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Exploring the Changing Teaching Practices and
Needs of Business Faculty at Santa Clara University
Nicole Branch
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Anthony Raymond
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Melanie Sellar
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Exploring the Changing Teaching Practices and Needs of
Business Faculty at Santa Clara University
October 2019
Nicole Branch, Anthony Raymond, Melanie Sellar
Table of Contents
1. Introductions 2
About the Study 2
Experiential Learning at SCU 3
2. Methods 3
3. Findings 4
Perspectives on Multidisciplinarity and Transferability 4
Multidisciplinarity 4
Transferability 5
Perspectives on Teaching 6
Meaningful Contexts and Experiences 6
Data and Statistics in Learning Activities 7
Tailored Learning Experiences and Support 8
Perspectives on Student Engagement 8
Student Engagement 8
Student Research Skills 9
Selection of Learning Materials 10
Dissatisfaction with Cost of Textbooks 11
Perspectives on Technology in Teaching 11
Course Delivery 12
Instructional Technology Challenges 12
4. Recommendations 13
5. Appendix: Semi-Structured Interview Guide 16
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1. Introductions
About the Study
This report will present the findings and recommendations of a study designed to explore Santa
Clara University (SCU) business faculty’s current and emerging undergraduate teaching practices.
The study was led locally by researchers in the SCU Library, with parallel studies conducted at
fourteen other institutions of higher education in the United States during the 2018-19 academic
year. These studies were coordinated at the national level by Ithaka S&R, a not-for-profit research
and consulting service that helps academic and cultural communities serve the public good and
navigate economic, technological, and demographic change. Ithaka will publish a capstone report of
major themes across all fourteen institutions in Winter 2020 and will include recommendations
that libraries, universities, and business schools can use to support the changing teaching practices
of their business faculty.
Undergraduate Business Programs at SCU
The Leavey School of Business (LSB) is one of the professional schools at SCU, a private academic
institution located in the heart of Silicon Valley. SCU is ranked the No.1 Regional University in the
West in the 2019 edition of Best Colleges. Founded in 1923, and accredited by the AACSB in 1953,
the LSB ranks No. 62 among business schools in the nation, according to U.S News and World
Report’s 2019 Best Business Programs. The LSB ranks No. 2 in California and No. 42 nationally in
the Best Undergraduate Business Schools ranking by Poets&Quants for Undergrads. In fall
2018-2019, undergraduate enrollment was 1,626.
The LSB’s six academic departments - Accounting, Economics, Finance, Management &
Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Information Systems and Analytics – offer eight majors and
seven minors taught by over 140 academic and adjunct faculty. Four centers and institutes - The
Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Food Innovation and
Entrepreneurship (CFIE), My Own Business Institute (MOBI), and the Retail Management Institute
(RMI) - provide scholars and organizations an interdisciplinary approach to business issues.
The LSB offers the degree of bachelor of science in commerce, and to earn it students complete a
minimum of 175 quarter-units of credit (of which at least 60 must be in upper-division courses)
and satisfy the requirements of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum, the Leavey School of Business
curriculum, and the departmental major.
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Experiential Learning at SCU
As stated on the LSB website, “All programs at the Leavey School of Business provide rigorous study
and high impact experiential learning.” Applied, experiential learning has strong roots in Santa
Clara University’s undergraduate curriculum. This relates directly to the Jesuit Ignatian values of
the institution, which prioritize opportunities for experiencing the reality of the world, thinking
critically about it, responding to its suffering, and engaging with it constructively. Institutional
entities like the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education help nurture and provide these kind of
real-world experiential learning opportunities. The commitment to engagement with the world is
further encoded in the undergraduate core curriculum where students are required to take courses
with these kinds of external orientations and applied learning environments. This outward-looking
imperative of the institution is one equally embraced by the School of Business. Some of the campus
programs and centers working with undergraduate business students include the Neighborhood
Prosperity Initiative (via the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education), Arrupe Partnerships for
Community-based Learning, Leavey School of Business Community Fellows Program, and the
Global Fellows Internship (via the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship).
2. Methods
Participants for this study were recruited through convenience sampling. The Principal
Investigators generated a list of faculty (full, associate, assistant, and adjunct) across all programs
within the LSB. A small set of faculty were flagged within each program area and were invited to
participate in the study via an email and print invitation. Two rounds of invitations were sent to this
pool of faculty which resulted in 14 faculty recruitments.
