Sources of information on the topic of academic planning are presented. (Author/MLW)

In designing an institutional advancement survey, it is thought that the researcher must have a clear conception of the survey's purpose. The relationship of research to theory, the nature of the survey, data collection, and analysis and interpretation are discussed. (Author/MLW)

Examines the effects of a technology's implementation characteristics (its transferability, organizational complexity, and divisibility) on tactics managers use to implement an innovation, such as: involving users, managing sponsorship, and managing organizational change in concert with technical change. (SR)

Demands from state level agencies for greater accountability, less academic program duplication, and greater cost containment have pushed U.S. colleges toward greater seriousness, and more competence, in planning. A prominent factor in greater effectiveness in planning models is integrally relating planning, management, and evaluation. (MLW)

Policy analysis is a two-stage process of (1) diagnosing the problem and (2) unraveling the parts in it played by the policy issue, environment, factors affecting implementation, and proposed alternatives. In higher education, this requires a thorough understanding of the unique higher education environment. (MSE)

The Ethical Analysis Protocol is a set of questions on treatment of participants, research practices, and sociopolitical dimensions of research that can be used to elicit information about ethical assumptions, constraints, and implications of institutional research studies. They provide a framework for ethical analysis of an institutional research…

Reports results of surveys and interviews with managers of technical publication departments regarding their financial responsibilities. (SR)

Examines the skills and research tools necessary for the student affairs researcher to become an agent for organizational learning within the student affairs division and the institution. Draws upon Peter Senge's theory of "The Learning Organization" and discusses the resulting implications for student affairs researchers. (GCP)

Reviews programs such as the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and literature on the scholarship of teaching at the higher education level. Suggests that the scholarship of teaching is not synonymous with excellent teaching, but requires faculty to "go meta," to systematically investigate questions of student learning.…

Presents the elements, components, and processes involved in setting and maintaining Web portals. Uses Santa Barbara City College as a case study of a portal implementation with the purpose of supporting knowledge management; underscores the role played and benefits gained by institutional research and the college as a result. (EV)

Reports on national surveys of members of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) to identify characteristics of institutional researchers in terms of three questions: (1) "Who are we?"; (2) "Where do we work?"; and (3) "What do we do?" Includes tables listing AIR members' election of topics of high…

Knowledge management is defined and compared to information management and the institutional research function. In order to promote learning, new tools such as learning histories are needed, mistakes must be valued, and dissatisfaction recognized as part of the learning process.