Source: VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE submitted to
FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION INFORMATION SYSTEM (FAEIS) - FY 2013
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1000370
Grant No.
2013-70003-20971
Project No.
VA-MARCHANT
Proposal No.
2013-05251
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
FF-L
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2013
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2015
Grant Year
2013
Project Director
Ziegler, P.
Recipient Organization
VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
(N/A)
BLACKSBURG,VA 24061
Performing Department
Ag and Applied Economics
Non Technical Summary
Rationale: The Food and Agricultural Education Information System (FAEIS; http://faies.usda.gov) is one of the few sources of up-to-date, national higher education data focused on agriculture and agriculture related programs. FAEIS is a critical resource for higher education administrators, government officials, faculty, and the USDA to conduct benchmarking/peer analysis, strategic planning, and other efforts to support higher education in the food, human, agricultural, and natural resource sciences. Purpose: FAEIS has been in existence for 30 years, first, as a paper-based system beginning in 1983 at Texas A&M, and currently as a web-based system upon Virginia Tech's award of the FAEIS contract in 2002. The primary goal of FAEIS is to continue to maintain a national repository of higher education data from nearly 200 higher education institutions with departments and colleges focused on agriculture and related sciences. These data include student enrollment, degrees awarded, placement, and faculty counts and salaries. FAEIS data are unique, being disaggregated by gender, ethnicity and major-- Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP codes). In addition, the FAEIS team strives to make this national repository accessible and relevant to the general public, academic deans, USDA-NIFA, and stakeholder organizations. Audience: FAEIS offers an accessible resource of educational data for users which include higher education administrators, government officials, faculty, industry professionals, and the general public to strengthen higher education programs. FAEIS can assist users in examining student enrollment trends, degrees awarded, emerging disciplines, student placement, institutional comparisons and faculty salaries. Methods: Higher education data are collected through online surveys which are completed by staff and faculty at higher education institutions at the department, college, and institutional levels. These data are verified by the FAEIS team to ensure accurate and consistent data has been entered into the FAEIS database. The FAEIS Help Desk team works with higher education staff and faculty to enter in data and fill in missing data. Outcomes/Impacts: Major impacts include widespread use of the FAEIS website. From January 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013, the FAEIS public website received 171,696 page hits from 21,737 unique visitors. The FAEIS team continues to make data quality a top priority. Building upon past immense efforts to verify and validate FAEIS data for the years 2004-2010 for 77 Land-Grant institutions, involving over 230,000 data points, we have enacted a data quality verification protocol. Data verification is complete for FAEIS student surveys from Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture. Participation is close to 100% for the years 2004-2011. The 2012 FAEIS student survey database is 100% complete for 1862 & 1890 Land-Grant institutions. The FAEIS website has been redesigned to increase usability and ease of access by FAEIS users. In addition, FAEIS team members made presentations to our funding sponsor, USDA-NIFA, and at annual conferences of our partnering organizations. Other major impacts of the project include a resolution in support for FAEIS, passed in 2011 by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities - Academic Programs Section (APLU-APS) and adopted by the Board on Agriculture. (See page 5 of the following website: http://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=3568) In addition, at the 2011 Statistics Expert Panel program review of FAEIS, closing comments to the FAEIS team deemed FAEIS as "unique, reliable and important."
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
90360993020100%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
GOAL: The primary goal of The Food and Agricultural Education Information System (FAEIS; http://faies.usda.gov) is to continue to maintain a national repository for higher education data on student enrollment, degrees awarded, placement, and faculty numbers and salaries.These data--disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, and major (Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP codes))--are collected from nearly 200 higher education institutions with departments and colleges focused on agriculture and related sciences. In addition, the FAEIS team strives to make this national repository accessible and relevant to the general public, academic deans, USDA-NIFA, and stakeholder organizations. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES 1: The FAEIS team will continue to ensure data accuracy using existing data verification and validation processes. 2: The FAEIS team will continue to work closely with stakeholder organizations to ensure their participation in FAEIS. 3: The FAEIS team will continue to facilitate public access of the data through the FAEIS website. 4: The FAEIS Help Desk team will continue to create customized reports for the general public, stakeholder organizations, academic deans, and USDA-NIFA. 5: The FAEIS team will continue to engage in outreach activities, including dissemination of newsletters to over 1,700 users and attending stakeholder conferences and annual meetings.