This study does not purport to be statistically representative nor are the recommendations meant
to be prescriptive; rather, the report and its recommendations are intended to be suggestive of
areas for further investigation. The exact number of interviews for the sample was informed by
Guest, Bunce and Johnson’s research demonstrating that data saturation can be achieved at the
point of about 12 qualitative interviews and Creswell’s argument that a range of 15-20 interviews
be conducted when utilizing a grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis.
Faculty participants engaged in one-on-one audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews with one of
the study’s investigators. There were no incentives offered; participation was completely voluntary.
The interviews were approximately sixty minutes in length and took place in a private meeting
room in the Santa Clara University Library. Transcripts from the interviews were anonymized and
analyzed using grounded theory methodology.
Each participating institution also shared the anonymized transcripts from the local study with
Ithaka S+R, who analyzed a sample of transcripts from each institution. Transcripts were combined
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into one pooled sample and were not analyzed on a site-by-site basis by Ithaka S+R. The pooled
samples were also analyzed using the grounded theory method. This analysis will result in a
capstone report, which will include only pooled results. The intent of the capstone report is to
identify broad themes and thus will not include data that might be identifiable to a particular
institution or individual.
3. Findings
The SCU transcript analysis led to the articulation of five major thematic categories: perspectives
on multidisciplinarity and transferability, teaching, student engagement, resources and materials,
and technology in teaching.
Perspectives on Multidisciplinarity and Transferability
Multidisciplinarity and transferability were significant themes that emerged with business faculty
at Santa Clara University. Multidisciplinarity refers to the combining of multiple disciplinary
practices and approaches, while transferability refers to the application of knowledge from one
setting to another. The need to apply multiple disciplinary practices, and to transfer knowledge,
permeates many aspects of coursework in business at SCU. The themes are introduced below but
then elaborated in more detail in later sections of this report.
Multidisciplinarity
The nature of the field of business is itself described by several faculty members as highly
multidisciplinary. One way this appears is through the highly specialized nature of subdisciplines
within business. Faculty noted the stark differences, and sometimes siloed, nature of subdisciplines.
These subdisciplines require different skill sets, knowledge practices, and methodologies of
practice.. For example, accounting is characterized by standardized and rule-based practices that
remain relatively stable over time, while subdisciplines such as marketing or economics are
fast-changing and reactive to new innovations and practices, requiring more adaptation on the part
of faculty and students.
Other sub-disciplines are described as multidisciplinary in nature, requiring knowledge practices
from diverse subdisciplines within business or from other disciplines altogether.
"If you're going to be [a subdiscipline] manager, you're really a manager, but in a specific
type of business. So you need to know something about general management, marketing,
accounting, economics, operations."
Faculty describe intersections between their work and fields such as public health, sociology, and
communications. This requires faculty members and students to engage with both the disciplinary
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practices of these fields as well as collecting and analyzing information from sources related to
these fields. Information can include a variety of sources, such as reference, popular news,
government, and raw data.
The need for multidisciplinary approaches is frequently associated with ethical and social/political
orientations within the business school. The need to integrate ethical reasoning in both coursework
and research is a frequent theme among SCU business faculty. Faculty describe integrating issues of
ethics in a variety of ways, ranging from ethical business practices to ethical interpretations and
interactions with the community.
The global nature of business described by faculty also requires navigating international issues,
ranging from understanding local practices, customs, history, and conditions to international
business trends. This requires students and faculty to seek out data and information on a variety of
topics and to devote class time to discussing global issues.
Transferability
Transferability is another theme raised by business faculty and is manifested in several ways.
Perhaps most prominent is the need to transfer knowledge to practical application. Students are
guided to apply theory, knowledge and methods from coursework to real world scenarios and
situations. This can include developing functioning projects or field work with communities and
consumers.
As a field rooted in business and industry practice, transfer also has implications for coursework
and learning objectives. Coursework emphasizes opportunities to better understand consumers, to
stay current with industry practice, and to be responsive to rapidly changing business
environments. This need to transfer knowledge from the classroom to practice creates limitations
and pain-points. For example, one faculty member shared that "there's a gap, you know, between
academia and industry. We always tell students we can teach you the knowledge but we won't be
able to teach you the experience.” Other faculty report that staying current with rapidly changing
practices in business is a continual struggle. The need to continually update materials and stay
abreast of not only current trends, but to perceive future developments, is an ongoing challenge.
