ABSTRACT
This chapter details the multifaceted role faculty play as producers and consumers of data in higher education, as well as related difficulties in faculty participation in data strategy. It describes some of the primary difficulties that faculty face in their academic roles; these include issues common to all faculty, such as time management, as well as issues concerning only certain faculty, such as the highly rigorous tenure and promotion process. The chapter outlines the myriad arenas in which faculty utilize both objective and subjective data, relying on it to provide insights into student course performance, for example; to increase knowledge of institutional benchmarking; or to assess personal scholarly production via academic analytics and productivity measures. It also describes common faculty challenges with data, including skepticism concerning the purpose and endgame for solicited data, questions about how data can hurt or help, different conceptualizations of data among administrators and faculty, and issues in accessing and reporting data.
