If anyone is interested in subscribing to the Tomorrow's Professor listserv,
the information is at the bottom of the message. I've received this for
about 1 year, and have found some useful information.
--
Dr. Deborah A. McAllister, Ed.D., UC Foundation Professor
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
College of Education and Applied Professional Studies
Teacher Preparation Academy, Dept. 4154
310C Hunter Hall, 615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37403
Phone: (423) 425-5376 - FAX: (423) 425-5380 - Home: (423) 842-1607
Email: [log in to unmask]
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From: Rick Reis <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 17:08:17 -0700
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: TP Msg. #500 FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING
"Through this approach the Listserv has grown to over 17,000
subscribers at over 525 institutions in 106 countries around the
world. While these numbers are impressive, it is worth noting that
there are over 500,000 college and university professors in North
America alone. Even more significant is the fact that there are still
large numbers of academics in Internet weak areas of Africa, Asia,
Eastern and Central Europe, and Latin America, who are completely
unaware of the Listserv."
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TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR(SM) LISTSERV
"desk-top faculty development, one hundred times a year"
THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
http://ctl.stanford.edu
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Folks:
As you can see this is the 500th posting on the Tomorrow's Professor
Listserv. At two postings per week with a few short breaks here and
there, this means we have been underway for over five years. Such a
milestone gives me the opportunity to offer a brief history of the
the program, take
stock of where we are today, and look at how things might progress in
the future.
Regards,
Rick Reis
[log in to unmask]
UP NEXT: Establishing Ground Rules for Groups
Tomorrow's Academy
----------------------------------- 1,903 words
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TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR LISTSERV - FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING
Richard Reis
The Tomorrow's Professor Listserv began in March, 1998 with an e-mail
announcement sent to approximately 700 individuals, mostly academics,
who were known to me through the writing of my book, Tomorrow's
Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in Science and Engineering
(IEEE Press, 1997). These "forced subscribers" were told that they
would have to unsubscribe
themselves if they wanted to be removed from the list. Approximately
300 of the initial 700 individuals chose this option within the first
two weeks, leading me to think I might have overstepped the bounds of
propriety by subscribing people without their permission.
Nevertheless, it is from the remainder of this initial seeding that
most of the Listserv's subsequent growth has come via "word of
e-mail," often through the re-mailing of selected postings to
colleagues at various institutions. On occasion, announcements about
the Listserv have also been sent to mailing lists gleaned from
conference attendees at meetings of organizations such as the
American Association for Higher Education and the American Society
for Engineering Education.
Through the above approach the Listserv has grown to over 17,000
subscribers at over 525 institutions in 106 countries around the
world. While these numbers are impressive for a listserv, it is worth
noting that there are over 500,000 college and university professors
in North America alone. Even more significant is the fact that there
are still large numbers of academics in Internet weak areas of
Africa, Asia, Eastern and Central Europe, and Latin America, who are
completely unaware of the Listserv. I'll say more below about how we
might address this situation.
Listserv Goals
The goals of Tomorrow's Professor Listserv Listserv ("desk-top
faculty development, one hundred times per year") are to provide
provocative and practical material on current issues and problems in
academia as well as insights on how to prepare for, find, and succeed
at teaching, research,
and service careers in higher education. Listserv postings fall into
one of five categories:
(1) Tomorrow's Academy
(2) Tomorrow's Graduate Students and Postdocs
(3) Tomorrow's Academic Careers
(4) Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning
(5) Tomorrow's Research
Sources of Listserv Content
The majority of the Listserv postings consist of excerpts chosen by
me from books and journals provided on a complementary basis by a
number of higher education publishers. (You should see my
bookshelf!). The quid pro quo in this arrangement is that full
attribution is given in each posting along with the publisher's URL.
Currently almost 50 journals, magazines and publishers provide
material for the Listserv.
