This is of immediate interest to the non-tenured faculty members and should be a major consideration of the senior faculty. Senior faculty, more than anyone else, determine which of the junior faculty will be tenured. Those selected will advance and preserve the integrity of our disciplines in the future, so senior faculty have a vested interest in who is rewarded. Conscientious preparation of presentation material takes enormous amounts of time and when one adds in learning a computer language and utilizing computer technology, the time becomes extremely long. If one is in an education department, most would not argue that the pioneering of new learning techniques and applications should be rewarded, but what about those in other disciplines.
Further discussion is needed.
Some thought should now be given to the promotion documents that currently exist within our respective institutions. Recently, the faculty of the medical school at Buffalo rewrote the guidelines for appointment and promotion. The source of the publication, citation and reputation in the field are to be used as indicators of the quality, impact and relevance of the programs. Although these guidelines are awaiting final approval, they stand as testimony to the fact that medical educators are quite willing to accept a broader definition of scholarship. It is my belief that if other institutions would take a consensus of their faculty, they would find that most are willing to expand the definition of scholarship.