The Faculty Evaluation Process: The First Step In Fostering Professional Development In An Online University

The presentation will trace the experiences of two program directors from Walden University and their examination of issues involved with faculty assessment.  Their experiences were used to create a simple but effective and workable model for faculty assessment and development.  Once a presentation of how data were obtained, and analyzed, to create an effective communication process, the specifics of how faculty members were engaged in the collegial methods to ensure a workable professional development process will be described.  The experiences of the directors in working with assessment will be utilized as they demonstrate how they regularly conduct an interactive evaluation process, involving the audience in using the model created at Walden in the Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership.  This model was developed using various metrics, such as student course evaluations, faculty self-assessments, checklists of activity, adherence to rubrics, etc.  The entire process begins with the premise that collegial interactions will provide the most sustainable changes.  The process concludes with the implementation of online professional development in response to the collected data

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least 4 m. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the 6.5 m James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 yr, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit