FACULTY ACTIVITY REPORT
Frequently Asked Questions
Please contact Tom Wolfe at twolfe@as.ua.edu for additional assistance.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Click a question to view the answer or click a section to view questions pertaining that section.
| General | Data Entry | Teaching | Teaching | Publications | Contracts & Grants | |||||||
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| 1. The Faculty Activity Report (FAR) is new to me. What is it? | Return to Questions | |
| The FAR is an on-line reporting system for the faculty member and is to be completed each academic year. The reporting period is April 1 - March 31 of each year. It is available 24/7 all year long. It is compatible with both Mac and PC platforms and accessible in most web browser software. | ||
| 2. What is my username and password? | Return to Questions | |
| The login process is the same as myBama login process. | ||
| 3. What is the "User Profile?" | Return to Questions | |
| The "User Profile" section maintains the faculty specific statistics (department of appointment, rank, birthdate, etc.). Some fields are accessible by the faculty member, such as changing the eSignature PIN. The "Education" section is also accessible by the faculty member. This section lists the academic background of the faculty member and can be updated as needed. | ||
| 4. My rank has recently changed. How do I edit my profile and set the new rank? | Return to Questions | |
| The rank is set by the FAR administrator of the college and is activated on August 16th of the upcoming academic year after the promotion is approved. If a rank has not been changed, contact the assistant/associate dean in the college of appointment to request updating. | ||
| 5. What is an "eSignature PIN" and how do I set it? | Return to Questions | |
| The eSignature PIN is a four-digit PIN used as the electronic signature when signing the FAR at completion of the evaluation process with the chair of the department (or other evaluator as appointed in the college). Each PIN is individually set by the faculty member. To set the eSignature PIN, click "Edit Profile" found next to the faculty member's name at the top of the "View All" page. Click "Change eSignature PIN" and enter a four-digit PIN of choice. In the second text field, confirm the PIN. | ||
| 6. I would like to adjust the "View All" page to display my information in the order I prefer. How can I do this? | Return to Questions | |
| This option is found in the "User Profile" section. Click "Edit Profile" found next to the faculty member's name at the top of the "View All" page. In the last section of the "User Profile" page is the "Faculty View Preferences" section. Click "Edit Preferences" in this section. The "Faculty View Preference Maintenance" page will appear and the faculty member may set the preferred order of data. This order will become the default each time the faculty member logs in and can be changed at any time. | ||
| 7. At the top of the "View All" page I see the "Full-Time Equivalents" (FTE) section. Do I set the FTE for the current and anticipated year? | Return to Questions | |
| No - this is always set by the chair of the department (or other evaluator as appointed in the college) in consultation with the faculty member. | ||
| 8. How long does the FAR sit inactive before it times-out? | Return to Questions | |
| The FAR has been set to the maximum time length to ensure that it will not time-out during moderate inactivity (2 hours). | ||
| 9. I have heard that the FAR has been updated. What are the updates? | Return to Questions | |
| Yes - the FAR is continually under review and revision to better assist the faculty member's ability to report his/her activities. Some of the updates have been mentioned in previous FAQ's such as the Banner course upload and the OSP upload. The publication data entry page has also been retooled, enabling more accuracy for the faculty member. Also provided is the choice of citation style: APA, Chicago and MLA. The faculty member can now generate biosketches for the major funding agencies: NSF, NIH, etc. The "Education" section in the "User Profile" must be completed to use the biosketch function. A new section is the Tenure & Promotion component and is currently being piloted this year. In the future the tenure-track faculty member will be able to use the FAR as part of his/her T&P portfolio, ultimately streamlining the process and removing redundancies. More to come after the pilot session. | ||
| 10. What is the "Faculty Library?" | Return to Questions | |
| The Faculty Library is a repository for supportive materials. This allows the faculty member the ability to upload and attach items to particular data in the FAR. For example, after listing a published article, the faculty member may upload a PDF of the article and attach it to the listing. Once an item is uploaded, it cannot be deleted. | ||
| 11. I have noticed that several sections have "Other" categories. What are these for? | Return to Questions | |
| While the FAR is comprehensive, there are activities that faculty members participate in that do not fit within the schema of the FAR. The "Other" category is available for the faculty member to list this activity to be included in the review. It is up to the faculty member to best identify the general subject, i.e.: other teaching vs. other service, etc. Included as an addendum on the FAR is the "FAR Activity Guide" listing activities and the areas in which to report those activities. If there is an activity not included in the guide, please contact your associate/assistant dean in charge of the FAR for clarification. | ||
| 12. I have several on-going projects (publications, grants, committees, etc.) - do I have to re-enter this information every year? | Return to Questions | |
| No. Any on-going publication, etc. will be automatically rolled over to the next FAR year when the faculty member "Publishes" the current FAR. At this point, a new FAR will be activated and the on-going data will be uploaded. | ||
| 13. Are dates important when completing the FAR? | Return to Questions | |
| Yes. It is most important to complete the date text fields. These fields are used to tie the particular data to the academic year and are used in the faculty member's individual Delaware Study (see FAQ 27). | ||
| 14. I know what academic year the particular event (publication, concert, etc.) occurred, but cannot remember the exact date. Can I leave the date field blank? | Return to Questions | |
| No. It is important to include a date. Enter in a general date that is close - the important issue is that this item be related to the appropriate reporting period. | ||
| 15. When reporting different activities, some activities require a description of the project/event. How detailed is this description required to be? | Return to Questions | |
| It is best to use short and succinct descriptions, i.e.: a performance description.
