Every four years (two if you’re naughty), MiraCosta College’s tenured instructors undergo full faculty evaluation. This includes at least two classes of student surveys, and one other either visited by another faculty member or surveyed, and a survey of 20 colleagues about our service on committees and such. The committee must include the dean, the department chair, and at least one colleague in our discipline or similar. In addition, any member may file a comment, and the instructor being evaluated must write a self-study and put together everything in a (paper) portfolio, which is supposed to be hand-delivered to the Office of Instruction, and reviewed and signed (in person) by the committee members.
The process culminates in a meeting where the faculty member being evaluated spends an hour taking the committee through the packet, addressing any areas of concern and highlighting any wonderfulness. Then the committee meets privately to determine the fate of the faculty member: approval, assistance plan, summary execution, etc.
My meeting is this afternoon.
My dean loves instructional technology, and has indicated he’s looking forward to the meeting (hint: do something special). Rejecting interpretive dance, a YouTube video, or a group tableau of the Black Death, I have created a series of web pages showcasing my work.
But the paper and privacy bother me, thanks to this class. We all had to sign a confidentiality agreement at the beginning of the semester. It’s designed to protect me. But I don’t need protection. The hand-delivery, read in person, hush-hush seems archaic.
So I asked the two faculty who visited my online classes if I could make their reviews public (I did this after they wrote them), and they gave approval. I emailed my committee the entire packet, noting that they could review it from the comfort of their computer chair. Then I put the whole effing thing on the web.
Here’s my entire faculty evaluation packet and presentation for this afternoon. What, me nervous? Hah!
Take that, you closed evaluation, confidentiality, hand-delivery types.
Good for you Lisa! It is so unlike you to buck the system like this.
I think everything you have been doing is amazing. You are a shining example and model for educators everywhere. Mira Costa is lucky to have you as a member of their team. Your knowledge, expertise and now sharing will only help to make the programming and evaluation system stronger – and of course hopefully more transparent.
I look forward to when you may become a Saskatchewan resident. You do realize that the Roughriders will need to become a part of who you are.
Go Riders!
way to go Lisa, another closed door opens! thanks for rmodeling and being such an authentic classmate.