What is Faculty180?
Faculty180 is a software package by Interfolio specifically for faculty activity reporting and evaluation.
How will Faculty180 be used for faculty evaluation process?
Faculty180 is used for faculty activity reporting, annual evaluations, mid-probationary review, Senior Lecturer promotion and renewable term Lecturer reappointment processes. In the future, sabbatical applications and the rank, tenure and promotion process will also be managed through Faculty180.
What is the timeline for implementation of Faculty180?
During the first year, 2016-17, implementation focused on getting the FAR fields correct as well as ensuring that data could be collected for accreditation and other reporting needs. In 2017-18, processes for the mid-probationary review cases, lecturer reappointments, senior lecturer promotion, sabbaticals, and annual reviews were piloted. In 2018-19, annual reviews were conducted for academic-year faculty in Business, ECP, JST, half of the departments in Engineering, and a few departments in Arts & Sciences. In 2022-23, the RPT module is being integrated to ease evaluator review. In 2023-24, we expect to expand annual FAR reporting in Interfolio to all departments on campus, and to fold in the rank, tenure and promotion process in 2024-25.
Who was involved in the initial implementation?
During 2016-17, the system was piloted with approximately 50 faculty members to test faculty activity fields to ensure accurate and necessary data collection. The test cases ranged across the schools and colleges. In 2017-18, over 250 faculty were involved in pilot processes. Since 2018-19, over 300 academic-year faculty have been involved in the annual review process alone.
When will faculty have to start using Faculty180?
Starting in Fall 2023, all academic-year faculty will be using the system for annual FARs and evaluations.
How was Faculty180 chosen?
In summer 2015, a working group comprised of faculty and staff members of each school (at least one faculty member, one staff member, and one associate or assistant dean from each school) reviewed various software management systems for evaluation and promotion processes (e.g. faculty activity report, annual evaluation, rank and tenure, mid-probationary review, Senior Lecturer promotion and renewable term Lecturer reappointment). Information Technology assisted with the review of the software systems. The group identified the top three possible vendors – Faculty180, Digital Measures, and Lyterati. In January of 2016, representatives from each of the three potential vendors were on campus for two days to present demonstrations and answer questions. A survey of attendees was conducted. Video demonstrations were also made available for the community to review through February.
After considering all of the feedback, the working group recommended that Faculty180 be adopted. Faculty180 offers a user friendly interface, a dashboard function to manage activity, a high-degree of customizability that can be managed locally, many options for workflow development, capacity to generate customizable CVs, biosketches, accreditation reports, a link to webpages for timely updates to faculty CVs, and an excellent service record (confirmed through reference checks).
Before the software decision was finalized, on-line demo Q&A sessions were held with the deans and chairs of Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering and Counseling Psychology in May of 2016. IT also conducted a complete review of Faculty180. With a green light, the contracts were signed in June of 2016.