"Featured Performing Artist. UA Music Festival. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. January 3-4, 2008." If a program is available for the example above, the faculty member can scan it and upload it to the Faculty Library and link it to this listing. | ||
| 16. I have noticed a new link at the top of the data entry pages, "View Prior Year Data." What is this? | Return to Questions | |
| The faculty member may now view data from the previous year while he/she enters data for the current year, preventing the need to change FAR year's to go back and forth to review data. | ||
| 17. In addition to my assigned courses, I also taught independent research and/or other courses. Where do I report these? | Return to Questions | |
| Any official course taught within the FAR time-frame (April 1 - March 31) should be listed under Section A>Teaching>Courses. This includes independent research, special topics, interim courses, summer courses, etc. Any course that has an official course number and section is to be listed in this section. These types of courses should not be considered "in load." | ||
| 18. I teach cross-listed and/or slash courses. Do I enter each one separately? | Return to Questions | |
| No. All course numbers and sections should be entered as one course.
In the "Course/Section" text field for example a CROSS-LISTED COURSE should be listed as: EN 321-01/WS 321-01. Please list combined enrollment for all courses. In the "Course/Section" text field for example a SLASH-COURSE should be listed as: MUA 159/MUA 359/MUA 559-01. Please list combined enrollment for all courses in the appropriate fields (undergraduate and graduate). | ||
| 19. Can the FAR course data fields be populated from Banner? | Return to Questions | |
| Yes - this is a new feature. The faculty member may choose to enter the data per course, or may upload course data from Banner. Due to enrollment fluctuations, data will be made available after the add/drop period in each semester. Faculty will be notified when the data is available. Data uploaded includes: course/section number, course type, title, semester, credit hours and enrollments. The faculty member is responsible for entering assessment information, etc.
Any data entered in the course section will be over-written when uploading Banner course data. | ||
| 20. What do I enter under "Overall Student Evaluation" on the course data-entry page? | Return to Questions | |
| Currently, the Teaching Course Evaluations (TCE's) include the questions: "How would you rate the course?" and "How would you rate the instructor?". Those are the ratings that should be included.
Due to the timing of administering the TCE's, some courses in the FAR may not have scores available by the deadline to complete the FAR. Faculty members are recommended to submit the FAR with the available scores and if scores are not available, to leave the score fields blank. Steps are under way looking at the possibility of populating those fields automatically. | ||
| 21. Under Section A>Teaching, there is a subsection concerning student advising. What should I report in this section? | Return to Questions | |
| The faculty member should only report those students (Undergraduate and/or Graduate) that are formally assigned to them for advising. It is optional to list the names of the advisees. Informal, ad hoc advising can be listed, but done so under "Show Other Teaching Activities." | ||
| 22. Under Section A>Teaching, there is a subsection concerning student supervision. What is this section for? | Return to Questions | |
| This section is for research supervision that is not affiliated with a course, i.e.: a music faculty member may coach and oversee a recital, but it is not reflected in the courses taught. Other faculty members work with students in preparation for the Undergraduate Research Competition for the University. Items of this sort should be listed in this section (unless these activities are directly related to a formal course). | ||
| 23. Which courses should I report within the reporting period of April 1 - March 31? | Return to Questions | |
| For example, in the reporting period of April 1, 2009 - March 31, 2010, the following terms should be reported:
a. Interim 2009 b. Summer 2009 c. Fall 2009 d. Spring 2010 | ||
| 24. I understand that the University has a site-license for RefWorks. Can I upload data to the FAR from RefWorks? | Return to Questions | |
| Yes. At the top of the Scholarship Activities>Section D>Show Publications page, there is a link: "Upload Publication Data from RefWorks." Click this link and follow the instructions.
