Comparisons of Instructional Activity at UW-Madison and Peer Universities

UW-Madison participates in an annual national study of instructional activity, which gives us access to peer comparison information.
This study provides comparisons at the department level only.

Several reports are available to UW-Madison faculty and staff. They are password protected, and can be accessed by logging in with your NetID and password.

Reports
- Collection template with sample department information.
- Current year and three-year summary for include credit-generating departments (2009-10 Data): MS-Excel file, pdf file.
- Graphs of 3-year summary (2008-10): pdf file.
- Graphs of 3-year summary (2008-10), only units with greater than 25% undergraduate credits: pdf file
- Current year peer comparisons (2008-09 data, new data is generally available by the beginning of the academic year): MS-Excel file, pdf file.

Delaware Study
The National Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity, commonly known as the Delaware Study, is housed at the University of Delaware. It is the only national benchmarking tool designed for comparison of instructional activity at the disciplinary/department level. The Delaware Study makes possible comparisons of instructional activity indicators among corresponding departments at a peer institutions and among related departments at the same institution.

Data Sources
Data is provided by participating institutions using very specific methodology dictated by the Delaware Study to enable comparisons
across institutions. Information from all participating universities is compiled and edited by the Delaware Study. Peer data is made
available to participating institutions. Participating institutions can create peer groups based on many variables and then compare
their instructional activity to peer institutions.

Methodology
The Delaware Study uses a “credits follow the instructor” methodology, in which payroll activity is aligned with credit hours and
sections. Departments correspond to UW-Madison's administrative units (UDDS-based). Departments are included if they payroll instructors who teach timetabled courses and thereby generate credits. Variables that are tabulated for each department include:
- the number of credits (fall term and annual),
- the number and type of sections (lab, discussion, lecture),
- the number and type of instructional staff (faculty, academic staff, graduate assistants), and
- annual expenditures by category (instruction, research, public service).
These variables may be used to create analytic variables such as sections per instructor, expenditures per credit generated, and
credits per instructor. These analytic variables can then be compared to the same variables at peer institutions.

Important Caveats and Limitations.

  1. The Delaware Study only measures instructional activity. Instructional variables are aligned with instructional expenditures.
  2. Certain departments are excluded: departments in medical schools, interdisciplinary departments, departments that have no instructional activity and departments that do not payroll instructors.
  3. The Delaware Study does not include instructional activity and expenditures that occur outside of academic departments. Therefore, we cannot “roll up” the activity to the school/college or university level.
  4. Peer comparison information is only available for universities that choose to participate. Participation is voluntary, requires payment of a nominal fee, and demands considerable preparation time. Participating universities may submit data for all departments or for a sub-set of their departments. The peer group for each UW-Madison department often differs from year to year, depending on which universities participate in the Delaware Study.

Analytic Products and Reports

  1. By-department information is submitted to the Delaware Study using a standard collection template (MS-Excel spreadsheet) that offers a visual overview of all of the data collected for a given department as well as many calculated ratios. These collection templates for specific departments are available on request. See Sample Collection Template.
  1. A current year summary and three-year history for comparison of instructional activity for each UW-Madison department submitted for the Delaware Study: MS-Excel file, pdf file.
  1. APA prepares an annual peer comparison report. This report includes the same instructional activity metrics shown in the internal report, along with peer data when available. Peer comparisons: MS-Excel file, pdf file.
    Criteria for making peer comparisons are:
    1. The peers reported are other major research universities. They are all public AAU institutions.
    2. Peers must have a department that corresponds to the UW-Madison department as indicated by a corresponding CIP code. (In the Delaware Study, each department is assigned a federal CIP (Classification of Instructional Program) code based on the disciplinary work and the CIP code of the degree programs housed in the department.)
    3. Peers must have academic programs at the same level(s) as the UW-Madison departments. For example, if UW-Madison department offers only graduate degree programs, then the peer group is comprised of institutions that also only offer graduate degree programs.
    4. Institutions in the AAU peer group that participated in the most recent report year:
      Ohio State University
      SUNY - University at Buffalo
      University of Arizona
      University of Colorado - Boulder
      University of Kansas
      University of Missouri - Columbia
      University of Nebraska - Lincoln
      University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
      University of Oregon
      University of Texas at Austin

4. Other information as requested.
a. Peer data, if available, for departments not included in the summary reports
b. Reports that include instructional activity metrics that are not on the standard summary reports but that are on the submission template.

Links of Interest
Delaware Study: http://www.udel.edu/IR/cost/
Classification of Instructional Programs: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002165
Association of American Universities (AAU): http://www.aau.edu/