Instructional Workload of Academic Departments SUNY Oswego

The data reported in this publication are based on the Term Section Data Submission (TSDS) report. TSDS is SUNY's faculty instructional workload system which describes the teaching duties of all faculty for the fall semester. TSDS is not a full faculty activity analysis as it does not include assignment for advisement, committee work, publishing, research, etc. which are included in the job duties of faculty. Therefore, data should be interpreted with limitations in mind, since the amount of time and energy devoted to other instructional tasks, such as class preparation, student contacts outside class room, and administrative work are not accounted for. Thus, within this system, anyone with faculty title code, who does any teaching, is treated as if teaching were his/her only function though it is understood these other items are part of their job.

An important consideration to keep in mind is that the data presented here do not deal with the nature of the program, the content of courses offered by various departments, or describing the instructional workload of individual faculty. This report provides only a general overview of instructional workload activity. These data should not be construed as basis for departmental comparison, or as representative of the instructional workload of individual faculty. Reports of greater detail on instructional workload are available from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment upon request The TSDS reports separate data by department and include:

• Count of Sections
• Count of Students
• Count of Instructors
• Count of Contact Hours
• Count of Hours Attempted
• Count of Hours Earned

Definition of Terms

The major types of information that is generated by the TSDS system are:

FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT FACULTY (INSTRUCTIONAL FTE FAC}: The full-time equivalent faculty (FTE FAC) workload is a means of translating an amount of activity into a term that suggests a number of individuals taking part in that activity as if it were their only effort. This concept is practically useful in allowing several part-time individuals to be equated to an equivalent number of full-time individuals. The full-time or part-time status of faculty is generally defined by contract and for purpose here is extracted from appropriate personnel records. Special procedures exist for imputing an FTE for temporary service faculty, contributed service staff, etc.

CREDIT VALUE (CRV): Credit Value refers to the number of credit hours awarded through the course in progress toward a degree, certificate, or other formal award. Certain courses, including physical education, follow special rules for the assignment of credit value.

ENROLLMENT (ENR): Enrollment is the number of students in the sections of a course. Anyone registered for credit, regardless of full-time or part-time status, is included. Auditors and post-doctoral enrollees are excluded.

STUDENTS CREDIT HOURS (SCRH) OR TOTAL CREDIT ENROLLMENT: it is the sum of the credits that all students, full and part-time, are registered for at the fall semester. It is equal to the product of Credit Value by Enrollment:

SCRH = CRV * ENR

FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT WORKLOAD (FTE WKLD or FTE STUDENT): FTE workload is a unit of measure derived from student credit hours. Generally, one FTE workload is equivalent to 15 student credit hours in undergraduate courses, or 12 student credit hours in graduate courses. Professional and doctoral students are subject to special detailed definitions. Therefore, courses of different levels (e.g., undergraduate vs. graduate) with equal credit enrollment and equal FTE faculty result in different student/faculty ratios. Thus, graduate courses may have higher studenUfaculty ratios than undergraduate courses.

STUDENT/FACULTY RATIO (S/F): One way of measuring instructional workload is comparing the number of faculty members with the number of students. Studen /Faculty Ratio is calculated by dividing the Full-Time Equivalent Student Workload (FTE Student) by Full-Time equivalent Faculty:

S/F = FTE WKLD / FTE FAC

AVERAGE CREDIT ENROLLMENT PER FTE FACULTY: This measure of instructional workload is equal to the ratio of total credit enrollment by Instructional FTE Faculty:

AVERAGE CREDIT ENROLLMENT PER FTE FACULTY = SCRH / FTE FACULTY

Source: SUNY Institutional Research, TSDS