To learn more about RefWorks, please review the information at: http://refworks.ua.edu/. **Faculty who use Endnotes may transfer data to RefWorks. Details may be found at the URL listed above. | ||
| 25. I haven't completed an article I have been working on during this reporting period, but wish to list it to demonstrate my scholarly activity in its entirety. Where do I list on-going work? | Return to Questions | |
| On-going work, such as publications, should be listed under Publications>Section D>Scholarship Activities. Complete an entry with as much information as possible about the on-going research. In the "Title" text field, list the working title of the project. Dates are not necessary at this point in time. | ||
| 26. Are there other types of publications that should be included in Section D>Scholarship Activities>Publications? | Return to Questions | |
| The standard publications (articles, monographs, books, book chapters, etc.) are listed in the "Category" drop-down menu on the "Publications" data entry page. On this drop down menu, there is also an "Other" category for publications such as: compact discs, chap books, etc. Please contact the associate/assistant dean in the related college with any questions. | ||
| 27. The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) now uploads contract and grant data directly to the FAR. Can I also add contracts and grants to my FAR? | Return to Questions | |
| Yes. OSP contract and grant data is uploaded monthly beginning December 31. This data includes external contracts and grants and internal RGC grants only. The faculty member may report any other internal grants or other grants that have not been processed by OSP. Except in unusual circumstances, external grants should be processed through OSP. | ||
| 28. What is the time frame for the contract and grant data provided by OSP? | Return to Questions | |
| Proposal, Award and Continuing Award data provided by OSP is for the same period as all other information in the FAR, April 1-March 31. The information is updated at the end of each month. The March 31 data will be available as soon after that date as possible, allowing for a closing period to capture Internal Coordination Sheets received by OSP at the end of March. | ||
| 29. I have submitted proposals and received contract/grant awards during this reporting period that are not listed on my FAR. Do I need to do something to have this corrected? | Return to Questions | |
| Submissions are recorded in the OSP database (and subsequently reflected in the FAR) when OSP has received the Internal Coordination Sheet (ICS) and the proposal has been submitted to the agency. After reading the definition provided in the FAQs below, if you believe you have submissions and/or awards that are not reflected in the FAR, please contact the OSP Grant & Contract Specialist responsible for your area. | ||
| 30. What is a Continuing Award? | Return to Questions | |
| An award with a start date prior to the current FAR period (i.e. an award recorded in a prior FAR period) that was still active during any portion of the current FAR period (i.e. end date of 4/1 or later). | ||
| 31. Why doesn't the proposed dollar value or awarded dollar value equal the amount of the proposal or award? | Return to Questions | |
| a. The amount is reflective of YOUR share of credit for the specific project as indicated on the Internal Coordination Sheet. For instance, if you and three other investigators share the project credit equally, the amount shown for this project will be 25% of the amount proposed. If you feel it is necessary, you may make notes in the project description section to indicate that the amount shown is a shared percentage of a total Proposal or Award amount of $XX.
b. If you have a multi-year project, your portion of any increment awarded during the current FAR period will appear as an Award and any increments awarded during prior FAR periods will appear as Continuing Awards. For example, if this is the second year of a 5-year project on which you are the only PI/Co-PI with a total value of $500K, your Award amount will be $100K and your Continuing Award amount will be $100K. Next year your Award amount will be $100K and your Continuing Award amount will be $200K. | ||
| 32. Why do some records include start and end dates and others do not? | Return to Questions | |
| As FAR records are intended to provide a snap shot, Submissions are included if submitted during the FAR period and Awards are included if the start date is within the FAR period. As updates by OSP to the FAR are cumulative, the start and end date is not necessary. Those can be added by the user in the project description section, if desired. As continuations may include grants/contracts that end very early in the reporting period or continue through the entire reporting period, it was decided that dates would be provided to help the user assess the relevance of the award. | ||
| 33. I have a Continuing Award that started several years ago. Why doesn't the total amount of the award appear in the FAR record? | Return to Questions | |
| OSP converted proposal and award data from a previous system into the current system, GrantsERA, back to 10/01/2005. Portions of a continuing award received prior to that date are likely not reflected in the data. Users may note any instances of this in the project description field. | ||
| 34. I see a section listed as Intellectual Property. What is counted as intellectual property? | Return to Questions | |
| This section collects data concerning patents of faculty projects - full and provisional. | ||
| 35. Should copyrights be included in Section I, Intellectual Property? | Return to Questions | |
| No, just full and provisional patents. | ||
| 36. I am ready to publish my FAR. Before I can do so, I must upload my CV to complete the publish process. How do I do this? | Return to Questions | |
| a. Click "FAR Library" in the lower left hand corner of the "View All" page.
