The REPORTING CHECKLIST can be used at the beginning of every quarter to ensure your department gets full credit for all instruction.
ENROLLMENT
The Office of Analysis and Information Management (AIM) produces reports and analyses for campus decision-makers to use in allocating resources, setting policy, and evaluating units and programs. This handbook provides an overview of how AIM obtains, edits, and reports on instructional activity, instructor FTE, and student enrollment data. Careful entry of data into source systems at the department level will ensure that AIM's reports will accurately reflect the academic unit's instructional activity. The current version of this handbook reflects past practice; future rules will differ somewhat following implementation of a revised reporting structure designed by a systemwide task force, in combination with a policy review that is now underway.
In using AIM data, it is always important to distinguish between information that has been prepared using state reporting conventions and information that may be prepared using different rules applicable to local decision-making. The UC has long-standing agreements with the state Department of Finance about how enrollment, faculty FTE, and instructional activity are measured and used in state funding formulas and accountability reports. Often these conventions are carried over into campus reporting and budgeting for consistency. As a result, AIM reports may differ slightly from departmental records. Note that instructional data for UCLA's general campus flow to the Office of the President and state government through two avenues, and are used for two very different purposes.
Related but slightly different sets of rules govern the two data flows. The first path is used for determining the resources that will flow to the campus, the second path is for accountability. The information submitted for resource analysis is total workload, which is communicated by transmitting a detailed file with the number of units that each student attempts during each term. The accountability workload is submitted in tables that summarize the number of class offerings, enrollments, and student credit hours taught by UCLA general campus instructors, grouped by faculty rank.
How AIM Selects Data For Different Uses
For state budgeting, AIM reports to the UC Office of the President the number of students in state supported programs who have paid their fees. The Office of the President translates the headcount registration to full-time-equivalent (FTE) student enrollments in general campus programs using the enrollment conversion ratios for the campus. The FTE enrollment is an estimate of the amount of instructional activity that the students will generate. This estimate is compared to the budgeted enrollment to determine whether the general campus has met its FTE enrollment target. Students in health science programs are considered full time and are funded on the basis of headcount. A comprehensive explanation of enrollment in the budget context can be found on the UC Office of the President site: UC Enrollment Issues Handbook.
For local budgeting on the general campus, AIM reports the number of student credit hours in a department's offerings in which registered students (those who have paid their fees) are enrolled. The enrollments are measured at the end of the third full week of classes. In this instance, the department's offerings are all of the courses in the subjects it administers, per the student record system. The student credit hours are credited to the administering department regardless of whether the instructor that taught the course has an appointment in the department. Student credit hours for local budgeting purposes are classified based on the level of the students enrolled in the classes.
For instructional activity reporting, AIM reports the number of general campus class offerings, enrollments, and student credit hours. Teaching credit is allocated to the department that paid the instructor, according to the payroll for that term. Instructional activity measurements include only data for registered students in state-supported programs, as of the third week of classes. Teaching credit, student credit hours, and enrollments are summarized by course level and instructor rank.
For undergraduate retention and graduation statistics, AIM follows cohorts for two types of entering students: new from high school and advanced standing (transfer) students. Again, the first and all subsequent measures of the cohorts are limited to registered students at the end of the third full week of instruction.
For undergraduate time to degree, AIM separates a graduating class into two categories: students who were classified as new from high school when they first registered at UCLA, and students who entered with an advanced standing classification. Time to degree includes only fall, winter and spring quarters for which a student was registered at UCLA (including EAP quarters); it excludes summer and quarters during which the student "stopped out".
For classroom and class laboratory utilization, AIM uses the third week enrollments of registered students in courses that met in general assignment classrooms and class laboratories. When calculating the overall adequacy of facilities to meet campus needs, however, AIM selects all scheduled instruction in general campus courses in any campus location. Some exceptions to these guidelines currently apply to state funded summer sessions instruction. Specifically, workload for summer sessions is always calculated by dividing student credit hours at the course level by the FTE standard for that level. Undergraduate course SCH are divided by 45 SCH per full-time-equivalent student to yield 1.0 FTE undergraduate enrollment, and SCH in graduate courses are divided by 36 SCH per full-time-equivalent student to obtain 1.0 FTE graduate enrollment.
