Faculty Table Generator Help

Overview

The Faculty Table Generator is a World-Wide Web tool that allows users to access aggregate information about GVSU faculty members over the internet.   Using the table generator, getting the information you want about GVSU faculty is a simple drag-and drop process, but the tool has the flexibility to help you get exactly the data you need without a lot of unnecessary information.

Note that the Faculty Table Generator delivers data on multi-semester contracts only. This includes "regular" (tenured and tenure-track) faculty and Affiliate and Visiting faculty. It is not currently possible to obtain data about adjunct faculty via the Faculty Table Generator.

The table generator consists of two principal parts:

1. About a dozen blue boxes which represent the faculty characteristics that can appear in your table ("Pods");
2. A gray table diagram (at the bottom of the page), with white boxes representing the ways the data can appear in the table ("Slots").

For example, if you put the Rank pod into one of the of the slots labeled "Row", it would specify a table that looks something like this:

The table shows the number of faculty members by rank, with the ranks listed down the left side of the table. (You specified Rank as a "Row" variable, so the table has a row for each rank.) If you put Rank in one of the slots labeled "Column" instead, the table would look like the following, with the ranks listed across the top of the table:

When you've designed your table the way you want it to appear, click the "Submit Request" button, and your table will be created exactly as you've requested, and you can read it in your browser, print it, go back and modify the specifications, or open it up as a spreadsheet.

The parts of the window:

The available pods -- Here you'll find all of the variables you can use to design your table. The table diagram -- This is where you create your table layout. The white boxes are empty slots. Help and Table options -- The buttons on the left side of the page allow you to (a) access this help page, (b) specify whether you want an HTML table or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, (c) save or restore a pre-defined table layout, (d) submit your table request, or (e) reset all parameters to their initial values.

How to move a pod:

The easiest way to move a pod is just to click it and drag it to where you want it to be. Use the left mouse button to click and drag the pod, and release the button over the desired location to drop the pod. Pods can only be dropped in appropriate slots or in their "home" location. If you drop a pod anywhere else on the page, it will return to its "home" location. The home location is the space reserved for the pod in the list of available pods (the upper 2/3 of the page).

You can also move a pod by using its options menu. Left click on the pod to view the list of actions you can take with the variable. Among the options listed will be a list of places where the pod can be moved. These options will include some, but not all, of the following:

• Make it a COLUMN variable -- puts the pod in the highest available "Column" slot.
• Make it a ROW variable -- puts the pod in the highest available "Row" slot.
• Make it a PAGE variable -- puts the pod in the "Page" slot.
• Make it a DATA variable -- puts the pod in the highest available "Data" slot.
• Promote it -- Moves the variable to the next higher slot within the same table dimension. For example, a pod in the second "Row" slot can be promoted to the first "Row" slot.
• Demote it -- Moves the variable to the next lower slot within the same table dimension. For example, a pod in the first "Row" slot can be demoted to the second "Row" slot.
• Remove it from the table -- sends the pod back to its "home" location.
  
  For information about the difference between higher and lower slots within a table dimension, see the section on slot order below.

If you move a pod (either by drag-and-drop or the pod options menu) to a slot that is already occupied by another pod, the pods will trade places, with the displaced pod going to the place where the pod you moved started. (If the pod you moved was in its "home" location, the displaced pod will go to its own home, not to the exact spot where the new pod was located.) If the displaced pod is not allowed to occupy the slot from which you moved the new pod, the displaced pod will go to its home location instead.

Other things you can do with a pod:

In addition to moving a pod into, around in, or out of the table, there are several other useful actions available from the pod options menu. Not all options are available for all pods, and some options are context-sensitive -- they only appear on the options menu when the situation makes them appropriate.

The following actions may be available from the options menu:

• See more details about it in the data dictionary -- Opens this help page to the Data Dictionary entry for the variable. The data dictionary contains more extensive information about the variable, its values, and its formatting.
• Control the way values will be grouped in the table -- Opens the Formatting Window for the variable. The formatting window allows you to customize the way values of certain variables will be grouped in your table. This option is only available for selected variables and only when those variables are in a "Row", "Column", or "Page" slot.
• Use it for record selection -- Opens the Record Selection Window for the variable. The selection window allows you to limit the population included in your table to those faculty members with certain values of the variable.
• Clear its record selection setting -- Removes any current selection parameters for the variable. This option only appears if record selection parameters have been set (either by you or by default).
• Do nothing -- Closes the option window without making any changes. (Note that clicking the "X" at the upper right of the options window has the same effect.)