How the Listserv Works
The Listserv runs on Majordomo, a well know and widely available list
management program that automates the management of Internet mailing
lists. Anyone can subscribe - or unsubscribe - from the listserv at
anytime by sending a simple e-mail command to Majordomo. The listserv
is
NOT intended to be a live discussion forum and as a result I am the
only one who has authorization to post
to it. The e-mail addresses of subscribers are carefully protected
and are never made available to publishers or other commercial
enterprises. A software program developed by
the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL) enables
sorting of the subscriber base by country and academic institution. A
Listserv website [http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/index.shtml] houses
all past postings sorted by the five Listserv categories.
I spend from 4-5 hours per week on the Listserv, primarily in
selecting and preparing articles for posting and responding to
subscriber inquiries. A part-time employee spends an average of
another five hours per week on the maintenance of the Listserv
website and subscribe list, the gathering of statistics, and the
typing of postings. Total annual cost is about $20,000 US, or about
one cent per posting per subscriber per year. Original funding for
the Listserv was provided by the Stanford Center for Innovations in
Learning (http://scil.stanford.edu/). The Stanford University Center
for Teaching and Learning (http://ctl.stanford.edu/) is the current
sponsor of the Listserv with funding provided by the Future
Professors of Manufacturing program of the Alliance for Innovative
Manufacturing at Stanford (http://www.stanford.edu/group/AIM/). In
addition, two organizations, the American Association for Higher
Education (http://www.aahe.org/) and the National Teaching Learning
Forum (http://www.ntlf.com/) are members of a shared mission
partnership with the Listserv. These organizations promote the
Listserv to their members and subscribers and provide special content
for Listserv postings.
Listserv Subscribers
Subscribers can be found on all continents although most (70%) come
from North America (U.S. and Canada). Approximately eight percent are
found in Europe and far smaller percentages in other regions.
At the 15,000 subscriber mark statistics were compiled on various
components of the subscriber base as reflected in the following data.
The top 10 countries by subscribers:
Country Number of Subscribers
(1) U.S. 9252
(2) Canada 799
(3) United Kingdom 177
(4) Sweden 171
(5) Australia 162
(6) Germany 153
(7) Kuwait 150
(8) South Africa 121
(9) Jordon 110
(10) New Zealand 102
While the high percentage of U.S. and Canadian subscribers is not
surprising, countries such as Sweden (#4) and the Kuwait (#7) and
Jordon (#9) may seem unusual. The relatively high Swedish numbers are
due to a special partnership between the Stanford Wallenberg Learning
Network (URL) and its counterparts in Sweden.
Number of subscribers by the top 10 academic institutions
Institution Number of Subscribers
(1) Stanford University 574
(2) University of Michigan 355
(3) University of Wisconsin-Madison 235
(4) Harvard University 142
(5) University of Minnesota 140
(6) University of Georgia 122
(7) Indiana University 117
(8) Purdue University 115
(9) UC Berkeley 110
(10 Penn. State Univ. 110
There are no real surprises in this regard; all the institutions are
those with large numbers of faculty and graduate students. Stanford
University's placement at the top is also a result of my position at
the institution.
Subscribers are found across the academic spectrum, from graduate
students and postdoctoral scholars, to professors and university
administrators, to those interested in higher education at
foundations and government agencies, and even individuals in private
industry.
Subscriber percentages by discipline and professional status, based
on a random survey of 600 members are shown below.
Subscribers by Discipline
Discipline Percentage
Engineering 25
Social Sciences 23
Physical Sciences 16
Education 9
Life Sciences 9
Other
Subscribers by Professional Status
Professional Status Percentage
Assistant Professor 24
Full Professor 20
Graduate Student 18
Associate Professor 9
Higher Ed Administrator 9
Instructor/lecturer 6
Part-time/adjunct faculty 5
Postdoc 5
Industry/Government 2
Other 2
Uses of Listserv Postings
Subscriber preferences for posting categories are shown below.
Category Preferences Average*
Tomorrow's Academy 2.5
Tomorrow's Postdocs and Graduate students 1.5
Tomorrow's Academic Careers 3.0
Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning 3.5
Tomorrow's Research 2.5
*1 = lowest preference, 5 = highest preference
The table below shows the uses of postings by subscribers. Keeping up
with current issues, improving teaching and learning, and assisting
in the development of academic careers are the most common uses.