Business faculty share a common concern with their peers in other disciplines: to develop in their
students the ability to transfer skills from coursework to lifelong learning and their lives beyond
Santa Clara. Faculty describe the desire to help students “understand how to really learn" or learn
to "walk away with tools that will help them through the rest of their lives." This desire to instill
life-long learning practices necessitates the selection of course materials related to current issues,
the application of course theory to real life scenarios, and a focus on ethical practices and social and
political issues in some courses.
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Perspectives on Teaching
Faculty described their perspectives on teaching, from which emerged a number of themes relating
to real-life contexts, data and statistics in course activities, and preferences for tailored or
customized learning experiences. This section elaborates on and adds to some of the
Multidisciplinarity and Transferability discussion.
Meaningful Contexts and Experiences
Faculty interviewed in this study echoed SCU’s commitment to experiential learning and shared the
belief that knowledge without application leads to shallow learning. They strive to balance
traditional “chalk and talk” lectures with meaningful, “real life” contextualization of course content
across all of the diverse business disciplines. There is a shared sense that presenting content in such
a way best engages students.
Case study analysis tends to be the dominant in-class method for introducing real-world contexts.
Case studies may be created by the faculty member or, more commonly, by an external entity such
as Harvard Business Publishing. Faculty appreciate cases that present the complexities and
messiness of real-life business contexts: “the case I use has a lot of mistakes in it and that's the
point.” Sometimes faculty task students with creating their own case studies, which requires the
students to distill an issue into a concisely articulated problem with background context and
various possible solutions or responses.
Another mechanism widely used by faculty in connecting course learning to real world contexts is
through community collaborations. Faculty value these kinds of collaborations because they
provide opportunities for students to take initiative, make decisions, and be accountable for the
results. These collaborations may be brokered through one of the institutional programs described
in the introduction or arranged by the faculty member themselves. Typically the partner (an
individual, small group, or organization) works alongside the students as a study site with some
kind of culminating deliverable prepared by the students and presented to the partner. The faculty
member tends to take responsibility for all the instructional design and pedagogical aspects of
these experiences, while the partner is brought in for their content knowledge or expertise. Because
of SCU’s social justice focus, the partner may often be working with a local marginalized community
on a particular need or problem, such as a small business plan. In other cases, faculty work with a
local partner almost in a co-teaching relationship whereby the partner helps coach or train the
students in their specialized area of expertise, like entrepreneurship.
This commitment to experiential learning is not specific to a narrow set of specializations in
business, but rather it was a priority voiced by all the interviewed faculty in this study. They strive
to “encourage students to think about complex issues in real life. The stuff we teach seems
straightforward because we simplify it. But then it's always more complicated in real life.”
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Data and Statistics in Learning Activities
Being able to use, analyze, and interpret data and statistics to make evidence-based decisions are
important competencies that many faculty seek to inculcate in their students through the learning
activities and assignments they design.
There are generally two ways that these learning activities are constructed: students are given or
prescribed the data sources by the faculty, or students must find the data sources themselves. In the
former, the faculty member may create or curate the data, then provide them to the students. For
example, students may be directed to obtain data/statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau or
California State Attorney General’s website or a specific library-licensed database. In the latter,
students are required to locate data/statistics on their own with or without guidance from the
faculty member.
Overall, it appears that faculty prefer “real world” data/statistics as opposed to artificially created
ones, but obtaining that kind of data presents challenges for them. Because they value the realism of
the numbers, it means that currency is an important attribute. For example, years old sales or
advertising data is not favored by faculty, but trying to find the most current data through the
Internet or library can be difficult for them. Some faculty also expressed frustration with the library
when a licensed data-source is no longer available, causing confusion for them and their students.
Faculty also value and try to support students’ data finding and literacy skills in their classrooms.