Project Methods
FAEIS data on student enrollment, degrees awarded, placement, and faculty numbers and salaries are disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, and major and collected from nearly 200 higher education institutions focused on agriculture and related sciences. Data are collected through online surveys which are completed by staff and faculty at higher education institutions at the department, college, and institutional levels. These data are verified by the FAEIS team to ensure accurate and consistent data has been entered into the FAEIS database. The FAEIS Help Desk team works with staff and faculty to enter in data and fill in missing data. To ensure data quality, the FAEIS team has enacted a data quality verification protocol. The purpose of the protocol is to evaluate the accuracy of the FAEIS data and work with participating higher education institutions to correct any inconsistent data. Data verification of the FAEIS student surveys from Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture is complete for the years 2004-2011. The expected completion for the 2012 student surveys is 100%. In addition to maintaining the database, the FAEIS team also analyzes FAEIS data to generate trend analysis reports,distributed to stakeholders through bi-monthly newsletters on relevant topics to stakeholders. (Note: Links to all FAEIS Newsletters are on the FAEIS website at http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/index.shtml). The FAEIS team also disseminates findings at stakeholder organizations conferences and academic conferences. A review of our methods and the entire FAEIS project was conducted in 2011 by an external review panel, consisting of members from Georgetown University, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), North Carolina State, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and the U.S. Department of Education. In their closing comments to the FAEIS team, this paneldeemed FAEIS "unique, reliable and important."

Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/15

Outputs
Target Audience:The FAEIS database can assist users in examining student enrollment trends, degrees awarded, emerging disciplines, student placement, institutional comparisons, as well as faculty numbers and salaries--disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, major (CIP Code) and faculty rank. FAEIS offers an accessible resource of educational data for users which include higher education administrators, government officials, faculty, industry professionals, and the general public to strengthen higher education programs. Higher education administrators use FAEIS data for recruiting students and faculty, strategic planning, and benchmarking comparisons. Federal agencies use FAEIS data to support higher education and corresponding grant programs. Faculty use FAEIS data for scholarly research and grant proposals. The general public uses FAEIS data to explore topics in higher education. Changes/Problems:There were major changes in personell in the later part of the project. Bill Richardson passed away from cancer in September 2014 and after eight years of serving as FAEIS Project Director, Dr. Mary Marchant has asked to transition off the project due to health concerns. Dr. Peter Ziegler has taken over as principal investigator on the project in January of 2015 and Andrew Meeks was hired May 2015 to replace Bill Richardson as a programer. The two are familiarizing themselves with the daily operations of the program, reconnecting with FAEIS stakeholders and working to make improvements to the overall FAEIS system. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training opportunities were provided through presentations and publications identified under accomplishments. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?General FAEIS presentations were made at the following stakeholder conferences: • Non-land-grant Agricultural and Renewable Resources Universities (NARRU) • Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities - Academic Programs Section (APLU-APS) • North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) FAEIS Newsletters: From September 2013 to August 2014, the FAEIS team published four newsletters distributed to over 1800 FAEIS users, including 200 recipients in USDA-NIFA. The FAEIS newsletters focused on issues involving graduate degrees awarded in agriculture, minority student undergraduate enrollment, enrollment trends from 2005-2012, as well as associate degrees. Newsletters were redesigned to become more graphically dynamic. See the Products section for a listing of FAEIS Newsletters. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For 2014-15, the FAEIS team will continue to improve data reliability and validity by building upon existing data quality procedures. The FAEIS team will continue to participate in stakeholder conferences, annual meetings, and other workshops to promote FAEIS use and participation. The 2014-2015 FAEIS grant proposal advances the previous work of FAEIS over the past decade at Virginia Tech and takes the project to new levels.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? As described in the non-technical summary, the Food and Agricultural Education Information System (FAEIS) team continues to make data quality a top priority. Building upon past efforts to verify and validate historic FAEIS data, we enacted a data quality verification protocol. Participation is close to 100% for the years 2004-2012 for 1862 & 1890 Land-Grant institutions. Additionally, we initiated a redesigned to increase usability and ease of access by FAEIS users. For this reporting perIod, FAEIS Team members made presentations at annual conferences of our partner organizations including the Association of Public and Land-Grant-Academic Programs Section Universities (APLU-APS); Non-land-grant Agriculture and Renewable Resources Universities (NARRU, formerly AASCARR) and the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) 2013 meeting, as well as published an article in the 2014 NACTA Journal. The FAEIS team continues to respond to requests for customized reports via the Help Desk as well as dissemination of our FAEIS Newsletters (see below). Additionally, FAEIS data have been widely accessed through the public FAEIS web site (http://faeis.usda.gov) as indicated by the 12,594 unique visitors and the 86,793 page hits for calendar year 2013. Other major impacts of the project include a resolution in support for FAEIS, passed in 2011 by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities - Academic Programs Section (APLU-APS) and adopted by the Board on Agriculture. In addition, at the 2011 Statistics Expert Panel program review of FAEIS, closing comments to the FAEIS team deemed FAEIS as "unique, reliable and important."