The parts of the table (the slots)

A table can show your information in up to four different ways: across the columns of the table; down the table in rows; broken up into many different table pages; or as the data element summarized within the table's individual cells.  The following example illustrates the 4 types: (Some examples throughout this document are from the Section Table Generator, which shows data on course sections, but the concepts illustrated apply equally to all of the table generators.)

The Table Generator allows you to select up to 2 column variables and up to 2 row variables.  You can select one page variable and up to 4 data elements.  If you select more than one data element, a new pod, Data Variables, will appear in your table diagram. This pod is a placeholder that controls how the multiple data variables will be dispayed in your table. You can move it around in your table (to other "Column", "Row", or "Page" slots), but the only way to remove it from the table is to remove "Data" variables until only one "Data" slot is occupied, at which time the Data Variables pod will disappear. The Data Variables pod will initially be placed in an empty "Column", "Row", or "Page" slot if possible. If all of those slots are filled, Data Variables will displace the pod in the second "Column" slot.

The following tables illustrate effects of different placements of Data Variables:

• Data Variables in a "Column" slot

  Course Prefix = FRE

  		Data Type
  		Number of Sections	Census Credit Hours
  Instructor Rank
  Assistant Professor		10	446
  Associate Professor		3	142
  Total		13	588

  ---

• Data Variables in a "Row" slot

  Course Prefix = FRE

  		Instructor Rank
  		Assistant Professor	Associate Professor	Total
  Data Type
  Number of Sections		10	3	13
  Census Credit Hours		446	142	588

  
  

  ---

• Data Variables in the "Page" slot

  Data Type = Number of Sections

  		Instructor Rank
  		Assistant Professor	Associate Professor	Professor	Total
  Course Prefix
  FRE		10	3		13
  GER		3		6	9
  Total		13	3	6	22

  
  

  ---

  Data Type = Census Credit Hours

  		Instructor Rank
  		Assistant Professor	Associate Professor	Professor	Total
  Course Prefix
  FRE		446	142		588
  GER		151		183	334
  Total		597	142	183	922

  ---

With both the column and row elements, you have the option of nesting variables. Nesting a variable means that the different levels of the second variable will be shown for each level of the first variable.  For the "Column" slots, a variable in the right-hand slot will be nested within the variable in the left-hand slot. For "Row" variables, the variable in the lower pod is nested within the variable in the upper slot. In both cases, if there is only one variable specified for that particular dimension (that is, only one "Column" variable or only one "Row" variable), it makes no difference which of the two slots it occupies.

The tables below give examples of nested "Row" variables. In the first table, Course Level values are nested within Night/Weekend categories, while the second table has Night/Weekend nested within Course Level. Note that the same data are displayed either way, although the presentation differs slightly.

For "Data" variables, slot order only affects the order in which the types of summary data appear. For example, the first table below has Headcount before Attempted Hours, while the second tables has their positions reversed.

Table Layout Hints

1. Only use variables that you actually need.
2. Use record selection to trim the amount of data your table presents.
3. If you use variables with lots of different values (like Department/School, use them as row variables, since row variables take up much less space on your screen or page than column or page variables.

• Selecting a range:

  
  

  To select a range of values, simply enter the lower and upper bounds of the range in the appropriate boxes in the selection window. The default contents of the text boxes, "Low" and "High", are special values which can be used to create open-ended ranges. For example, "Low" to "500" is how you would select all values less than or equal to 500. (Note that selection ranges include both their lower and upper bounds.)
  You also have the option of excluding the values in the range (and keeping all others). To do this, select "Exclude" instead of "Include" in the first selection box.

• Selecting specific values:

  
  

  To make a single selection from the drop-down list, just click the desired value. To make multiple selections, select the first value by clicking it, then make subsequent selections by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the additional values.

Applying your selections

When you have designated your selection criteria, click the "Done" button. The pod for which you just created selection criteria will now have asterisks (*) in its upper corners as a visual reminder that you have made exclusions. (Note that Term always has this appearance. See below for an explanation.)