AIM DATA SOURCES
In its analyses and reports AIM uses data drawn from the student record system (SRS) and the payroll/personnel system. Data for each quarter or semester are always drawn from the source systems at the same time each year and saved as the official "snapshot" of the term. Virtually all reporting to the state and campus represents the registration, course enrollment, and payroll in the office of record as of the dates that these snapshots are made.
The snapshots occur:
At the end of the third full week of instruction, for registration and course enrollments
At the November, February, and April payrolls for identifying the pay department instructors
At the October, February, and April payrolls for calculating the number of active ladder-rank faculty FTE
(The last measurement occurs at the Office of the President, using a payroll database that includes retroactive adjustments.)
These records may be supplemented for specific analyses by data from surveys, the campus facilities inventory, or other sources.
AIM Data Clean-up and Allocation
Often AIM needs to transform raw data into more meaningful information by sorting, summarizing, or grouping them using standard procedures, usually referred to as "business rules". The rules are governed by a hierarchy of authorities:
- University agreements with state budgeting agencies
- UC Office of the President internal policies and guidelines
- UCLA policies and guidelines determined through consultation with appropriate units and/or by the Chancellor/EVC's office.
Local reports that are used resource distribution allocate workload to the department responsible for the subject (the "subject department") are governed by simple rules. All enrollments and student credit hours attempted by registered students as of the third week of the term are included. The subject-department relationships are taken directly from the student record system. Similarly, the reports that allocate majors to departments use the official relationships established in the student record system.
The rules that apply to instructional activity accountability reporting are more complex than the rules that apply to reporting total workload for budgeting purposes. In these reports, for example, teaching activity is allocated to the department in which the instructor has a paid teaching appointment: the "pay department". As noted above, the instructional activity reporting rules are governed by several different layers of policy. We expect that some of these policies will change during the next year as the committee that will advise the University on implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Instructional Activity Reporting considers the system's new approach to accountability in this area. At present, AIM is applying the rules described in the final section of this handbook to teaching records when it generates instructional activity reports. As new policies are adopted, we will implement them and amend this handbook accordingly. The task force reports, with its implications for future reporting rules, can be viewed on-line.
The campus summarizes instructional activity for all general campus instruction and reports it to the Office of the President. The Office of the President combines instructional activity for all eight campuses and reports the totals to the legislature. At both levels, workload is reported by:
Course category
Instructor rank
Course level (lower division, upper division, or graduate)
(In prior years, the course categories were "primary" and "independent study". the task force report recommends adopting three categories. There were formerly four instructor rank groups, assigned by title code; it is likely that in future years there will be seven categories.)
For primary classes, the campus and the system report:
Student credit hours
Enrollments, and Number of classes
For independent study classes, the campus and the system UC report:
Student credit hours
Enrollments
Among the information that UC includes in the annual report on instructional activity is the average number of primary courses taught per active "regular rank" (essentially ladder rank) faculty FTE. It is thus critical to understand the rules that govern which courses are included in the numerator, and which faculty members are included in the denominator. They are described in the next section.
POLICIES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL REPORTING (1)
The following policies guide campus reporting on both primary and independent study instructional activity for accountability purposes. The policies are grouped so that they answer the following questions:
What is included in "instructional activity"?
How are classes assigned to instructional categories?
Which instructors, departments, and levels are credited with the instruction?
How are faculty FTE calculated and assigned to rank groups?
What is included in "instructional activity"?
Included Terms: The campus includes eligible courses in the Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters and the Fall and Spring semesters for the School of Law. Teaching credit for courses offered by the School of Law is multiplied by 1.5 when it is combined with quarter data. Included Courses: The campus includes in its report unit-bearing courses offered to state-supported general campus students. These include all general campus courses except those offered primarily to students in self-supporting programs and ROTC courses. The campus has also included undergraduate courses offered in health sciences subjects other than Nursing, because the majority of enrollments are by general campus students.