On the topic of how students find data, a number of faculty shared that their students’ default
strategy is to depend exclusively on Google. Surprised by this student behavior, some have
responded by explicitly requiring students to use library data sources, with or without
accompanying library instruction. A few faculty members also assigned importance to students
knowing what they may or may not ethnically do with data; for example, being aware of intellectual
property or privacy issues. However, one faculty member was not sure whether the curriculum
specifically dealt with these ethical issues anywhere.
Various strategies for mitigating data-finding and data-literacy challenges were suggested. A few
faculty thought that specialized study groups or help sessions - perhaps hosted or facilitated in
some way by the library - would be useful, particularly for augmenting students’ statistical analysis
skills. Ensuring continued access to a disciplinary librarian with deep business expertise was also
voiced as important. Finally, many faculty indicated that the library could provide continuously
updated wayfinding tools that categorize the availability of current articles, journals, videos,
readings, or case studies. There seems to be low awareness that the library offers many such tools
already.
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Tailored Learning Experiences and Support
Faculty tend to guard the 10 weeks of their quarter protectively. If they do invite external
collaborators, guest speakers, or other on-campus instructors into their course, it must be an
extremely good fit with their learning goals and pedagogy. If there is a poor fit, faculty do not
hesitate to make changes. For example, if the topics chosen by the guest speaker do not align well
with course content or the talk is too advanced for the students, the faculty may reduce the number
of guest speakers or the time allotted for the talk.
They are equally sensitive to perceived expertise. They tend to seek out support or collaborators
only if they feel a need cannot be adequately met through their own teaching skill-set or if they feel
the time spent collaborating will yield a high return on investment. One faculty member, for
example, expressed confidence in his own ability to teach and cultivate student writing skills in a
particular genre. Overall, many faculty express doubt that collaboration would yield any benefits
unless a collaborator is deeply familiar with their own students or deeply familiar with their
subject.
“You know a lot of people offer me help but the thing is, if they don't know my students, it's
hard to offer help that really helps me.”
One faculty member mused that the only realm in which a collaborator might be useful is providing
training or filling a skill-set gap they do not have, such as with software or technology training.
Perspectives on Student Engagement
Faculty expressed interest and concern in cultivating student engagement with their course topics
and materials, and in the skills that students may or may not be bringing into their courses.
Student Engagement
Faculty recognize that student engagement leads to deeper learning. Connecting course materials to
real-world contexts is one lever used for cultivating such engagement. At the same time, there is
in-class foundational work that students need to do in order to be successful in their applied
learning experiences elsewhere. Cultivating student engagement in this realm is where faculty may
struggle for solutions.
One faculty member shared that contextualizing data and numbers via stories - some taken from his
own life - was an effective strategy he employed. Others found technology, when used
appropriately and endorsed by their peers, to be helpful, such as iClickers.
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Another cited engagement challenge was the perceived lack of student motivation for completing
coursework beyond the minimum requirements. For example, there is a shared sense that only the
shortest required readings are engaged with and read. Another faculty member expressed
perplexion over students lack of motivation to use any kind of source other than Google:
“I think if … we could get students to know what resources they should use and then be
motivated to use those resources, rather than take the easy shortcuts, I think that could be a
valuable addition to student learning."
While there are resources on campus to help address engagement issues, faculty do not necessarily
make use of these supports once they have established themselves as an instructor. In some cases it
is due to low awareness, in others it is a perceived lack of time, and for some it is due to
self-confessed “inertia” to change long established instructional methods:
“I probably don't take as much interest in keeping my materials updated as I probably
should ... once I get the material that I'm happy with, I tend to hold on to it and just keep
using it.”
There needs to be compelling impetuses and a perceived alignment with faculty’s specific needs for
them to seek out additional support or training.
Student Research Skills
In general, faculty believe that students require guidance finding data and statistics for course
exercises and assignments, particularly given their over-reliance on Google. One faculty member
indicated it would be helpful for librarians to teach students where to find data sources and
especially how to use the library-licensed databases: “[O]n the webpage of the Library there are
actually a large number of extremely useful sources of data that the Library has purchased
subscriptions for, but my guess is that 95% of my students are unaware of that.”
The Library subscribes to over two hundred licensed databases including over thirty specialized
business databases. Faculty value librarians’ knowledge of the content of these resources, and this
is the primary reason they invite the business librarian into their classrooms, “I work with [the
business librarian] to see how we can help students to better utilize our Library ... that's extremely
helpful for the students and extremely successful.” In the quarter system faculty often find it
difficult to devote class time for this type of librarian led instruction session. Instead, they
recommend or even require that their students meet with the business librarian outside the
classroom.
