Overview
The College is moving its faculty activity information from the Faculty Activity Report (FAR) to Faculty Success (formerly Digital Measures), the system used by the rest of the University.
With nearly 600 full-time faculty and thousands upon thousands of data points in the FAR, we are working hard to make sure this process goes as smoothly as possible. As your data gets moved into Faculty Success, we ask for your patience and cooperation. You will very likely have to clean up some of your data, but the bulk of the transfer will happen behind the scenes.
Common Questions
Following are some questions we’ve been hearing from faculty and chairs at Faculty Success training sessions.
When will my information be moved over?
That depends on where you are in the tenure/promotion process. We began with two groups:
- A number of faculty identified as a pilot group, who will review their records closely and make sure their materials were successfully moved into Faculty Success
- All of the faculty who are applying for tenure and/or promotion in October. Next, we’re working on information for these two groups:
- The remaining pre-tenure faculty, by year (4th-year retention cases, 3rd-year retention cases, etc.)
- Tenured faculty
Group 3 includes renewable contract faculty on a promotional track.
The goal is to have ALL probationary faculty transferred into Faculty Success before the spring 2021 review period. Ideally, we will finish during the fall, well in time for all faculty to submit their annual review at the end of March.
I’m up for tenure this fall. Which system will I need to use?
We will NOT be using the FAR for the submission of dossiers on October 1. All dossiers will be submitted through Faculty Success.
Where should I enter my new information?
Start using Faculty Success now. Everyone already has an account.
It is critically important that you enter only NEW information.
All of your past information in the FAR (anything entered prior to June 9) will be transferred by our team. If you enter old information into Faculty Success, you’ll end up with duplications to clean up later. Please note also that, as with the FAR, some information will populate automatically: grants through OSP, scheduled teaching, student opinions of instruction.
How do I access my Faculty Success account?
Log in to mybama.ua.edu, and click on the Faculty link on the left panel. You will then see, in the bottom portion of the right-hand box, a link to “Digital Measures: Activity Insight — Faculty Reporting.” Once in, you click on Manage Activities to access all screens. If you find that you cannot access the system or Manage Activities — or have any other issues logging in — contact Tricia McElroy (tmcelroy@ua.edu).
In my field, research is based on activities other than writing articles and books. Will there be places in Faculty Success to record those activities?
Yes. The transition team has spent a great deal of time tweaking Faculty Success to suit the particular needs of our very diverse faculty. This means we have created screens just for A&S — such as screens for peer teaching observations and student learning outcomes, and brand-new screens to capture visual arts research and musical, theatrical, and dance research. We think that once you become accustomed to this new interface, you’ll find it an incredibly robust tool for documenting a wide range of activities in research, teaching, and service.
Will there be training for Faculty Success?
Yes. Tricia McElroy has already hosted Zoom training workshops for faculty across the College; recordings of these workshops will be made available to all faculty. Watch your email for information about any additional training sessions. Like the first group, these will be recorded via Zoom for the benefit of those unable to attend.
What’s happening to the FAR? Is it going to be deleted?
Not immediately. The FAR will be archived, and faculty will be able to access their data if it turns up missing from Faculty Success.
What if I’m having a problem with Faculty Success? Where do I get help?
If you have technical problems, general questions about the process, how to enter a particular activity, or other non-technical matters, contact Tricia McElroy (tmcelroy@ua.edu), associate dean for humanities and fine arts in the College.
You can also complete the Faculty Success information form, which opens in a new window. Information entered in this form will be emailed to Tricia.