Finally, because in a handful of cases the report includes the full FTE of faculty members who have only general campus instructional appointment but who also teach health science subjects (often as part of combined classes), the health sciences workload for these individuals will be included in the reports. Note that all state-funded general campus courses are included in the reports as either primary or independent study instruction, including those numbered 199, 596, 597, 598, and 599. Honors Sections: Honors sections are considered part of one combined course. A supplemental meeting for the honors students in the course, unless it carries extra units, is considered a secondary section even if it is conducted by the primary course instructor instead of a teaching assistant. Honors Tutorials: Honors tutorials are classified as independent study for purposes of reporting on instructional activity.
How are classes assigned to instructional categories?
Course Categories: Through 2001-02, AIM used the applicable Office of the President Guidelines to divide courses into the two categories that are reported to the state in the annual instructional activity report. The categories were "primary" and "independent study". AIM classified courses that carried an activity type of "tutorial" in the student record system as independent study courses, and all others as primary courses. The number of students enrolled in the courses was not used to categorize a course. Secondary sections (usually carrying an activity type of "discussion" or "laboratory") were reported to the state as well in a separate category. The Task Force on Instructional Activity Reporting recommended that in future credit-bearing courses be classified as "faculty designed", "faculty directed", or "faculty-guided tutorial" offerings. Definitions for these categories are under discussion.
Which instructors, departments, and levels are credited with the instruction?
The pay department of the course instructor is credited with the instructional activity. The course is assigned to a level based on its number, not the level of the students enrolled in it. This section describes how this general principle is applied in specific situations. Combined courses count as one class offering (including "Cross-listed", "Concurrent", and "Multiple-listed" courses): Two or more courses that meet as one combined class must be counted as one class offering for purposes of reporting the number of classes taught. Guidelines from the Office of the President specify this. Combined courses are identified by matching courses that meet in the same room at the same time in the student record system's course schedule.
While many of the courses include a C (concurrent) or M (multiple-listed) prefix in the catalog, many others do not. The course schedule in the student record system overrides any C or M prefix, or lack of prefix. At present, credit is divided equally among all of the component courses. This means that credit is divided pro rata by level, department, and instructor rank (for team-taught courses). If courses meet together for some sessions and apart for other sessions, they have been treated as two separate courses.
Only meetings that are recorded in the student record system by the end of the academic year can be identified and used by AIM. The credit for teaching combined courses is allocated to the pay department of the instructor(s). So a department does not "lose credit" if one of its instructors teaches a course that is multiple-listed with another department. Credit for the single class offering (the combined meeting of the two courses) and the enrollments and student credit hours in both courses are assigned to the instructor's pay department.
A combined class offering does affect the level of teaching credit, however, if the component courses are at different levels. Currently the 1.0 teaching credit for the combined class offering is divided equally among the levels of its component courses. The enrollments and student credit hours are retained at the level of the component course in which the students are enrolled. This policy is under review. Co- or Team teaching: The instructors' function codes guides the allocation of credit for team teaching. The department scheduling staff assign a function code to each instructor associated with the course in the student record system according to the following guidelines:
POLICIES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL REPORTING (2)
Function 1: Teaching and in charge of the course
Function 2: Teaching but not in charge of the course
Function 3: In charge but not teaching (not in the classroom (often used for instructors who supervise other instructors in lower division foreign language classes)
At present, credit is divided equally among instructors for whom the department has entered a function 1, and sometimes a function 2, in the student record system. For instructors with a function 2 code, the following rules apply.
If there is also at least one function 1 instructor, and the function 2 instructor is a student, all credit is allocated to the function 1 instructor(s).
If the function 2 instructor is not a student, he or she shares credit equally with any function 1 instructor(s). Function 3 instructors receive credit in this context only when the department has not entered a function 1 or function 2 instructor. This is because Office of the President guidelines explicitly state that credit is to be allocated only to the instructor(s) in the classroom, even if supervised (function 3) by a instructor who is not in the classroom. Split appointments: For instructors with two or more paid appointments, the following rules apply:
Courses offered by one of the appointment department are allocated to that department. For example, if an instructor has appointments in both Comparative Literature and Germanic Languages, any Comparative Literature course activity is allocated to the Comparative Literature department and instruction in Afrikaans, Dutch, German, and Old Norse courses is allocated to Germanic Languages.
