Online Faculty Information System (OFIS)
Faculty User Guide
Why OFIS? CMU uses an Online Faculty Information System (OFIS) to record information regarding teaching, creative and scholarly activity, and service. Having these data for all faculty in one place, in the same format greatly facilitates reporting for department and college annual reports, as well as specialized and regional accreditation. We hope departments and colleges will take advantage of this resource and incorporate the OFIS material and links into their web sites. What is OFIS? OFIS is a secured database populated with useful faculty data. Using information entered from your curriculum vitae (CV), OFIS is able to generate detailed reports useful for many purposes including internal and external grant applications, annual reports for submission to your college dean, and vitae in a variety of formats. Once your CV is entered into the system, the procedure for creating reports is simple: log on, enter your data, select the report you need from a dropdown menu, then save and/or print it. You will quickly discover the value of a system that requires your CV data to be entered only one time to meet a multitude of needs. Due to the high volume of data, the OFIS database is maintained by a third party, Digital Measures. Advantages The Online Faculty Information System provides CMU with an array of reports generated to serve many administrative and personal purposes. Most users will quickly discover the value of a system that reduces time spent creating vita, grant proposals, annual reports, and other records of your scholarly accomplishments. In addition these reports can be modified after printing to meet the user’s needs. This tool has the ability to produce individual faculty‐level, department‐level, college‐level, or institution‐level reports in a matter of seconds, based entirely on the user’s preferences. You will only need to input your data once rather than reformatting and submitting your data multiple times. It is important to review and update your data each semester. The procedure for creating reports is simple: log on, enter data, and generate reports. Custom reports can be developed in the system. You will notice that reports have already been created that are specific to CMU. In addition, reports can designate a specific time period (e.g., the last five years). These directions emphasize the very minimum data all faculty, both regular and fixed‐term, and teaching staff should enter into OFIS. However, OFIS will be most useful if you enter your entire vitae. The university uses these data for accreditation, program review, and annual reports. Therefore, please enter the following information for all data January 1, 2005 to the present.Enter your global ID and your OFIS password which is different from your CMU password. If it is your first time you log in, click here to request your OFIS password To enter data, click Manage Your Activities. The video and guidebook links are very helpful if you would like additional assistance. Note: You do not have access to modify one or more fields in these screens. They are automatically uploaded from SAP. If there are errors, contact Ahmed El Gammal ([email protected], 774‐1007) O h i k h
General Information You don’t have access to edit some fields (i.e. your first name and last name) but you can make changes to others with text boxes such as preferred first name, e‐mail address, and building where your office is located. This section is uploaded from SAP at the beginning of every semester. You can add, edit, copy, and delete your employment history.
Enter awards and honors (Don’t include grants or promotions). The fields with * are required and others are optional. Enter Consulting activities – These are activities for which you were paid. Unpaid consulting is considered service and belongs in another section.
Your education is updated at the beginning of every semester from SAP. You can edit, update, or add a new entry in this section. To add a new entry you must enter degree, institution, and year awarded. Other information is optional, but is usually helpful. Add professional development activities including workshops or training sessions. Do not add conferences where you presented or workshops where you were the instructor.
Optional, however many accrediting bodies are interested in this information, even if the licensure is expired (for example teaching certification). Include the license or certification number if you have it. Optional. Add a television or radio interview of you. You can include a brief Description of the topic or occasion. Optional but often part of tenure and promotion documents as well as consideration for other professional opportunities.
Teaching Optional. Include only general academic advising (sociology majors, pre‐PA, anthropology A‐J), ) not an individual student as part of an independent study or thesis. Required and reported annually by department. This includes the direction of student research, honors and thesis projects, masters and doctoral committees. This directed student learning is usually not part of a class but may include credit “X97”. It is often outside of load. Most of this is completed for you when uploaded from SAP (marked with an R). You may add special pedagogical innovations, materials that were developed, or special activities to enhance student learning. These additional explanations may be important for tenure, promotion or consideration for teaching awards.
Optional. This is seldom used. Usually this activity would be considered service if unpaid or consulting if paid. Optional. Seldom used.
Scholarly and Creative Activity This is a required entry. There are several types of scholarly and creative activity. Decide where your activities best fit and complete only those areas. You are only required to enter the type of work. Be sure to view all options in the drop down Menu and choose that which most closely matches your entry. Include also the title, whether it was a refereed or juried work, and the date. All other information is optional. Much of the additional information usually appears on vitae and is helpful for tenure and promotion decisions. If any students were coauthors be sure to include their name as well as choosing their status as student from the drop down menu. This information is very important when CMU reports student creative endeavors. Complete this information as on the other screens. Know that ORSP does not keep a record of internal grants so this record is important. Identify any student coauthors.
Presentation data are similar to the intellectual contributions information. Make sure that entries are complete and that co‐authors who are students are identified. This is not a required screen but it is important for those who want to show sustained research productivity or promise.
Service
Thank you for the time it has taken you to enter your information. If you need any further assistance with OFIS, please contact Ahmed Elgammal by email [email protected] or by phone 989‐774‐1007.
Service is required of all faculty. This is an important entry. Do not include any paid service external to CMU – paid service is consulting. Put your service entry in only one place. Enter the committee name, your role, a brief description of your participation on the committee, and the accomplishments of that committee. This explanation is required for all tenure and reappointment documents.
