A National Analysis Of Computer And Information Sciences Faculty Workloads: Examining Teaching, Research, Service, And Administration

Abstract

The professoriate is a foundational component of higher education and impacts program success.  This study describes computer and information sciences (CIS) faculty workloads empirically.  The role of faculty in higher education is characterized in terms of research, teaching, service, and administration.  Specifically, this study examines the relationships of faculty individual characteristics, occupational characteristics, and organizational context across the percent of effort allocations in regards to workload.  The data used for this study was the National Center for Education Statistics most recent examination of the faculty, the 1999 National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOFP-99) data.  Specifically, this study describes CIS faculty on selected individual characteristics, occupational characteristics, and institutional context; describe the actually and preferred effort allocations of CIS faculty; determines if significant differences exists between the actually and preferred effort allocations in workload of CIS faculty; determines if a relationship exists between the actual allocation of workload of CIS faculty and individual characteristics, occupational characteristics, and instructional context.  Data analysis was conducted using SPSS. To answer the research questions means, standard deviations, frequencies, percents, correlations, and t-tests were implemented.  This study found the majority of faculty workload is spent on teaching and the majority of program and faculty evaluation is based on research.  The study suggests that more research is needed to develop a better picture of CIS faculty in terms of workloads.