Practical advice for every step of an academic career, from preparing lectures and networking to tenure, promotion and post-tenure review.
Someone outside your university is going to read your work and evaluate it. That's a strange feeling. They won't know the conversation that started a project or the years you spent making a difficult study possible. Your job…
Read articleYou spend an hour helping a colleague rethink an assignment. Later, you read a student's draft and ask the question that finally gets the argument moving. Useful work. Easy to forget when you're updating your records months…
Read articleYou've chaired the meetings, answered the late emails, and helped a project survive the semester. Then the promotion form gives you one small box for service. “Committee chair” hardly captures it. But a bigger list of titles…
Read articleYour publication list has grown. Yet the question “What does your research add up to?” can still make you pause. You know how the projects connect. A reviewer seeing them for the first time may not. For a promotion case, that…
Read articleYou open your teaching file and see years of solid work. Revised assignments. Thoughtful feedback. Students who finally understood the difficult part. But when you sit down to write a promotion narrative, the pages start sounding…
Read articleThe course homepage is tidy, but it doesn't show the whole teaching experience. Students may be working through instructions, discussions, feedback, and connected assignments across several weeks. A useful online review needs a…
Read article'The class was engaging and well organized.' It's encouraging feedback, but it leaves a question: what did the reviewer see that supports the judgment? A useful observation report helps the reader follow that connection. The…
Read articleA colleague will be observing, and suddenly the ordinary lesson starts to look inadequate. You consider adding a new activity, another tool, and a more elaborate presentation. Before rebuilding the session, return to what…
Read articleYou want useful feedback, so you think of a colleague whose teaching you admire. That's a reasonable starting point, but a review also needs the right expertise and, where applicable, eligibility under the institution's process…
Read articleA colleague offers to visit your class, and you say yes. Later you realize you haven't discussed whether the visit is informal feedback, part of a required evaluation, or both. That uncertainty can change how each of you…
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