty is becoming more diverse over time. Currently there are 25.2% of the
tenured and tenure track faculty who are women as opposed to 20.6% in the same
category 10 years ago. There is also an increase in the number of women in non-tenure
track faculty although that rate of growth is not as high as it is for tenured and tenure
track. Currently 44.2% of those slots are filled by women compared with 40.7% 10 years
ago. The percent of tenure and tenure track faculty who are Ethnic Minorities has grown
from 12.1% 10 years ago to 21.2% today. Among non-tenure track faculty and lecturers
the proportion has risen from 30.4% ten years ago to 39.6% today. This large, high
quality and diverse faculty plays an important role in determining the content and
strategies for instruction in the University. (www.purdue.edu/DataDigest)
Each Academic unit (either a school or college) in the University has a curriculum
committee. The degree of interaction within the units varies. Some academic units
report that their committee only meets when there is a proposal in front of it for a specific
change to the curriculum. Others meet either weekly or monthly. For example the
College of Veterinary Medicine has a Curriculum Committee which consists of elected
faculty and student representatives and it meets approximately once per month. The
frequency of meetings varies depending on the business that needs to be conducted. The
Libraries Curriculum Committee meets monthly; it also surveys faculty, has recently
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created a wiki for dialogue with faculty, and facilitates special faculty meetings for broad
input and discussion.
In order to assure that the standards established for curriculum review are
followed various departments have procedures in place. When a department proposes
course and/or curricular changes, the impact on learning outcomes is now a required part
of the document. In most colleges the curriculum committee itself cannot make a change
without the approval of the faculty. Whenever a graduate program goes through a
significant change it must be vetted before the Graduate Council for approval.
In some colleges there are student/faculty liaison committees that meet about
midway through each semester. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss how the
semester is going and identify improvements that can be made before the end of the
semester.
III. C. The organization supports professional development designed to support teaching
suited to various learning environments.
Of course the most well developed and inspected curriculum will only be
enhanced if it is delivered effectively. The University as a whole through the Center for
Instructional Excellence (CIE), which reports to the Office of the Provost, offers
workshops to all campus instructors including graduate TAs, faculty and administrative
professionals (who also have teaching duties). The standard CIE series of workshops
include:

Classroom Teaching Workshops series 1: The Basics of Teaching (CTW1s).
These are ten sessions long and have been facilitated for over 25 years. Redrafted
every school year, they are run all three semesters of the year plus over the
month-long “Maymester” session. Registration is held to 50 participants.
Workshops are run by CIE instructional specialists and CIE faculty consultants.

Classroom Teaching Workshops series 2: Beyond the Basics. Begun in 2000, this
series is run fall and spring semesters and features instructors who have been
lauded for the excellent teaching. Each series is mutually exclusive from all others
though the most current instructors are often asked to repeat sessions. Enrollment
for each session consistently ranges from 50 to 110 participants, limited only by
room size.
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Academic units and colleges also conduct workshops, often but not always, with CIE
dealing with teaching issues, peer review and outcomes assessment. Examples include:

Annual College of Agriculture workshops for all new faculty, e.g., peer
assessment; student-centered pedagogies dealing with classroom problems; issues
of promotion and tenure.

The Krannert School of Management in its orientation for new faculty includes a
workshop on Lecturing and a discussion by the Associate Dean for Programs and
Student Services on the importance of Teaching for promotion tenure and raises.

The School of Nursing has had Purdue’s Service Learning Faculty Fellows and
CIE staff conduct annual workshops on the S-L pedagogy.
In addition to the Workshops offered by CIE and individual academic units, there are
offerings from ITaP (Information Technology at Purdue), including:

Teaching & Learning Technologies (TLT) training

Teaching & Technology Brown Bag Series

Annual Live and Online Teaching and Learning with Technology Showcase.
ITAP stays abreast of and actively promotes new instructional technologies, e.g., the use
of classroom “clickers” and…..
In addition to the workshops that are sponsored and offered by the University,
various academic units have budgeted amounts to send professors to teaching and
teaching technology workshops. The School of Veterinary Medicine has a “School
Faculty Enrichment Fund” to which its faculty can apply to bring external speakers to
campus. Speakers on teaching issues are frequent to this program.
III. D. The organization evaluates teaching and recognizes effective teaching
In the year 2000 end-of-semester student evaluations (Purdue Instructor-Course
Evaluation System - PICES) of their instructors and courses, became a requirement for
eligibility for promotion and/or tenure decisions. Every academic unit may choose its
own items, most allowing room for the instructor to select his/her own specific items.
Academic units are not required to use the PICES system per se, but they are required to
supply the results of the two global items for all courses and all professors:

