Top 15% Teaching Awards

Guidelines for Selection
of the Top 15% Teaching Awards FOR 2007

» The Top 15% Teaching Awards are to be given out once a year, in the Fall semester, based on faculty performance during the previous academic year. For this award, the academic year is defined as consisting of the Fall semester, the Winter semester, the Spring semester and Summer semester sessions I and II, in that order. Thus, the Fall 2007 awards are based on ratings for the academic year that includes Fall 2006; Winter 2007; Spring 2007; Summer I, 2007; and Summer II, 2007.
» There are three categories of awards. Category 1 awards go to the Top 15% of full-time faculty (including tenure-track and Tyser Teaching Fellows). Category 2 awards go to the Top 15% of adjunct faculty and Ph.D. students. Category 3 awards will be made to the top 15% of faculty teaching in the MBA core and/or other courses with more than 65 students.
 
» To be eligible for a Category 1 award, a faculty member must teach at least two qualified courses during the academic year, where a qualified course/section is defined as having at least 10 students responding to the teaching evaluation survey. In accordance with Smith School policy, EMBA courses have now been included. Each faculty member’s score will be averaged across all qualified courses/sections taught in the academic year under consideration. The total number of Category 1 awards are determined by taking 15% of the total number of Category 1 eligible faculty members, with the resultant number rounded up to arrive at an integer number of awards. Faculty members who are in the top 15% of averaged scores will be recognized with a Category 1 Top 15% award. This year’s threshold score for a Category 1 award was 4.57.
 
» To be eligible for a Category 2 award, the instructor (adjunct professor, Ph.D. or MBA student) must teach at least one qualified course/section, as described above. Each instructor’s score will be averaged across all qualified courses/sections taught in the academic year under consideration. The rounding up rule for the number of 15% Category 2 awards will be based on the total number of individual instructors who teach a qualified course/section. Instructors who are in the top 15% of the single class scores will be recognized with a Category 2 Top 15% award. This year’s threshold score for a Category 2 award was 4.56.
» ·The Category 3 awards will recognize faculty members or instructors (adjunct professor or Ph.D. student) who received the highest average ratings based on all qualified courses/sections of MBA core classes or large lecture classes (>65 students) he or she taught during the academic year. To be eligible for this award, a faculty member or instructor must have taught at least two qualified core courses/sections (or at least one qualified section of two or more core courses). Thus, a faculty member or instructor who teaches core classes can receive the Category 3 award, as well as a Category 1 or Category 2 award. This year’s threshold for a Category 3 award was 4.37.