Infrastructure Improvements

The Provost has initiated two major pilot projects to improve the flow of documents across the university and within her office. The first, online faculty evaluations, was studied over a four-year period. The major concern was the potential for dissimilar results emerging from paper and online evaluation methodologies, so a pilot study was completed. Outcome results favorably compared between the two methodologies. The second initiative, office document scanning, was initiated in response to the large volume of paperwork that transits the Provost Office and the need to eliminate storage of historical personnel, administrative, and academic program actions.

• Online Faculty Evaluations. The Provost initiated a pilot project in Spring 2009 to compare and contrast faculty ratings by students using paper and online evaluation processes. Analyses of data showed no statistical difference between the two methodologies. As a result, the university will transition to online faculty evaluations starting in Fall 2009 semester. This will result in a savings of time as manual evaluation, data reduction, and reporting processes will now be automated. Faculty will be able to compare their personal ratings against their school peers and Deans will be able to access a variety of management reports that will give them an accurate picture of how their faculty members are performing within their respective Schools/College.
  
• Office Document Scanning. The Provost has initiated a pilot project to automate her office through the digitization of volumes of currently stored documents. Through the scanning, electronic storage and online retrieval of digitized documents, a large volume of paper copies now resident within the Provost Office will be eliminated. This particular project shows promise to be expanded across the university as offices take advantage of technologies to make information available through multiple fixed and wireless platforms.