Effective Practices Exchange

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A. Building in Faculty Rewards for Bolstering
     Experiential Education

For most faculty members, hiring expectations have been pegged to the offering of traditional coursework within their disciplines of expertise. Administrative workload analyses are usually rooted in terms of student credit-hour productivity. However, much like independent study arrangements, where a great deal of student-specific learning is overseen, the usual class-based indicators of credit generation do not hold up in a similar manner for experiential teaching activities. Consequently, it is not surprising for institutions to develop incentives for professors who choose to participate in such highly time-intensive work. The effective use of rewards can change the academic culture and raise expectations about student curricular options. Similarly, such rewards may also contribute to the willingness of faculty members to participate in the preparation of recruitment materials and policy manuals, initiate tenure discussions, and meet other administrative requirements.

• Chaminade University - Income Tax Preparation
  Credit for work in this project counted toward tenure and promotion.
  
  
• College Misericordia - The Service Leadership Center
  Faculty members who design or resdesign a course to include service-learning are rewarded monetarily.
  
  
• College of St. Catherine - Using Technology
  Each presenting education professor recieves a small stipend, which helps validate the presenter's expertise.
  
  
• Gettysburg College - Nicaragua as Template
  One course "release time" is permitted to faculty members per year for participating in this project. Faculty work in service-learning counts in tenure and promotion decisions.
  
  
• Ithaca College - EcoVillage of Ithaca
  Subsequent to faculty development seminars, faculty members are offered $1,000 grants for course revisions or course development.
  
  
• Loyola University New Orleans - The Office of Service Learning
  For faculty excellence and dedication to service-learning, awards are granted. Faculty can apply for Loyola Course Development/Faculty Development grants connected to service-learning activities.
  
  
• North Central College - The Dispute Resolution Center
  Faculty involvement in this realm is recognized in promotion and tenure decisions.
  
  
• Otterbein College - Community Service Learning Center
  Faculty members who integrate service into their courses are offered the help of student service-learning assistants who are receiving work study funds.
  
  
• St. Ambrose University - Marketing Mississippi Valley Growers' Association
  Campus tenure policy has been modified to include the category of "participation in civic affairs and public service" as a criterion for tenure.
  

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