Publications


    Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14

    Outputs
    Target Audience: The FAEIS database can assist users in examining student enrollment trends, degrees awarded, emerging disciplines, student placement, institutional comparisons, as well as faculty numbers and salaries—disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, major (CIP Code) and faculty rank. FAEIS offers an accessible resource of educational data for users which include higher education administrators, government officials, faculty, industry professionals, and the general public to strengthen higher education programs. Higher education administrators use FAEIS data for recruiting students and faculty, strategic planning, and benchmarking comparisons. Federal agencies use FAEIS data to support higher education and corresponding grant programs. Faculty use FAEIS data for scholarly research and grant proposals. The general public uses FAEIS data to explore topics in higher education. Changes/Problems: Although this may not affect project results, two major changes are taking place: 1. Bill Richardson passed away. We posted the following on the FAEIS website: "Dear Friends of FAEIS: As many of you may know, FAEIS Program Manager Bill Richardson had been struggling with cancer over recent months. Up until the end, Bill had every intention of returning to work on FAEIS. Unfortunately, he lost this struggle in mid-September. His final days were spent surrounded by friends and fellow musicians. The Roanoke Times documented this outpouring of love on its cover on Friday, September 12, 2014. (On web: http://www.roanoke.com/news/local/blacksburg/musicians-say-goodbye-to-bill-richardson-with-sick-no-more/article_bd96162b-19c2-5794-aef3-1d666a81fe8a.html?mode=story ) Bill impacted our lives and will be missed. In the interim, our extremely talented student workers continue FAEIS’ day-to-day operations, including responding to FAEIS helpdesk requests: faeis@vt.edu. Thank you for your support." 2. After eight years of serving as FAEIS Project Director, Dr. Mary Marchant has asked to transition off the project due to health concerns. Dr. Susan Sumner has graciously agreed to continue leadership of this important project. The two are working together for a smooth transition. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Training opportunities are provided upon presentations and publications identified under accomplishments. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? General FAEIS presentations were made at the following stakeholder conferences: • Non-land-grant Agricultural and Renewable Resources Universities (NARRU) • Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities - Academic Programs Section (APLU-APS) • North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) FAEIS Newsletters: From September 2013 to August 2014, the FAEIS team published four newsletters distributed to over 1800 FAEIS users, including 200 recipients in USDA-NIFA. The FAEIS newsletters focused on issues involving graduate degrees awarded in agriculture, minority student undergraduate enrollment, enrollment trends from 2005-2012, as well as associate degrees. Newsletters were redesigned to become more graphically dynamic. See the Products section for a listing of FAEIS Newsletters. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? For 2014-15, the FAEIS team will continue to improve data reliability and validity by building upon existing data quality procedures. The FAEIS team will continue to participate in stakeholder conferences, annual meetings, and other workshops to promote FAEIS use and participation. The 2014-2015 FAEIS grant proposal advances the previous work of FAEIS over the past decade at Virginia Tech and takes the project to new levels.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? As described in the non-technical summary, the Food and Agricultural Education Information System (FAEIS) team continues to make data quality a top priority. Building upon past efforts to verify and validate historic FAEIS data, we enacted a data quality verification protocol. Participation is close to 100% for the years 2004-2012 for 1862 & 1890 Land-Grant institutions. Additionally, the FAEIS website has been redesigned to increase usability and ease of access by FAEIS users. For this reporting perIod, FAEIS Team members made presentations at annual conferences of our partner organizations including the Association of Public and Land-Grant–Academic Programs Section Universities (APLU-APS); Non-land-grant Agriculture and Renewable Resources Universities (NARRU, formerly AASCARR) and the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) 2013 meeting, as well as published an article in the 2014 NACTA Journal. The FAEIS team continues to respond to requests for customized reports via the Help Desk as well as dissemination of our FAEIS Newsletters (see below). Additionally, FAEIS data have been widely accessed through the public FAEIS web site (http://faeis.usda.gov) as indicated by the 12,594 unique visitors and the 86,793 page hits for calendar year 2013. Other major impacts of the project include a resolution in support for FAEIS, passed in 2011 by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities - Academic Programs Section (APLU-APS) and adopted by the Board on Agriculture. In addition, at the 2011 Statistics Expert Panel program review of FAEIS, closing comments to the FAEIS team deemed FAEIS as "unique, reliable and important."

