Carleton College April 3, 2006 Richard M. Reis, Ph.D. Reis@stanford

1. Carleton College April 3, 2006 Richard M. Reis, Ph.D. Reis@stanford.edu

2. Contents Description Functions Subscribers Uses Feedback Impact Future Directions Tomorrow’s Professor Blog How to Subscribe

3. Description CHECK OUT THE NEW MIT SPONSORED "The Tomorrow's Professor Blog" A place for discussion about teaching and learning at: http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/ * * * * * TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR(SM) MAILING LIST desk-top faculty development one hundred times a year Over 26,250 subscribers Over 650 postings Over 650 academic institutions Over 100 countries Sponsored by THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING http://ctl.stanford.edu An archive of all past postings (with a two week delay) can be found at: http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/index.shtml

4. Begun in March, 1998, the Tomorrow's Professor Mailing List (“desk-top faculty development, one hundred times per year”) is a twice per week, 1,000 -1,500 word set of postings on higher education sent electronically to over 26,000 subscribers at more than 650 academic institutions in over 100 countries around the world. The 700th posting was sent on February 21, 2006. Tomorrow’s Academy* New Faculty Reward Structures* Faculty Learning and Institutional Change Tomorrow’s Graduate Students and Postdocs* The Academic Job Talk.* General Principles For Responding to Academic Job Offers

5. Tomorrow’s Academic Careers* Preparing for Changing Roles* Twelve Suggestions for Optimizing Academic Career Success Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning* Content Tyranny* How Students Learn, How Teachers Teach, and What Goes Wrong With the Process Tomorrow’s Research* Making Your Research Understandable to Your Colleagues Down the Hall* How Graduate Students and Faculty Miscommunicate

6. Functions • To provide provocative and practical material on current issues and problems in higher education • To provide insights on how to prepare for, find, and succeed at academic careers in higher education • To provide for a contemporary dialog on ways to improve teaching and learning

7. Subscribers(March 1998 through March 2006) Number of Subscribers

8. Number of Subscribers World Regions (As of December, 2005) Africa320Asia 595Australia & New Zealand 387Europe & Middle East 1,983North America 15,494South & Central America 349Other* 5,994TOTAL 25,122* not able to determine location from e-mail address

9. Number of Subscribers Top Ten Countries (As of December, 2005) U.S. 13,111Canada 923United Kingdom 203Australia 201Sweden 168South Africa 166Germany152Kuwait 117New Zealand 98Jordon 88

10. Number of Subscribers Top 10 U.S. Colleges and Universities (As of December, 2005) Stanford University 722University of Michigan 389University of Wisconsin-Madison 275University of California, Berkeley 180 University of Minnesota 161Pennsylvani State Univ. 138University of Washington 134 Harvard University 133University of Georgia123University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign 121

11. Subscriber Percentages by DisciplineBased on a random survey of 600 subscribers

12. Subscriber Percentages by Professional StatusBased on a random survey of 600 subscribers

13. How Subscribers Became Aware of Mailing ListBased on a random survey of 600 subscribers

14. Desired Frequency of Mailing List PostingsBased on a random survey of 600 subscribers

15. Uses of Mailing List Postings • Posting category preferences • Postings read in their entirety • Posting applications • Examples

16. Preference Ranking of Postings Categories(1= lowest preference, 5= highest preference)Based on a random survey of 600 subscribers

17. Percentage of Mailing List Postings Read in Their EntiretyBased on a random survey of 600 subscribers

18. Uses of Posting Applications

19. Feedback - Example #1 As advice for faculty with new responsibilities I am a new departmental chair--the previous chair is out of the country, and thus cannot really help me, and I am only 1 of 3 new chairs at Brandeis, which has no formal mechanism for educating chairs. Thus, I found your two columns on being a chair very helpful--I learned some new things, and became reassured about some others. As a result of my experiences, I have encouraged an associate dean to keep a file for future new chairs -- including your two postings --so that they might have an easier time than I. Marc Brettler <brettler@brandeis.edu>

20. Feedback - Example #2 As assistance in academic/faculty development programs I usually skim each post, and if it seems relevant to anyone I know (in my university or anywhere else) I will forward it to them via e-mail. Occasionally, I will fwd a post to all my academic development colleagues in the Institute (5 others), so as to alert them to the publication it is extracted from, and the perspective it might be adopting on a particular issue. As I work in academic development, I find I am sharing your extracts and commentaries with colleagues, rather than with students. Kim McShane Lecturer (Flexible & Online Learning) Institute for Teaching & Learning The University of Sydney NSW 2006

