Annual Report FAQ

This is a place to find answers to your questions about the Faculty Annual Report (FAR) system.

This is a place to find answers to your questions about the Faculty Annual Report (FAR) system. Answers posted here are best guesses for now. After the EBC has had a chance to review all the reports for this year, they will better understand the issues and will formalize the FAQ so that faculty will know exactly what documents are needed and where in the FAR they should be entered. You can email your questions directly to Dona.

FAR Links

Needs to be complete by October 1:
Faculty Activity Report https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/provost/far/

Other information being kept digitally by the Provost's office. These may be helpful in preparing your FAR, but the data here will not be a part of your annual report unless you add it to the FAR.
Faculty Profile: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/provost/faculty_profile/
Faculty Publications https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/provost/faculty_pubs/

FAQ

When is this due? How will I know when to start working on it?

As always, the FAR is due on October 1. You should complete your Faculty Annual Report and click the "Certify and Submit" button no later than October 1. In the future, Dona will send out a reminder in mid-August for you to start working on the report.

My office number or phone number or degrees are wrong.

You can update this info in the UT Directory, which is providing the info for the FAR.

Where are the paper reports for instructional activities, graduate student committees, and sponsored projects that were sent to me in previous years?

All of this data has been automatically uploaded to the system. If you see inaccuracies, let Dona know, but also know that it is unlikely to be corrected before the October 1 deadline. You can add additional information directly into the report.

I got a grant that started on September 1. Why isn't it showing up?

The FAR is meant to report your activities from September 1 to August 31 of the preceding academic year (2013-14). Grants starting in September 2014 will show up on next year's report.

How do I find out how many master's advisees I have?

The School does not keep history of master's advisees. You are encouraged to keep track of your advisees yourself, or make an informed guess.

What is the Inflation Factor that is showing up with my CIS scores on the Faculty Profile?

Answer given from Information Management and Analysis (IMA):

Grade Inflation Factor is calculated as the average class grade point average (GPA) divided by the average student GPA. Take two fictional examples to illustrate what this means. If all 10 students in a class got an ‘A’ for that class, the average GPA for that class would be 4.0. But let’s say the average GPA of all those students (for all their classes) is 3.0. The Grade Inflation Factor would be 1.333. But if those same 10 students all got a ‘C’ in that class (average GPA of 2.0), the Grade Inflation Factor would be 0.666. If they all got a ‘B’ in the class it would be 1.000. So anything higher than 1 means that the students, on average, got a better grade in that class. Anything less than 1 means they got a worse grade in that class, on average.

I do not have any information on how to interpret this data point at this time.

My publications haven't been pre-filled in the Publications Database. Do I need to add them?

Instructions given by the Provost's office:

The Publications Database has a completely redesigned and improved interface. The database includes pages for certifying the accuracy of listed publications and creative works, managing all publications and creative works, and assigning proxies authorized to manage the publications list on behalf of a faculty member.

It is recommended that faculty members or their proxies first review, add/edit, organize, and certify the publications and creative works in the Publications Database prior to beginning the Faculty Activity Report.

You will need to edit and certify the Publications Database before you will be able to submit your FAR.

Publications from the 2012-13 FAR are showing up on the 2013-14 FAR. Why is this happening?

The FAR system seems to be importing all publications dated 2013, even if they were included on a previous PAR. You can manually remove them from your 2013-14 PAR if they don't belong there.

Is a teaching statement required?

No, but under Teaching Comments or Statement, you can provide a few sentences about anything outstanding or unusual about your teaching in the past year. Examples might be new courses taught or heavily revised.

Where does X go?

WHAT	WHERE
Research Narrative	please upload a separate document as a PDF under Supporting Documents
Publications (submitted or or published)	The pubs button gives you several options for what type it is, thus allowing you to list it one year as "submitted" and then some later year as "published." That way you get credit for effort one year and success the other, without inflating your record. Following our prior provost, we might consider published being that time when you have a page number. In short, there would be no in-between listing for "accepted" (because there is no pull down option for accepted). From the Research Excellence document: Many of the research projects undertaken by faculty members will require multiple years for completion. It is not considered padding of one’s annual reports or promotion dossier to talk about projects in multiple years, provided they have moved from one stage to the next in the research process. However, it is important to identify the stage at which the research resides and to demonstrate progression through these stages.
Research talks	There is a section under the Scholarly & Creative Works tab for "Presentations and Lectures."
Master's advisees	You can put a summary under Graduate or Undergraduate Student Advising.
Doctoral committees	You can include them under Graduate or Undergraduate Student Advising, or under Graduate Student Supervision. The Graduate School only populates this field with students who entered candidacy because that is when the students submit their committee list to the Grad School. You should go ahead and add those students who are pre-candidacy for whom you play some role.
Research efforts with students	Graduate or Undergraduate Student Research: You can place here any efforts in research or in research skills building that you did with students. For example, you might spell out here your efforts with independent studies students or master's report/thesis students even though you already get "credit" for the course with them under teaching. You might also note any special events you organized or efforts you made to help students gain research skills. In addition, you might also discuss how you worked with your own doc students or research assistants this past year. In essence, list here anything that you did to contribute to students' gaining research skills and knowledge.

School of Information