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Anupa Sharma, Mary A. Marchant, Eric A. Vance, Eric P. Smith, William W. Richardson and Lisa S. Hightower. "National Survey of Study Abroad Programs Conducted in Asia Using the Food and Agriculture Education Information System (FAEIS) Database." North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Journal, 58:2(June 2014)140-147. On web: http://www.nactateachers.org/journal.html
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Sharma, Anupa, Chaoping Xie, Mary A. Marchant, Eric A. Vance, Eric P. Smith, William W. Richardson and Lisa S. Hightower. The Scholarship of Study Abroad Programs: Engaging Students Through International Experiences. Deans Forum on Global Engagement-Abstract Book, page 36. On web: http://www.eng.vt.edu/sites/default/files/DFGE%20Poster%20Abstract%20Book.pdf and poster book: https://www.eng.vt.edu/sites/default/files/pageattachments/thescholarshipofstudyabroadprogramsengagingstudentsthroughinternationalexperiences.pdf
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Sharma, Anupa, Mary A. Marchant, William W. Richardson, Eric P. Smith, Eric A. Vance, Chaoping Xie, Kelly Izlar and Lisa S. Hightower. Baccalaureate Enrollment for Minority Students in Agriculture and Life Sciences Programs using the Food and Agricultural Education Information System (FAEIS) Database in the Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy. VT Center for Instructional Development and Education Research (CIDER). Blacksburg, VA. February 5-7, 2014, page 214. On web at http://www.cider.vt.edu/conference/proceedings/2014ConferenceProceedings.pdf
    • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: "Minority Undergraduate Student Enrollment," FAEIS Newsletter. K. Malec, C. Xie, M.A. Marchant, W.W. Richardson, E. Vance, and E. Smith, May 22, 2013. http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/may_14/newsletter_may14.html Note: Newsletters are distributed to over 1,800 national leaders in agriculture through our FAEIS List-serv. Additionally, all FAEIS Newsletter are on the FAEIS website at http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/index.shtml
    • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: "Graduate Degrees in Agriculture FAEIS Newsletter, Mary A. Marchant, William W. Richardson, Teneisha Hodge-Wilson and Demontre Purvis. Summer 2014. On web: http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/2014_summer/2014_summer_newsletter.pdf Note: Newsletters are distributed to over 1,800 national leaders in agriculture through our FAEIS List-serv. Additionally, all FAEIS Newsletter are on the FAEIS website at http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/index.shtml
    • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: "Graduate Degrees in Agriculture and Natural Resources at 72 Land Grant Institutions," The FAEIS Team: Teneisha Hodge-Wilson, Demontre Purvis, Dr. Mary A. Marchant, Claire Kelling, Ho Renee Cho, Kyle Malec, Dr. Eric Smith, Dr. Eric Vance. Poster accepted for presentation at the 2015 Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy-Center for Instructional Development and Education Research (CIDER). Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. February 4-6, 2015.
    • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: FAEIS Enrollment Update 2005-2012, FAEIS Newsletter. K. Izlar, M.A. Marchant, W.W. Richardson, E. Vance, and E. Smith. November 7, 2013. On web: http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/november_13/newsletter_nov13.html Note: Newsletters are distributed to over 1,800 national leaders in agriculture through our FAEIS List-serv. Additionally, all FAEIS Newsletter are on the FAEIS website at http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/index.shtml
    • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: National trends for associate degrees in agriculture, FAEIS Newsletter. K. Izlar, M.A. Marchant, W.W. Richardson, E. Vance, and E. Smith. October 16, 2013. On web: http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/october_13/newsletter_oct13.html Note: Newsletters are distributed to over 1,800 national leaders in agriculture through our FAEIS List-serv. Additionally, all FAEIS Newsletter are on the FAEIS website at http://www.faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/newsletter/index.shtml