To develop an effective method for experienced, full-time faculty to mentor new, part-time faculty, Cuyahoga Community College (CCC), in Ohio, initiated the 3-year Educator's Peer Instructional Consulting (EPIC) project in September 1987. EPIC was designed to allow new faculty to quickly learn essential information about the college, their division, students, and available resources, and full-time faculty to benefit from the non-teaching experiences of new teachers. At the beginning of each new term, volunteer full-time faculty were sought to work with no more than three new teachers. Mentor pairs were provided with handbooks on mentoring and faculty responsibilities and met formally at least three times during the term, keeping journals describing their activities and reactions during the mentoring. In the first 3 years of implementation, 379 new part-time faculty (almost 90% of the new part-time hires during the period) were mentored by about 100 full-time faculty. Most faculty reported an increase in the quality of course syllabi, better understanding of college policies and procedures, and an increase in the use of teaching materials. Division heads also reported improvements in the areas of faculty understanding of college policies and reduction of student complaints. Based on project outcomes, CCC began full funding for the EPIC project in September 1991. (MAB)
Authors
- Authorizing Institution
- Cuyahoga Community Coll., Cleveland, OH.
- Peer Reviewed
- F
- Publication Type
- Reports - Descriptive
- Published in
- United States of America
- Sponsor
- Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (ED), Washington, DC.
Table of Contents
- Cuyahoga Community College 2
- 700 Carnegie Avenue 44115 2
- Cleveland OH 2
- G008730453 2
- Donald L. Hoyt Telephone 2
- Academic AffairsSpecial Projects Cuyahoga Community College 700 Carnegie Avenue Cleveland OH 2
- 33960 Year 2 2
- Year 3 9672 TOTAL 2
- PROJECT SUMMARY 3
- Donald L. Hoyt 3
- Cuyahoga Community College 3
- 4250 Richmond Road 3
- Highland Hills Ohio 3
- Cuyahoga Community College 4
- 700 Carnegie Avenue 4
- Cleveland OH 4
- Donald L. Hoyt Project Director 4
- Consequently the claim was made that both parties matched with 125 new 4
- The Project Director has presented at six major 4
- The results were sufficiently encouraging that the college felt it could make such a program 4
- They were also given a copy of the Part Besides the formal meetings they were expected to exchange both home and work phone numbers and each was to share 5
- They were to review this material and the-- 5
- The journals helped make 5
- Project Overview 6
- 63 full-time faculty were 6
- FIPSE FINAL REPORT 7
- In the past it has often taken sewral academic quarters of teaching for 7
- Project Description. 7
- The new part-time person was given no additional compensation 7
- FIPSE FINAL REPORT 8
- Another expectation was that each participant was to 8
- As noted previously over the three year 8
- 379 new part-time faculty almost 90 that period were mentored by about 8
- FIPSE FINAL REPORT 9
- Frequency of student complaints 9
- Table 1 - 9
- As can be seen from this table the greatest improvements were in the areas of the use of course 9
- FIPSE FINAL REPORT 10