b. Click "Upload New Submission" found in the top left corner of the Faculty Library page. c. On the "Upload Submission" page click "Browse" and choose the correct file. d. Enter a name for the document in the "Enter Submission Title" text field and then click save. (Once an item is uploaded to the Faculty Library, the item cannot be deleted by the faculty member. For organizational purposes, it is suggested that the faculty member title the CV something to tie it to the academic year, i.e.: Prof. Smith CV - 09-10.). CV's must be stored as a pdf. Once the faculty member's FAR is published, the CV will be transmitted to UAOPS for their records. e. The link to the document should be displayed on the "Faculty Library" page. f. Click "Return to Main" - top left corner of the "Faculty Library" page. g. Click "Publish" and follow the steps to complete the process. | ||
| 37. I "Published" my FAR and forgot to include some information. Can I "Unpublish" it? | Return to Questions | |
| Yes. In the "Evaluation Manager" section on the "View All" page, click "Unpublish." The "Unpublish FAR Data" page will appear, click "Unpublish." The chair of the department will automatically be notified via email to unpublish the FAR. When the FAR is unpublished by the chair, the faculty member will automatically be notified via email that the FAR has been "Unpublished." | ||
| 38. When I complete and "Publish" the FAR, the evaluation process will begin. What is the evaluation based on? | Return to Questions | |
| The evaluation is structured in four sections:
a. Teaching b. Scholarship c. Administrative (applies only to faculty with formally assigned administrative duties) d. Service Each section is evaluated on a scale of: a. 1 - Unsatisfactory. Quality and quantity of work unsatisfactory. Immediate corrective action imperative. b. 2 - Needs Improvement. Individual not performing at adequate level. Corrective action required. c. 3 - Satisfactory. Individual performing at "satisfactory" level: Tasks and goals are being accomplished in a timely and competent manner. d. 4 - Good. Tasks and goals are being accomplished with some meritorious elements of performance. e. 5 - Excellent. Quality and quantity of work is meritorious; goals exceeded, highly productive; individual recognized beyond the unit. f. 6 - Preeminence. Preeminent distinction resulting from outstanding meritorious accomplishments. (It is expected that the performance of no more than 3% of the faculty would fall into this category.) The faculty member is given an overall rating by the chair with comments to support this rating. | ||
| 39. What is the process for signing the FAR? | Return to Questions | |
| a. Once the FAR has been completed and "Published" by the faculty member, the chair of the department is notified via email that the FAR is complete and ready for review. Once the chair has completed the evaluation, the chair signs the evaluation with his/her eSignature PIN. The faculty member is automatically notified via email that the evaluation is complete and ready for review.
b. The chair and faculty member then meet to discuss the evaluation. At the conclusion of the discussion, the faculty member signs the FAR with his/her eSignature PIN. c. The "Faculty Response" section is automatically activated for the faculty member to respond to the evaluation should the faculty member wish to do so. | ||
| 40. I have completed the evaluation process with the chair and have forgotten my eSignature PIN and cannot sign the FAR. What do I do? | Return to Questions | |
| a. On the "Faculty Signature" page click "Forgot Pin." The "Reset eSignature PIN" page will appear, click "Reset eSignature PIN." A new PIN will be automatically sent to the faculty member via email.
b. To use the new PIN, return to the "View All" page and click "Edit Profile." Click "Change eSignature PIN" and enter the new PIN number in both text fields. c. Return to the "Evaluation" page and sign the FAR with the new PIN. | ||
| 41. What is the Delaware Study that I keep hearing about? | Return to Questions | |
| The full name is The University of Delaware National Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity. The FAR provides answers to questions that support the Out of Classroom Faculty Activity Study portion. This is a 42 question study, the purpose of which is to provide a set of national standardized academic benchmarks for academic management and research. Over 200 institutions in the country participate in this study.
There are several levels at which the study is completed. a. Individual Faculty Member (all tenured and tenure-track) b. Departmental c. College d. University The Delaware Study questions are embedded in the FAR and can be extracted at all four levels, saving time for the faculty member and administration when compiling this information. | ||