Uses Percentage
Introduction to current issues in higher education 91
Source of teaching and learning ideas 84
Ideas for advancing academic careers 62
Sent to colleagues 56
Ideas on faculty development 49
Source of topics for further exploration 20
Basis for class discussions 11
Provides ideals for dissertation topics 4
Supports some aspect of subscriber's research 9
Impact of Listserv Postings
I receive about 250 unsolicited comments per year from Listserv
subscribers remarking on how useful they find the service. These
comments are of course a major source of satisfaction for me. During
the last year or so I have also received comments about how
subscribers use the Listserv archives
(http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings.html) for literature
reviews and as a source for potential research topics and ideas.
Below are as small selection of unsolicited comments received over
the years:
* From a senior academic administrator:
"The Tomorrow's professor Listserv is fabulous and very useful. I
really enjoy it." Nancy Cantor, former provost, University of Michigan
* From a college dean:
"The Listserv has been of great benefit to our profession. It uses
the medium (frequency of messages, excellent editing, and so on) in a
way that allows the information to be easily shared." Tim Snyder,
dean of science Georgetown University:
* From a department chair:
"The Association of Communication Administration is comprised of
about 350 department chairs/deans of communication
departments/colleges. Much of the TP Listserv would be of interest
to ACA's membership and would serve as an excellent source of on-line
discussions." Janesl Gaudino, former Executive Director, National
Communication Association
* From a senior professors at major research university:
"I read it religiously and recommend to many of my colleagues." Eric
Mazur, Physics, Harvard University
* From an assistant professor at liberal arts colleges:
"It's like professional development right here at my office...and,
being at a small college where it is sometimes difficult to have
discussions on select topics, it really helps." Markita Price,
Mathematics & Computer Science, Stephens College
Elements of a Successful Listserv
Listserv subscriber surveys suggest that the following elements
contribute significantly to its popularity:
* The listserv is "pushed" at subscribers via e-mail messages, rather
than requiring subscribers to
"pull" postings from a website.
* Each posting is brief (750-1500 words) and self contained.
* Postings are limited to two per week, 100 times per year.
* Postings contain interesting, practical, and/or provocative material.
* Follow-up sites for additional information are available.
* The Listserv website contains all previous postings sorted by category.
* Subscribers obtain information that is not widely know to their
colleagues.
These results suggest that we should not "mess with success" and that
future efforts should go into expanding the subscriber base,
particularly beyond its present concentration in North America.
Future Directions
As noted above, there are still a number of untouched faculty and
graduate students, particularly in
Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and South America. The
search engine, <Yahoo.com> lists over 14,000 academic institutions in
over 120 countries world-wide. Internet connection limitations,
particularly in Africa, South America and parts of Asia, native
languages other than English, and
differences in the structure of academic institutions are factors
that limit expansion of the subscriber base to these areas. While
many subscribers in the above regions indicate an interest in
U.S. and Canadian thinking about issues in higher education, a
broader range of postings from work outside of these two countries
would also be desirable.
Specific strategies to address these issues might include:
* Asking existing subscribers to specifically inform colleagues about
the Listserv. It might be
helpful to also provide a sample announcement template.
* Obtain other faculty/graduate student e-mail address from
subscribers at specific institutions
and then send a sample posting to them with a note indicating the
endorsement of the subscriber.
* Seek international professional societies e-mail membership mailing
lists and obtain their
endorsement for a sample mailing to their members. Alternatively,
ask the professional society to
mail the announcement.
* Seek to publish an article on the Listserv in journals and
magazines read by potential subscribers.
I WOULD VERY MUCH APPRECIATE YOUR SUGGESTIONS ABOUT, AND ADDITIONS
TO, THE ABOVE LIST.
Conclusion
Over the last five years, the Tomorrow's Professor Listserv has
developed a reputation for brief, compelling, and useful postings of
interest to a broad community of academics. The task ahead is to
bring the benefits of the Listserv to more students and faculty,
particularly those outside the United States and Canada.
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TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR LISTSERV is a shared mission partnership with the
American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) http://www.aahe.org/
The National Teaching and Learning Forum (NT&LF) http://www.ntlf.com/
The Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL)
http://scil.stanford.edu/
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