If you specify selection criteria for more than one variable, those criteria are compounded -- Students must meet all selection criteria to be included in the table. For example, if you select "Undergraduate" for Level and "Journalism' for Major you will get data only for students who are undergraduates AND Journalism majors. (In logic terminology, you're making "and" operations, not "or" operations.) With these selections you could get the following simple demographic breakdown of undergraduate Journalism majors:

To remind you that your table shows a subset of GVSU students rather than the entire population, there will be a small extra table at the end of each report that summarizes the selection criteria you submitted.  For the example above, the summary table looks like this:

Summary of Record Selection Criteria

You can generate tables with GVSU student data from a single semester or from multiple semesters. By default, tables will include data from the most recent semester.

Note that selecting more than one term in this step will not automatically result in a table that shows trend data.  You must also include Term as a table element (That is, the pod should be in the table diagram). If you use multiple terms' data, but do not specify Term as a table variable, data will be aggregated across terms. It is not possible to unduplicate by term (that is, to count how may individuals meet certain criteria in at least one term in a multi-term range). If you need unduplicated student counts for a multi-semester period, please contact the Office of Institutional Analysis directly.

With many variables, you have a choice about how the values will be categorized in your table. This allows you much more flexibility to create the table precisely the way you need it. For example, if you need to compare information about students who are under 28 to those who are at least 28 years old, the default age categories (above) don't give you the information you need. You can use the formatting window for Age to tell the table generator to use a single cutpoint at 28, and your table will have just two age categories -- representing "Under 28" and "28 and Older".

There are two types of formatting windows you may encounter. A few variables have a limited number of formatting options available, and their formatting windows present a drop-down list with the choices. Following is a list of those variables and links to their data dictionary entries, where you can find specific details about formatting options.

• Degree Sought
• Class
• On-campus residence
• Section

The custom formatting rule for a continuous variable can take either of two forms: a list of specific cutpoints, or an interval for equal-size ranges.

• To designate specific cutpoints, simply type the cutpoints in ascending order, separating the values with commas. For example if you want to see data about three groups of students -- those taking less than 12 hours, those taking 12 to 17 hours, and those taking 18 or more hours -- you would type "12,18" (without the quotation marks) in the formatting window for Attempted Hours.
• To designate intervals, you use the form "byRatL", where R is the size of each range and L is the low end of the lowest interval. For example "by10at15" specifies that each of the categories should span 10 units (let's say years, in the case of Age), and the lowest 10-year range should start at 15. This would result in categories like 15-<25, 25-<35, 35 -<45, etc. Note that any values that are less than L will still be reported in a catch-all category labeled ".-<15". Either R or L or both can be a negative number or a decimal, but they cannot contain letters, special symbols (other than "-" and "."), or spaces. (Quotation marks in these instructions are for clarity -- you should not type them in the formatting window.)

• College of Major
• Major
• Emphasis
• Minor
• Section

   Following is a list of data elements available in the Faculty Table Generator.  A list or range of the extant values is given for each element.  Definitions or explanations are provided for selected elements/values.

The semester in which the faculty member was employed. Since full-time faculty appointments begin in the fall and encompass the academic year, faculty headcounts do not change between fall and winter semesters.

The college that holds the faculty member's primary appointment.

The department that holds the faculty member's primary appointment. Although some faculty members hold joint appointments, they are required to have a primary department for Human Resources purposes, and it is with that department that the faculty member is tabulated.

The building in which the faculty members principal office is located.

The faculty member's rank or appointment type. The default level of aggregation is to show detailed rank, as in the first column of the table below. Alternatively, you may group all long-term and shorter-term full-time faculty (as shown in column 2) by using variable formatting.

Indicates whether the faculty member has earned tenure, or is eligible to earn it.

• Not on tenure track
• Not tenured, on tenure track
• Tenured

The level of the faculty member's degree, as recorded in the Human Resources system

• [blank] Not recorded
• High School Doploma / GED
• Bachelor degree
• Masters degree (other than those specifed below)
• MFA
• MBA
• MSN
• AMLS
• PHD
• DBA
• EDD
• DSW
• Doctorate (other)
• JD / LDD
• LLM
• Other

The full-time equivalence (FTE) of the faculty member's appointment. Although all faculty included in the Faculty Table Generator have appointments that are commonly called "full-time" in postsecondary education parlance, a few are in fact only employed part-time. The majority of these cases are phased retirement arrangements for long-time faculty members. When used as a data variable, table cells will contain the sum of the FTE for all applicable faculty members.

The faculty member's gender

The faculty member's ethnicity, as reported in the Human Resources data system.

The faculty member's age, as of September 1 of the given academic year.