The enduring pursuit of public science at U.S. land-grant universities

Since the 1990s, universities have faced a push toward output commercialization that has been seen as a potential threat to the public science model. Much less attention has been given to the enduring nature of internal organizational features in academia and how they shape the pursuit of traditional scholarly activities. This article exploits four waves of representative, random-sample survey evidence from agricultural and life science faculty at the 52 major U.S. land-grant universities, spanning 1989-2015, to examine faculty attitudes/preferences, tenure and promotion criteria, output, and funding sources. Our findings demonstrate that faculty attitudes toward scientific research have remained remarkably stable over twenty-five years in strongly favoring intrinsic and public science goals over commercial or extrinsic goals. We also demonstrate the faculty’s positive attitudes toward science, an increased pressure to publish in top journals and secure increasingly competitive grants, as well as declining time for science. These trends suggest a reconsideration of university commercialization strategies and a recommitment of universities and their state and federal funders toward fostering public agricultural and life science research.

Role of entrepreneurship awareness in engineering education

Entrepreneurship education teaches engineering students in all disciplines the knowledge, tools, and attitudes that are required to identify opportunities and bring them to life. Despite an increased focused on developing and understanding engineering undergraduates’ entrepreneurial mindsets, best practices related to assessing this mindset remain nascent. While some of these existing studies sought to understand perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs, the existing literature is limited in direct attempts to measure students’ entrepreneurial mindsets or beliefs. In this article, we tried to examine the importance of entrepreneurship efforts in engineering education, national support for entrepreneurship, student and faculty attitudes and engagement. We then offer our perspective on the future landscape for innovation and entrepreneurship in engineering education.

Longitudinal Impact of Faculty Participation in a Course Design Institute (CDI) Faculty Motivation and Perception of Expectancy, Value, and Cost

Course design institutes (CDIs), which systematically guide faculty through the (re)design of courses, often transpire in an intensive residency or learning community format. Little is known, to date, of the long-term impact of such initiatives, particularly in the context of faculty motivation. This longitudinal study explores changes in faculty attitudes toward teaching, offering insight into the multifaceted gains and limiting factors influencing motivation as conceptualized by the expectancy-value-cost model (Barron & Hulleman, 2015). Findings reveal that CDI engagement bolsters the value placed on teaching, but arrives at a noteworthy cost to faculty. Implications for CTLs and instructional faculty are explored.

Attitudes of teaching faculty towards clinical teaching of medical students in an emergency department of a teaching institution in Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: Singapore experienced the COVID-19 outbreak from January 2020 and Emergency Departments (ED) were at the forefront of healthcare activity during this time. Medical students who were attached to the EDs had their clinical training affected. Methods: We surveyed teaching faculty in a tertiary teaching hospital in Singapore to assess if they would consider delivering clinical teaching to medical students during the outbreak and conducted a thematic analysis of their responses. Results: 53.6% felt that medical students should not undergo clinical teaching in the ED and 60.7% did not wish to teach medical students during the outbreak. Three themes arose during the analysis of the data - Cognitive Overload of Clinical Teachers, Prioritisation of Clinical Staff Welfare versus Medical Students, and Risk of Viral Exposure versus Clinical Education. Conclusion(s): During a pandemic, a balance needs to be sought between clinical service and education, and faculty attitudes towards teaching in high-risk environments can shift their priorities in favour of providing the former over the latter.

Faculty Attitudes Towards Article Processing Charges for Open Access Articles

Article Processing Charges (APCs) are significant charges for publishing Open Access (OA), and have no accepted standards for authors to source the funds or negotiate the charges. While there is a growing body of literature exploring academic authors’ perceptions of OA publishing, there is little data on how authors pay for APCs. The aim of this study was to examine how authors prepare for and fund APCs, as well as their perceptions of these charges. In early 2021 the authors deployed a survey to Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty members via email. The survey was completed by 310 faculty, representing 10.6% of the active researcher population. Our findings show that about 50% of respondents include anticipated APC costs in grant applications, and that 16% of faculty will pay APCs using personal funds. Questions evaluating perception of APCs show that while the majority of respondents support the concept of Open Access, most believe that charges are too high and should not fall on authors.

Distance Educators Attitudes and Actions towards Inclusive Teaching Practices

As distance education continues to increase, it is vital that postsecondary institutions contribute time and resources towards sustaining inclusive teaching practices that decrease barriers and increase opportunities for diverse student populations. This study examined faculty (n = 116) attitudes and actions surrounding online accommodations and inclusive teaching practices that were based on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles using the Inclusive Teaching Strategies Inventory-Distance Education (ITSI-DE) online survey instrument. A Pearson product moment correlation confirmed a statistically significant correlation between faculty attitudes and actions towards inclusive teaching practices. Next, a multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) affirmed statistically significant differences between faculty attitudes and actions towards inclusive teaching practices based on gender. The implications of this research and future research recommendations are offered.