“Overall, I would rate this course as…” poor to excellent (Five -point Likert
scale)
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
“Overall, I would rate this instructor as…” poor to excellent (Five point Likert
scale)
Campus guidelines, created in 1997, endorsed by the Faculty Senate and the Provost,
state that comparisons of results are not made across colleges and schools, rather, only
within the college or school where the instructor resides. PICES is conducted University
wide and assistance is provided centrally through the Instructional Data Processing unit
reporting to CIE. Most recently, the campus has been involved in a two-year pilot using
an online system, i.e., CoursEval 3.0. This system has been enthusiastically endorsed by
the Educational Policy Committee of the Faculty Senate. It is hoped that the guidelines
set down a few years ago, will remain intact.
Specific academic units use the PICES results to create longitudinal reports for their
instructors, e.g.,

Agricultural Economics

Several campus schools, colleges and academic units have also successfully implemented
peer review systems to complement the PICES results, e.g., the

Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

Department of Psychology

School of Pharmacy

School of Veterinary Medicine
The campus has also successfully initiated faculty appointments where teaching plays a
larger role than in the traditional case for P&T, e.g., in the past five years, faculty have
obtained tenure based primarily on their teaching in the departments of Agricultural
Communications, Communications, Engineering Education, and Landscape Architecture.
Teaching is rewarded on the University campus in a multitude of ways and
venues. There is a University wide Spring Honors convocation that recognizes the award
winning teachers from each College or School. Each College or School has its own
teaching awards and all of them recognize teaching with awards at both the
undergraduate and graduate level. To give a flavor of the type of recognition at the
individual college level the following is an excerpt from the 2008 College of Agriculture
report on Teaching.
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Annually, each department selects an outstanding teacher, counselor and graduate
educator. Those are each recognized at the Spring Awards Banquet. In addition, an
outstanding teacher, counselor and graduate educator are chosen at the college level
from these nominees. They are sent forward as our college nominees for the parallel
University level awards. In addition, we frequently promote faculty based on
teaching and learning scholarship.
All the University’s academic Schools and Colleges have basically the same teaching
awards process. Attached in Appendix 1 is a list of the teaching awards at the
undergraduate and graduate level that are offered by each College or School in the
University. These awards often carry stipends of varying amounts.
At the University level there is the annual recognition of outstanding
Undergraduate teaching by the naming of the prestigious “Charles B. Murphy
Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award.” Each School or College nominates
varying number of faculty members based on the size of their faculty relative to the
University. Nominations are put forth with supporting letters by the Dean of each school
and testimonials from various undergraduates. An all day meeting is held where a
committee comprised of faculty from the various schools along with undergraduate
representatives deliberates and names the winners for the year. Typically, up to five or six
faculty are nominated annually receiving a stipend of $10,000 (two years ago this stipend
was increased from $5000 to reflect the importance of the award). This program is
funded through the Office of the Provost and is the campus’ most prestigious of all
teaching awards.
In addition the University recognizes outstanding teachers each year by inducting
them into the campus-wide Teaching Academy. The members of the Teaching Academy
meet regularly to discuss and address issues surrounding good teaching, e.g., the past two
years they have promoted service-learning and outcomes assessment by collaborating
with CIE bringing in external experts as speakers and consultants, e.g., Drs. Robert
Bringle and Trudy Banta, respectively. The Teaching Academy also sponsors a highly
successful Faculty Mentoring Network program (FMN) that connects experienced faculty
with starting faculty who meet and discuss the importance of good teaching and the
means to achieve it. Mentees consistently report the value of the FMN. Founded in 1999
there are over 195 Teaching Academy Fellows to date.
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The Office of the Provost is also directly responsible for coordinating and
supporting two very popular, highly competitive teaching awards: the Teaching for
Tomorrow Award and the Helping Students Learn Award, i.e., the Instructional
Innovative Grant. The former focuses on young faculty and an innovative classroom
strategy they want to implement. Up to nine faculty are chosen each year and they
participate in a year-long program breaking into groups of three with one faculty mentor
each. Six to nine sessions are scheduled around teaching topics of mutual interest.
Stipends of $500 are given to the awardees, and $1500 are given to the mentors. The
latter focuses on one faculty member whose plan for an innovative strategy beats out all
other contenders and who receives a stipend of…..
Finally, the campus has created a large bronze tablet, the Book of Great Teachers,
looming large on the wall in the foyer of the Purdue Memorial Union. On the tablet, to
which names are added every five years are engraved the names and departments of
faculty who have received accolades for their outstanding teaching. All those who have
received the Murphy Award during the past five years as well as those who apply and are
accepted every fifth year, are added. There is no money that accompanies honor. It is
simply and honor for life for all to see as they pass through the foyer.
In addition to the special recognition that is given in the way of awards,
recognition of good teaching is systematically evaluated, encouraged and rewarded in
both the promotion and tenure process and as a part of the annual evaluation for raises.
There is not a University wide policy on how much weight is to be put on teaching for
promotion, tenure, or raises but it is encouraged at the highest level.
III. E. The organization provides service to support improved pedagogies.
The Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE) collaborates with academic units to
provide one on one consultation sessions for faculty regarding their teaching; they
collaborate with faculty in making contributions to the Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning, particularly in the area of service-learning. CIE also has two assessment and
