1. Faculty Development Needs Assessment: Report on Findings
Institution: Walden University
Response to Pilot Survey

2. Faculty Needs Assessment: Report Laureate Higher Education Group Network Products and Service
Project Staff
Carmen (Lizy) Lamboy, Ed.D.
Director Faculty Development
January, 2009
Laureate Higher Education Group
Network Products and Service
To request additional information, please contact
701 Brickell Ave., Suite 860
Miami, FL 33131
(786)
Walden

3. Basic Information
This PowerPoint presentation summarizes descriptive statistics at the local level for Walden University.
Complete generalizations and conclusions are presented in the Final Report.
Walden University sample constitutes 21.2% of the sample and 0.6% of the population.
A great majority (84.0%) of faculty surveyed is considered part-time faculty. For the pilot survey, there was an “Other” category and 4.81% of respondents classified themselves in this category. When asked to provide the position, terminology referred to an equivalent part-time faculty, which would bring part-time faculty to a 88.8%.
n/883
n/30000
Walden - Pilot

4. Teaching Online Experience
Professional
Teaching Online Experience
Years %
1-3
4.3
NONE
1.6
3.7
3-5
7.5
1-5
6.4
45.5
6-8
13.4
6-10
15.0
>5
50.8
>9
74.9
11-15
77.0
3.74%
45.45%
50.80%
Data shows 77.0% has more than 10 years of professional experience. Pertaining teaching experience, data reveals that the majority (74.9%) has more than 9 years of teaching experience. When asked about their online teaching experience A majority (50.8%) reveal they more than 5 years of experience. It is important to emphasize that almost half (49.2%) have little or no experience with online teaching.
Walden - Pilot

5. Educational Levels
Only 5.35% of the faculty are currently engaged in completing a more advanced degree or certification.
There is a small group (10.7%) who do not have a doctorate degree. 80.0% of those who are engaged in completing an advanced degree are completing an online doctorate.
Walden - Pilot

6. Assessment of Current Professional Development, Interests and Costs
More than half (57.2%) rate current professional development opportunities as good to excellent.
A majority (77.7%) believe the professional development opportunities offered by the Laureate university they work with are equal or better than those offered by similar universities.
A majority (81.3%) is interested in additional professional development opportunities and 81.32% expect the university to help pay for their professional development. Only 16.6% of sample is willing to pay up to 50% of costs, and 22.6% are not sure % responded that they expect the university to pay 100% of costs.
32.6% of the faculty are not sure if the university offers reimbursement for professional development. Of those who responded that they did know, a somewhat large group (60.4%) was uncertain of what the university requirements were to qualify for these programs.
Walden - Pilot

7. Top 5 Faculty Development Interests
Interest Area
Highest Ranking
Improving familiarity with skills in using educational technology
70.05%
Maintaining in-depth knowledge of the content in the field
48.13%
Obtaining or making progress toward achieving a higher academic degree
40.11%
Developing facilitation, lecture, and presentation skills
35.83%
Broadening in-depth knowledge of principles of adult learning
34.22%
Top priorities for Faculty Development are developing educational technology and maintaining in-depth knowledge in their field.
Walden - Pilot

8. Technology Importance & Usage
Microsoft Word and CMS/LMS are considered the two most important technologies (72.0% and 70.7% respectively), and usage correlates to how important they believe this technology is (89.3% and 77.5% respectively).
Microsoft Outlook usage is considered important by a large group (39.8%) yet 26.7% of the sample rarely or never use them.
In general, as importance rating diminishes, so does the usage of these tools. For example the lowest rated technology in terms of usage was Blogs (15.8%) and 55.1% rarely or never use the technology.
Walden - Pilot

9. Conclusions
Professional development activities in the area of online teaching should be explored as even though more than half of the sample have more than 5 years of experience, there is a large group (49.2%) Walden faculty who have little or no experience teaching online.
NPS should be an instrument that opens up possibilities for assisting schools to advance the degrees of their faculty by 1) offering high-quality, discounted or tuition assisted programs to all faculty notwithstanding the type of contract
The top three professional development activities are: 1) providing workshops at different levels of educational technology ; 2) Maintaining in-depth knowledge of the content in the field; and 3) Obtaining or making progress toward achieving a higher academic degree.
There is a group (12.8%) that considers “Improving English proficiency for teaching and learning” as relevant and important professional endeavor.
Walden - Pilot