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This paper seeks to ascertain the effectiveness of a two-week-long faculty development programme (FDP), organized by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), for teachers of the open and distance learning (ODL) system, with the aim of upgrading their knowledge and skills for developing print self-learning materials (SLMs). The specific aim of this study is to ascertain whether the objectives of the FDP have been achieved, to examine the effectiveness of the training programme and to suggest measures for improvement in future FDPs regarding the design and development of print SLMs.

The study was conducted using a descriptive survey research method, through semi-structured questionnaires and adopted purposive sampling. The first survey was conducted immediately after the completion of the programme, in order to collect feedback from the trainees, while the second survey was conducted after six months of the FDP, using the follow-up approach, so that more reliable and authentic results could be obtained.

The outcomes of the study revealed that the training had been effective in imparting appropriate knowledge and skills to the trainees, with respect to designing print SLMs. However, certain gaps were also identified and have been reported in this paper. Key suggestions have been made to address the shortcomings and improve forthcoming FDPs.

The present research focused on a specific training programme regarding the design and development of SLMs. Therefore, only the teachers and academics who participated in this specialized training activity were considered for the collection of feedback.

The recommendations of this work may be useful for the trainers, FDP coordinators, training institutions and ODL policymakers for planning and designing effective staff development activities for teachers and academics working in ODL institutions. These would be especially useful in the design of FDPs, aimed at orienting teachers who are involved in curriculum planning, design and development of learning resources.

This study is an original research based on the empirical primary data obtained by the researchers. As the largest open university in the world, IGNOU has been playing a key role in staff development for and in ODL in developing countries. This evaluative study of a specialized FDP in the area of SLM design and development is a significant work that may be valuable for planning the staff development strategies and building a training evaluation mechanism.

The purpose of this paper is to use the authors’ reflections and a review of literature to assess the ways that universities have yet to fully include faculty members in their sexual assault prevention initiatives. Recommendations for how faculty can assist are included.

The paper provides a review of literature regarding institutional factors related to sexual assault and the potential of faculty, followed by personal reflections by both authors, who together have more than four decades experience studying sexual assault, providing training and educational presentations, and serving victims as well as perpetrators of sexual violence.

The authors conclude that, despite White House mandates for training faculty and campus requirements that should utilize the expertise of faculty members, many campuses are relying heavily or exclusively on student affairs professionals and lawyers to create and implement sexual assault prevention programs. Faculty should, the authors assert, be involved in task forces, needs assessments, training, and other initiatives in order for campus prevention programs to be robust.

The limitations of this paper are that it is based only on a review of literature and personal reflections from the authors, who teach at a small, Catholic, liberal arts school in South Florida. As such, the recommendations, while intended to be thoughtful, may be less appropriate for educators and administrators at different types of colleges or outside of the USA. Additional research on faculty experience with sexual assault prevention is recommended.

The recommendations provided in the paper should be useful to academic leaders who are developing or expanding sexual assault prevention initiatives. The paper also provides useful information for faculty members regarding how they can assist with these issues.

Faculty members with training and expertise can and should be used to help craft campus policies, procedures, and programs related to sexual assault. In the USA, sexual assault training is required but has not been fully implemented.

Although much has been written about campus sexual assault, little research assesses the role of faculty. This paper is a preliminary effort to address how interpretations of US federal law include faculty and how faculty remain an untapped resource in terms of sexual assault prevention.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2018.

The paper provides a brief description of all 422 sources, and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and anyone interested as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Morgan State University (Morgan) is a leading undergraduate institution for black science and engineering doctoral degree recipients. Morgan also is a leader in the production of black engineering degree recipients in the United States. This chapter provides a historic overview of the major programs with a tie to the impact on the institutional metrics, a discussion of the process for developing researchers in science and engineering, and alumni perspectives. The undergraduate research development models used in engineering at Morgan are compared and contrasted with the life sciences and physical sciences. The programs focus on developing communities of engineering practice and communities of science, thereby enhancing students’ self-efficacy and resilience, shaping disciplinary identity, and creating learning communities. These approaches are critical for the success of minority students and are supported by the social science literature. Best practices have been adopted at varying levels by the School of Engineering, the School of Computer Mathematics and Natural Science and the Behavioral Science departments that have netted these Ph.D. outcomes including multiyear mentored research, research training courses, and participation in professional meetings. Multiple approaches to student development, when matched with the disciplinary culture, are shown to result in national impact.

BUSINESS SCHOOL GRAFFITI is a highly personal and revealing account of the first ten years (1965–1975) at Britain’s University Business Schools. The progress achieved is documented in a whimsical fashion that makes it highly readable. Gordon Wills has been on the inside throughout the decade and has played a leading role in two of the major Schools. Rather than presuming to present anything as pompous as a complete history of what has happened, he recalls his reactions to problems, issues and events as they confronted him and his colleagues. Lord Franks lit a fuse which set a score of Universities and even more Polytechnics alight. There was to be a bold attempt to produce the management talent that the pundits of the mid‐sixties so clearly felt was needed. Buildings, books, teachers who could teach it all, and students to listen and learn were all required for the boom to happen. The decade saw great progress, but also a rapid decline in the relevancy ethic. It saw a rapid withering of interest by many businessmen more accustomed to and certainly desirous of quick results. University Vice Chancellors, theologians and engineers all had to learn to live with the new and often wealthier if less scholarly faculty members who arrived on campus. The Research Councils had to decide how much cake to allow the Business Schools to eat. Most importantly, the author describes the process of search he went through as an individual in evolving a definition of his own subject and how it can best be forwarded in a University environment. It was a process that carried him from Technical College student in Slough to a position as one of the authorities on his subject today.

