Content originally published on data180.com. Learn more about Interfolio’s acquisition of Data180 here.
Many colleges and universities are finding significant advantages in migrating faculty tenure and promotion processes, as well as their annual review and sabbatical processes, to an online environment. Following are five reasons why this is occurring:
- Data collection. Faculty members save time gathering data. Credentials, activities, and supporting documentation can be collected in a central repository to support all users (administrators, committee members, and external reviewers) and all evaluation processes (such as annual review, tenure, promotion, and sabbatical). Once collected, the same data can be repurposed for other uses (including internal decision making, accreditation reporting, and institutional reporting), which reduces redundant data requests for faculty data.
- Data management. The online environment eliminates the need for administrators to handle, manage, and secure faculty portfolios — typically, hardcopy submissions in boxes filled with binders.
- Logistics. Web-based solutions can be highly beneficial when an academic institution has multiple campus locations. When the evaluated data and the evaluation recommendations are online, there is no need to physically move that information from one location to another. The result can be a huge savings in time.
- Evaluation convenience. Evaluators can perform evaluations from anywhere. Cloud-based evaluations can be completed any time and any place that Internet access is available.
- Evaluation time and quality. Automated appraisal systems can enhance the efficiency, consistency, and effectiveness of faculty evaluations. Cloud-based systems allow reviewers to see portfolios presented in standardized templates, which makes it faster and easier to find and compare relevant information and to focus on the content of faculty performance, not on the ability to present data.
Content originally published on data180.com. Learn more about Interfolio’s acquisition of Data180 here.