In 2002-03 and future years, credit for a course offered by a department other than an appointment department will be split between the appointment departments in proportion to the appointments. In past years credit was awarded to one department only.
If one of the appointment departments is a health sciences department, the first rule still applies. The health science subject courses will be allocated to the health sciences appointment department, and excluded from the campus's report, which applies to general campus instruction only. All courses in general campus subjects, including those in subjects such as General Education or Honors, will be allocated to the general campus appointment department.
If one of the appointments is a paid teaching title and one is an academic administrator or other title, all teaching is allocated to the teaching appointment department. If an instructor has one paid and one without-salary appointment, all credit is allocated to the paid appointment department. If an instructor's only appointment is without salary, credit is allocated to the without-salary department.
Health sciences instruction by a general campus instructor.
If an instructor's only paid teaching appointment is in a general campus department, but he or she teaches a health sciences course, the general campus department receives credit for the health sciences instruction so that the instructor's workload can be properly compared to his or her department's teaching policy. This will occur most frequently in multiple-listed courses.
Fiat Lux Courses.
The pay department of the instructor of record in the student record system for a Fiat Lux course is credited with the instructional activity. The course is classified as a primary offering.
Honors tutorials.
The instructor of record in the student record system has been one of the academic coordinators in the Honors Division. Thus credit has flowed to a central Letters and Science "department". In future, honors tutorials will carry the department's subject designation. Now, if the department enters the instructor's name in the student record system, even after the third week of classes, the department will receive credit for the course. The course is classified as independent study.
Law courses.
Teaching credit for law courses is multiplied by 1.5 to adjust semester workload to quarter workload, and allocated to departments by the same rules as all other instruction. The policy regarding the 1.5 multiplier is located in the Office of the President reporting guidelines.
How are faculty FTE calculated and assigned to rank groups?
Instructor Rank Groups.
The campus is required to report instruction by the rank of the instructor. The Office of the President publishes a list of the appointment title codes that belong to each group. In the past, campuses reported general campus workload for four rank groups, as well as total general campus workload. (Total workload was greater than the sum of the workload for the four groups, because it included activity of instructors with title codes not covered by the lists.) However, the rank groups obscured the fact that many of the non-listed title codes applied to instructors who had an active Senate title or were an academic administrator who also held a ladder faculty (without-salary) appointment.
POLICIES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL REPORTING (3)
The system is working on create additional rank groups for lecturers with security of employment, academic administrators, and health sciences faculty. The four existing categories are shown below:
Regular Rank and Similar Titles (Group 1)
Visiting, Adjunct, and Regents Professor (Group 2)
Lecturers & Supervisors of Teacher Education (Group 3)
Emeriti and Recall Faculty (Group 4)
Active Faculty FTE. Among the information that UC includes in the annual report on instructional activity is the average number of primary courses taught per active regular rank (essentially ladder rank) faculty FTE. This equals the total number of primary course teaching credits allocated to all active regular rank (group 1) faculty members, divided by the total active regular rank faculty. Both courses and faculty FTE are restricted to offerings for state-funded general campus students by general campus departments. Active faculty members are defined as individuals "paid in an instruction and research capacity and available to teach". Faculty members on full sabbatical status are excluded. "Active faculty FTE" is the sum of the "percent appointments" in general campus academic departments in the title codes classified as "Regular Rank and Equivalent " (group 1) for active faculty members. These appointments should be coded in the payroll system with a function "40"-state funded instruction and research. Faculty appointments that are coded in the payroll system as "function 44" -sponsored research-are excluded. Fund source for the appointment does not matter, so if faculty members paid from research grants remain in their ladder rank appointment with a standard "function 40" code – instruction and research – their appointment will be included in the campus active FTE calculation.