A study which examines those factors perceived to be associated with the transfer of learning from the training to the work situation is presented. It was found that trainers were more pessimistic than their clients about the extent to which successful transfer was achieved. The main factors inhibiting the transfer of learning were associated with the working environment to which trainees returned and included the low receptivity of bosses and colleagues to new ideas and their strong commitment to rules and procedures which inhibited innovation and improvement.

Increased student diversity in universities across the USA has increased the need for post-secondary educators to develop multicultural teaching competence (MTC). Most studies of MTC focus on educators teaching grades K-12. The purpose of this study is to determine how faculty members rate themselves in terms of MTC, what multicultural knowledge and skills faculty report and how they integrate these skills into their teaching practice and what barriers exist to developing and implementing MTC. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that impact undergraduate faculty integration of multicultural awareness and attitudes into their teaching practices to enhance student learning.

A convergent mixed methods study used survey and interview data from undergraduate faculty. Select items from the MTC Inventory (MTCI) and social justice scales (SJS) were administered. Interviews (N = 7) were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Quantitative and qualitative data were compared to examine convergence and divergence.

Quantitative results revealed undergraduate faculty’s awareness, knowledge and skills as indicated by percent agreement with items from the MTCI and SJS instruments. Qualitative findings included the following four themes: knowledge building, addressing diversity in the classroom, barriers and challenges, and needs and recommendations. Qualitative data corroborated or explained many of the quantitative results and provided insight into these trends and barriers that impact MTC.

This is the first study of its kind, to our knowledge, that has used a mixed methods research design to examine factors that impact MTCs and associated barriers among a sample of undergraduate faculty across disciplines in one urban university.

The study aims to qualitatively analyze how faculty can mobilize the intellectual capital of higher education institutions (HEIs), comprising human, structural and relational capital to enable the education and learning of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Drawing upon the extant literature, the researcher conducted a qualitative study through written, in-depth interviews with a sample of 40 academic staff/faculty members having prior experience in teaching individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The data was collected through a set of questions formulated as key questions, to be asked to all participants for their responses.

Results of the analysis demonstrated that intellectual capital’s contribution to higher education of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities can be best understood in terms of its three components/dimensions. Accordingly, three main themes, with each comprising two sub-themes were uncovered. The first theme, leveraging human capital comprised: faculty acumen and faculty training as sub-themes; the second theme, resourcing structural capital comprised: tangible and intangible structural capital as sub-themes; and the third theme, nurturing relational capital comprised: in-class engagement and the second is ex-class connection as sub-themes.

The paper collects data from 40 faculty having prior experience in teaching individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to explore and reveal a completely new perspective of looking at intellectual capital as a means of providing accessible and inclusive higher education to differently-abled students, making them a part of the mainstream.

Technology is integral to contemporary life; where the digital transformation to virtual information accessibility impacts instruction, it alters the skills of learning and comprehension (Gonzalez-Patino & Esteban-Guitart, 2014; Lloyd, 2010). Although librarians/media specialists provide orientation, instruction, and research methods face-to-face and electronically, they recognize that digital learning instruction is not a linear process, and digital literacy (DL) is multi-disciplinary (Belshaw, 2012). Policy and public research findings indicate that higher education must be prepared to adapt to rapid changes in digital technology (Maybee, Bruce, Lupton, & Rebmann, 2017). Digital learning undergoes frequent transformations, with new disruptive innovation and research attempts at redefinition (Palfrey, 2015). Research often overlooks junior/community colleges. We are all learners and we need to understand the digital learning challenges that incorporating DL includes in the new digital ecology (Adams Becker et al., 2017). This study provides real faculty/librarian commentaries regarding the understanding needed to develop digital learning and contemporary digital library resources. The authors investigate faculties’ and librarians’ degree of DL perceptions with instruction at junior/community colleges. Survey data analysis uses the mean of digital self-efficacy of variables collected, revealing that participants surpassed Rogers’s (2003) chasm of 20% inclusion. Findings provided data to develop the Dimensions of Digital Learning rubric, a new evaluation tool that encourages faculty DL cross-training, librarians’ digital learning collaboration, and effective digital learning spaces.

The lack of progress toward equity in the U.S. is evident across many spheres of society, academia notwithstanding. Women academicians, in particular, face many barriers that prevent them from advancing–including a continued unsupportive climate, competing work and family demands, and interpersonal discrimination. This paper reflects on a collaborative research effort in the United States to enhance allyship for women in academia.

The authors partnered with a major university to hold ally training for department chairs during a university-wide department chair meeting. The authors developed a methodology for creating and implementing training content using a focus-group-based training needs analysis and a diversity science grounded approach to allyship training. The authors followed this up with surveys to assess impact.

Participants indicated that they learned from the training, but participation in follow-up data collection was limited, hampering the ability to conduct rigorous quantitative analyses around intervention impact.

Although the sample size may have been too limited to detect effects, the current study provides an approach that furthers the way in which researchers and practitioners can better assess the impact of allyship to women academicians.

Published research on allies is very limited. The current research examines allies in the context of helping women in academia.

Despite widespread recognition of the importance of first-line supervisors in support of diversity, limited intervention designs are available. The authors add to the extant literature on diversity interventions, while highlighting barriers to rigorous intervention evaluation.