Instructional Development Program
Carnegie 116, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019
Director: Dee Fink (dfink@ou.edu)
Assistant to the Director: Arletta Knight (aknight@ou.edu)
Phone: 405-325-3521 FAX: 405-325-7383

The University of Oklahoma is a public, Carnegie-classification Research University II with about 800 FT faculty members, 600 TA’s, 16,000 undergrads, and 4,000 graduate students.

The Instructional Development Program (IDP) was established in 1979 by the provost. It is a line-item in the university’s budget, funded by state appropriations. IDP reports to the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education.

Staff and Budget: Initially we started with a director at 0.67 FTE, and that was it. Now the director is full-time, and is assisted by several part-time people: an Assistant to the Director (0.75 FTE), a secretary/bookkeeper shared with another unit (0.33 FTE), and one person hired just to coordinate our campus-wide All-TA Training Program. The non-salary portion of our budget is $23,000. Approximately half of this is used for our two TA Training Programs, one for international TA’s and the other for all TA’s.

The main IDP activities consist of the following:

Faculty Luncheon Discussion Groups: Following a letter of invitation from IDP, faculty members "sign up" for a whole semester or whole year of lunch-plus-one-hour-discussions. We meet every two weeks to learn about some aspect of college teaching. These have continued to be both popular and productive ever since we first started them in 1979. (Typical number of users per year: 30-45)

Individual Consulting: When faculty members want individual help, they call our office. We visit with them; then, depending on the particular problem, we offer the following: specific ideas, reading material, classroom visits, student questionnaires, videotaping, etc. (Typical number of users per year: 25-40)

New Faculty Seminar: Started in 1988, these have become a very valued part of our program. We invite all new faculty members (and 75% respond) to join a semester-long, weekly seminar (with lunch) that has a variety of sessions on three general topics: orientation to the university, ideas on and support services for teaching, and support services for research.(Typical number of users per year:35-50)

Programs for TA’s: We offer a 5-day program for international TA’s and a 2-day program for all TA’s, both in August. These have been done for many years, and are now required by the university for all new TA’s. (Typical number of users per year: ITA: 35, All-TA: 200)

Special Course Evaluation Service: IDP offers faculty members free use of the IDEA course evaluation system. We cover the costs, and review the results with each new user. (Typical number of users per year: 25-40)

Newsletter: We publish a 4-page newsletter, 2-4 times per year. It typically features vignettes of individual faculty, campus developments related to teaching, and sometimes synopses of major national publications.

Reading Material: IDP maintains a collection of articles, journals, books, and videotapes on a wide variety of topics related to college teaching. These are available for use (and are used) by faculty and TA’s.

Recent Expansion: The provost recently expanded our budget and in return asked IDP to lead an effort to provide better support for TA’s (course, observation/feedback, assessment) at the department level.

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