evaluation specialists who provide supportive assessment services for courses, instructors
III. F. The organization demonstrates openness to innovative practices that enhance
teaching.
Purdue is committed to recognizing and fostering the very best classroom
teaching possible. Therefore, it is imperative that we provide mechanisms for faculty to
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continually develop teaching skills that will enhance student learning. Faculty arrive with
disciplinary training of the highest caliber but sometimes lack systematic and rigorous
instruction in ways to facilitate learning by diverse student populations.
The Classes of 1944 and 1945 have provided resources to establish a Teaching for
Tomorrow Award to foster continued excellence of teaching and learning on our campus,
and to facilitate the development of the teaching potential of the faculty. Annually, these
awards will recognize the demonstrated talents for teaching of up to twelve assistant
professors (or recently promoted associate professors), and they will recognize three
senior faculty for their long-term contributions to teaching at the University. These
faculty will work together in teams to address topics which can enhance the learning
environment for students across the campus.
To capitalize on the skills of senior faculty who have been recognized for their
teaching skills, the University selects three of our "best teachers" to serve as resource
persons to twelve young professors (either assistant or newly associate professors)
selected for the program. Structured programs address such matters as adjusting teaching
modes to class size, student readiness and learning styles, subject matter, cultural
diversity, course objectives, overall goals of the course, and experiential and student
centered learning. For participation in the program, the resource faculty and the assistant
professors are provided professional development funds to be used for any purpose that
enhances their skills as a teacher-scholar.
The intended outcomes of this enrichment program are: Purdue students will gain
improved learning environments; faculty will enhance their teaching through the use of a
broader repertoire that matches learner needs; participants will develop a network of
faculty committed to quality instruction; participants will form a strong nucleus for
enhancing undergraduate teaching at Purdue; academic departments will receive
increased input on their teaching programs.
In addition the University supports cross-disciplinary approaches to teaching
through the Faculty Fellowships for Study in a Second Discipline offer faculty members
an opportunity to extend their scholarship through a new area of study that complement
their major area of teaching and research. Fellowships may be awarded for one semester
or one academic year. The Office of the Provost makes available funds to the recipient in
the form of supply and expense support for travel, equipment, software, and other similar
expenses. The home department of the recipient also receives funds to help offset the cost
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of lost instruction. The department and college/school assumes responsibility for
covering the teaching assignments of the faculty recipient during the period of
engagement in this program so that continuity of coursework for the students can be
maintained.
III. G. The organization supports faculty in keeping abreast of the research on teaching
and learning, and of technological advances that can positively affect student learning
and the delivery of instruction.
The Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) unit of Purdue’s information
technology department awards annual digital content development grants. In 2008 TLT’s
Instructional Development Center (IDC) awarded $141,800 to support ten projects.
Grants went to various departments including agronomy for developing CROPVIEW,
comprehensive resources for observing plants in a visual interactive enhanced window.
Foreign languages received a grant for a self-assessed pronunciation primer with
biofeedback. In the department of curriculum and instruction a professor and education
majors in his educational technology class will design a virtual learning environment.
These are only a sampling of the types of grants awarded.
The goal of the IDC’s annual grant program is to help implement projects that
increase instructional effectiveness through the use of digital and online technology. The
center’s educational technologists and student interns assist grant recipients by
transforming subject-matter content into educational technology.
III. H. Faculty members actively participate in professional organizations relevant to the
disciplines they teach.
Purdue University is a Carnegie I school that requires a combination of research
along with other competencies for promotion and tenure. Purdue faculty are active in a
host of professional organizations and it would be exhaustive to list all of them.
Links to Purdue Faculty accomplishments can be found at the following links:
http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/
http://www.cfs.purdue.edu/
http://www.education.purdue.edu/
https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/
http://www.healthsciences.purdue.edu/
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http://www.cla.purdue.edu/
http://www.mgmt.purdue.edu/
http://www.vet.purdue.edu/
http://www.nursing.purdue.edu/
http://www.pharmacy.purdue.edu/
http://www.science.purdue.edu/
http://www.tech.purdue.edu/
Summary, Concerns, Issues for the Future
Teaching is a critical part of the task of Purdue University. Faculty at all levels
are actively engaged in the design and continued oversight of instruction in all academic
units. While adapting new technologies is an integrative part of the curriculum
development process, the pressure to service students through distance learning is
something that University administrators are increasingly aware of. In order for the
University to reach out to all its stakeholders it is going to have to adapt away from the
students all coming to one geographic location for all of their learning. While the
University is aware of this sea change in learning and is adapting to it, the concern for the
future is to make distance learning as interactive and alive for the student as the
experience on campus. The Purdue faculty, through innovative research, will continue to
be abreast of the information in their fields. That is not a major concern. The concern is
the ability to be able to deliver that content in a meaningful way to the student body of
the future. Through grants, workshops, and peer meetings, the University has taken
important steps along that path, but the road ahead continues to be a long one.
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