Scope: This article will provide an overview of the load factor process.
Purpose: This article provides the start of the documentation entering load factor into the system.
Detailed Information
Description
Instructor of Record Captures the Instructional Split for Multiple-Instructor Courses using the Instructor Load Factor.
For definition, click Instructor Load Factor.
Until recently, there was no way in MaineStreet to split instructional effort for multiple-instructor courses. Examples of multiple-instructor sections include:
- Team-taught courses
- Courses where staff are listed on a course for administrative purposes only and have no teaching responsibility
- Labs coordinated by a faculty member but taught by graduate assistants
The inability to split the effort for multiple-instructor courses precluded us from being able to accurately examine:
- How instructional resources were being distributed
- The number of course sections and credit hours taught per FTE faculty (by faculty type)
- Variation in costs per credit hour across disciplines, course types, and class level
Further, in instances where courses are evaluated using the Explorance Blue online evaluation system, and one faculty member is listed for administrative or coordinated purposes only, there was no mechanism to exclude them from being evaluated. Adding an indicator in MaineStreet permits such flexibility.
Load Factor
The Data Advisory Committee's Instructor of Record workgroup identified a field available in MaineStreet that would capture instructional split information. This field already existed, but there was no method for data entry. Members of the workgroup collaborated with IT in summer 2018 to develop a data entry screen. The use of the field was piloted at UMaine with three academic units in fall 2018. The goal is to have other campuses/academic units pilot using the field in 2019-2021, with full implementation in fall 2021.
Apply To
- System-wide
- Anyone reviewing Load factor Documentation.