Professional Development Program for Postdoctoral Researchers

1. Professional Development Program for Postdoctoral Researchers Bob Webb TAMU-CIRTL Program Update October 21, 2010

2. Campus and Network Partners TAMU - CIRTL Office of Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies (RGS) Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Graduate Teaching Academy (GTA) Texas A&M Career Center Collaborations with individuals and campus resources as needed The CIRTL Network

3. The Need: Approached from two directions Federal requirements. NSF requirements NIH requirements What do post docs want? A survey of potential participants

4. Program Components(based on our local needs analysis last Spring.) • Work/life balance • Postdoc needs • Leadership/motivation • Interview questions/salary negotiation • Establish project plan, schedule, budget • NSF/NIH requirements • Intellectual property rights, patent law, professional ethics • Teaching philosophy/syllabus/portfolio

5. Program Outcomes

6. Spring 2010 Program Highlights • Carried out a post doctoral census and established a listserv for the group. (Initially we had about 20+ post docs signed up for this listserv.) • Used these listserv members as the core group to do a local “needs analysis”. • Coordinated/facilitated the first 6 workshop events for the group. (Typical attendance at these events was between 10 and 20 participants.) • Surveyed the participants to assess their satisfaction an get feedback on the first round of workshops.

7. Findings Many interesting themes emerged from the analysis of data on how post doctoral researchers (post docs) perceived the importance of professional development and assessment of the program offered in Spring 2010. The interviews were analyzed to determine common themes and specific recommendations arising out of the descriptions of the postdoctoral researchers. The post docs description of their experience with the program can be classified in the following themes areas: • Useful Information • Enjoyable Experience • Growth and Development Opportunity • Exposure to new information and ideas • Creation of a “safe” environment

8. Fall program update (plans for improvement) • Work to expand the post doc listserv to reach a wider audience. (Currently we have 80+ members of the listserv and between 30-40 attended our first meeting.) • Host workshops on the remaining topics noted in the needs assessment. • How to write a Research Statement • Industry vs. Academic jobs • Orientation/ learning community for postdoctoral researchers • Writing center workshop • Grant writing • Networking skills for postdoctoral researchers

9. Demographics (Fall 2010) Based on 24 responses

10. Schedule(Fall 2010)

11. Tentative Schedule(Spring 2011)

12. Summary TAMU is offering a post-doctoral professional development program to help address federal requirements on post doctoral mentoring and training while infusing these elements with the CIRTL program. This is a continuation of the work begun last spring and we will be tweaking the offering of workshop topics to meet the needs of the current participants. We have set up a list-serve in order to keep everyone informed about the latest offerings and we also have a Facebook group set up to do the same. Lastly, we will be asking for the help of the participants in selecting the topics that they would like to see presented in future workshops.