21. Feedback - Example #3 As an archive website for possible dissertation topics. I link to postings in the archives that I think will be of particular interest to graduate students and post-docs at MSU, and use postings as starting points for searches for other interesting web material. In the short time that I have been a subscriber, I have utilized the list postings and archive website heavily and find them timely and useful. Andrea L. Beach, M.A. Doctoral Candidate in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education Michigan State University beachand@msu.edu

22. On senior academic administratorsOn college deansOn department chairsOn senior professors at major research universitiesOn assistant professors at liberal arts collegesOn non-university subscribers Impact

23. On senior academic administrators:"The Tomorrow's professor Listserv is fabulous and very useful. I really enjoy it.” Nancy Cantor, provost, University of Michigan“I am very interested in knowing what our younger faculty find to be interesting and in keeping them informed about issues the Listserv raises. My president and I both read the list regularly.” Chuck Middleton, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, Bowling Green State UniversityOn college deans:“The Listserv has been of great benefit to our profession. It uses the medium (frequency of messages, excellent editing, and so on) in a way that allows the information to be easily shared.” Tim Snyder, dean of science Georgetown University: (Selected from a sample of over 750 unsolicited comments)

24. On department chairs:“The Association of Communication Administration is comprised of about 350 department chairs/deans of communication departments/colleges. Much of the TP Listserv would be of interest to ACA’s membership and would serve as an excellent source of on-line discussions.” Janesl Gaudino, Executive Director, National Communication AssociationOn senior professors at major research universities:“I read it religiously and recommend to many of my colleagues.” Eric Mazur, Physics, Harvard UniversityOn assistant professors at liberal arts colleges:“It's like professional development right here at my office...and, being at a small college where it is sometimes difficult to have discussions on select topics, it really helps.” Markita Price, Mathematics & Computer Science, Stephens College

25. On non-university subscribers: “The Listserv is a tremendous service to higher education, engineering education, and for young faculty in particular. The posts are timely and thoughtful, serving to connect and stretch the thinking and awareness of literally thousands of faculty members.” Carol Muller, executive director, MentorNet “I think the Tomorrow's Professor is magnificent! It is my favorite list serve because it is the most informative and the articles are choice. When members of the disciplinary societies get together we all agree on this point. I have been meaning to write to tell you and I hope you already know how much many of us appreciate your work.” Noralee Frankel American, Historical Association "The Tomorrow's Professor Listserv informs my work more than anything else I read. Carla B. Howery, Deputy executive officer, American Sociological Association

26. TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR BLOGhttp://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/ Established, February, 2006 A partnership between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University to create a forum for comments and discussion about articles from the Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing List and about general issues concerning higher education.

27. TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR BLOGhttp://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/ Posted by markep on March 7, 2006 #703 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AS THE NEXT GREAT FACULTY DIVIDE March 03, 2006 Read Comments [14] Add comments "There was a time not so long ago when the great faculty divide was between faculty who performed research and faculty who did not. Now, however, with most faculty engaged in research, the new line of demarcation is instead between faculty who engage students in their research and those who do not."

28. TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR BLOGhttp://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/ Comments about this article: [14] “Its true. Nowadays, You barely find professors who do no research. In fact its a necessary part of faculty job, to be great in research, therefore new divide line is faculty who have great skill in teaching and the one who do not. Of course a part of teaching skill is engaging students in active researches”.

29. TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR BLOGhttp://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/ Combines elements of two types of discussion forums: A loosely-formed online community built around a shared affinity A facilitator-driven online learning activity.

30. TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR BLOGhttp://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/ Sample Research Questions What are the various technical characteristics and efficiencies of the site itself? What does a content analysis of the postings reveal about the interests, issues, concerns of faculty and graduate students related to teaching and learning?

31. TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR BLOGhttp://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/ Sources for data analysis: Content of past and current listserv postings Web statistics such as traffic, discussion board postings, sessions, unique users Content of the online forum discussions Online survey of forum participants (with possible email follow-up)

32. TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR BLOGhttp://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/ Analysis Models Interactive Analysis Model (IAM) Based on a uni-dimensional scale (from sharing ideas to applying newly constructed knowledge). Social Network Analysis (SNA) Used for discovering patterns over a large set of discussions.

33. Future Directions Bring the benefits of the Listserv to more students and faculty, especially those outside the United States and Canada

34. Potential Subscribers Yahoo College Search By Region (14,196)

35. How to Subscribe Anyone can SUBSCRIBE to the Tomorrows-Professor Mailing List by going to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/tomorrows-professor