FARS Quick Start Guide Final - Western Michigan University

1 Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University 09/25/2017 Page 1 of 13 A Quick Start Guide to Faculty Activity Reporting System Contents 1. What is Faculty Activity Reporting System?.. 22. fars features .. 23. How to log into WMU Faculty Activity Reporting System ( fars ) .. 34. Dashboard functions .. 45. How to edit or add information in the Profile section .. 56. How to edit or add information in the Activities section .. 77. How to complete a Faculty Professional Activities Report .. 10 Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University 09/25/2017 Page 2 of 13 1. What is Faculty Activity Reporting System? The Faculty Activity Reporting System is a powerful vita oriented database.

2 Like many of our peer institutions, Western Michigan University is implementing Faculty180 from Interfolio, a software system designed to enable faculty to organize, manage, and report on their annual professional activities as well as to manage their curriculum vitae (CV) and biographies in multiple forms. WMU fars provides a wide range of benefits to faculty and staff by creating an online storehouse for data of faculty achievements. As such, this will save time as it makes faculty data available for accreditation reports, program reviews, and other purposes. Relatedly, faculty can use this information to generate curriculum vitae (CVs) and biographies in multiple formats. For more information about fars , please follow the link: 2.

3 fars features fars is a system that contains six sections: Dashboard, Profile, Activities, Evaluations, Forms & Reports, and Vitas & Biosketches. Dashboard posts all the links to the other sections. It includes extra links for To Do list, Announcement, and tutorial Videos. The To Do list may post a link to a Faculty Professional Activities Report. Profile contains personal information and information about your education, employment, professional membership, and other. Activities section contains information related to your professorship, which includes courses taught, course development activities, committees, professional recognition (faculty publications), research, services, and other. The information in this section ( Courses, Course Development Activities, etc) is retrieved to generate a Faculty Professional Activities Report (PAR).

4 When faculty make changes to their PAR, the information will be stored in the Activities section as well. Forms & Reports section consists of forms and reporting features. Reporting features allow faculty to create a report about their teaching activities ( My Activities Reports). Vitas & Biosketches: This section allows faculty to generate and print a curriculum vitae in a variety of formats with the information they have entered into their Profile and Activities sections. Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University 09/25/2017 Page 3 of 13 3. How to log into Faculty Activity Reporting System ( fars ) 1. Navigate to GoWMU login page and sign in with your Bronco NetID and password. 2. Once you are signed in, click on the arrow sign for All LINKS under My Work to expand/collapse the menu items.

5 Then, click on Faculty Activity Reporting System. 3. After you click on the link, the system will bring you to the Faculty Activity Reporting System homepage as shown in the picture below. Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University 09/25/2017 Page 4 of 13 4. Dashboard Functions The Dashboard is a useful place as it can show you many items at a glance. It contains links to your To Do list items and their due dates. It also presents Quick links to other areas such as the Profile, Activities, Evaluations, and Vitas & Biosketches. Additionally, you can find tutorial videos on your Dashboard page. Important Note: To access your 2016 17 PAR, navigate to the Dashboard and click on the Faculty Professional Activities Report 2016 17 link in the To Do list.

6 Some of the functionalities ( , Submit for Review ) are not available elsewhere. Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University 09/25/2017 Page 5 of 13 5. How to edit or add information in the Profile section Click on Profile in the left menu. Alternatively, click on the Update Profile Form reminder that will appear in the Dashboard. The Profile contains various biographical information for faculty to fill. The Personal Information, Contact Information, and Current Position sections are automatically uploaded from PeopleSoft. The Interests and Biography sections provide faculty the opportunity to describe themselves and their work in their own words. The Degrees, Professional Licensures & Certifications, Awards and Honors, Outside Employment /consultation, Membership and Graduate Faculty Status sections contain important information about a faculty member s credentials and professional recognition.

7 To add new information to a section, click on the items under your Profile, followed by clicking the corresponding Add button. Click the Add button to enter your information. Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University 09/25/2017 Page 6 of 13 Each data entry section looks very similar. Once you are finished with this section, Click on the Save and Add Another or Save and Go Back buttons found at the bottom of the page. Note: Fields with an * next to the name are required to be completed in order to save the form. To Edit an existing degree or other information, click on the pencil shaped icon next to added degree or other information. Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University 09/25/2017 Page 7 of 13 6.

8 How to edit or add information in the Activities section The Activities section contains information about faculty professional activities. Activities are grouped into different categories as seen in the picture below. Some information under different categories in the Activities section is retrieved by the system to generate a Faculty Professional Activities Report for an academic year. Thus, the report only contains available information entered by you or pre uploaded by the system. This means that faculty members need to enter more information to generate a complete report on their professional activities. The information entered in the report ( Faculty Professional Activities Report 2016 17 ) will feed into the corresponding categories in the Activities section.

9 Any section that does not apply to you or your department may be ignored and left blank. In order to add information to each item shown in the picture above, you can click on Dashboard . Under the To Do list, click on Faculty Professional Activities Report 2016 17 . Then, a page containing all items will appear. You can scroll down to see the items you wish to add or make change. Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University 09/25/2017 Page 8 of 13 To add or edit a course taught: please navigate to or click 7. How to complete a Faculty Professional Activities Report. Please note that only by accessing the report link under the To Do list in the Dashboard tab does the system allow you to submit the report and edit courses.

10 Editing or adding information to Course Development Activities These activities refer to the courses you have developed or redesigned, pedagogy, or innovations in instruction you have contributed. This may be in the areas of academic, clinical, creative/artistic, or research teaching. It may include emerging pedagogy or technologies, experiential learning, lifelong learning, applied learning, online learning, or other experiences. On the Faculty Professional Activities Report 2016 17, scroll down to Course Development Activities . click Add . An input form will appear. Please enter information to all the fields. When you are finished, you can attach a file. Please see Illustration 1. Office of Institutional Research, Western Michigan University09/25/2017 Page 9 of 13 Illustration 1: Adding an attachment Adding an attachment: First, you need to click Choose File in order to select an attachment file on your computer.