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Perspectives on Resources and Materials
Selection of Learning Materials
Learning materials may be created by faculty members themselves or obtained through commercial
or open access sources. The most commonly used reading materials are commercially available
textbooks and the textbook publishers’ supplemental resources such as case studies. When
selecting a textbook for a new course, one participant said he consults colleagues teaching similar
courses. Additional reading materials commonly used are book chapters, articles, and case studies,
particularly those published by the Harvard Business Review.
Videos, either in DVD format or streamed from an open access or commercial source, may be used
when appropriate to the material being taught. VHS recordings are rarely used now although
classrooms are still provided with VHS players. Faculty have access to several commercial
streaming services though the Library, but also use videos found on YouTube, or other sources.
However, it was noted that using such videos is problematic due to their ephemeral nature.
Guest speakers, especially SCU alumni, are commonly invited to share their experience and
expertise with students. Some participants prefer to use tools such as Skype or Zoom to bring
speakers into the classroom so that they do not feel obliged to devote an entire class to the guest.
Fluid and Ephemeral Learning Materials
Faculty use a range of learning materials in their classrooms and learning management system
(LMS) course sites. While print and digital textbooks are still widely used - albeit with growing
dissatisfaction because of the financial cost to students - faculty typically say that the dynamic
nature of their fields outpaces textbook publishers abilities to keep pace.
Given the pace of their fields, many faculty must constantly redesign and update their curriculum,
including developing and sourcing new learning materials. These materials include slide decks, case
studies, videos, articles, news stories, and data sets.
They also struggle with disappearing online content. While Google or YouTube may indeed be a
great companion “teacher”, the content is impermanent. YouTube, in particular, is widely used for
finding videos which illustrate a particular concept, but “sometimes they delete the videos and the
next [time] it's like, where did it go, this is a little bit frustrating”. Textual materials that are
accessed through the library, on the other hand, generally pose no continuity problems for faculty.
Given the challenges they experience in keeping their learning materials updated and accessible, it
is unsurprising that many faculty are looking for help synthesizing, way pointing, and organizing
both class materials for students and teaching materials they have created. For example, a few
faculty members expressed desire for sharing instructional materials, particularly case studies and
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other sort of illustrative examples, with their colleagues through some kind of shared, hosted
platform.
Dissatisfaction with Cost of Textbooks
Several faculty members expressed frustration with the cost of textbooks. Faculty were aware of
the financial burden on students, and showed awareness of open-access as a possible solution.
Some faculty expressed resentment and suspicion of publisher pricing practices. Faculty perceived
various issues related to textbook pricing, including a disproportionate amount of revenues going
to publishers rather than authors, releasing marginally updated new editions to force the purchase
of new materials, and the high cost for use of materials in coursepacks. This frustration was
expressed in relatively strong terms including “I resent it. I really do” and “[publisher’s are]
basically forcing students and faculty to purchase a new edition."
To address this challenge, faculty applied a variety of strategies including making textbooks
recommended rather than required reading, asking the department or library to purchase a few
copies, trying to create course packs with open-access or library-subscribed materials, and
selecting course texts with a lower price point. With many of these strategies, faculty described
drawbacks and challenges in implementing affordable solutions. Faculty expressed, in some cases, a
sense of compromise with selecting lower cost materials (for example, making textbooks optional
or replacing one book with many articles) and one faculty member described having difficulty
finding support when attempting to replace the coursepack with library-licensed materials.
Additionally, concerns expressed about the overall difficulty with finding and maintaining course
materials, including the need for rapid updating of materials, the need for multi-disciplinary
materials, and the often highly specialized nature of materials, are likely to compound the need for
support in adopting more affordable textbook options.
Perspectives on Technology in Teaching
A range of sophisticated technologies are utilized in all aspects of course delivery. Veteran faculty
remember using now obsolete technologies such as typewriters (and typists), mimeograph
machines, overhead projectors, and they express appreciation for the availability of new
technologies that make it much easier to deliver course materials. However, new technologies are
not without their own problems. One faculty member described frustration at having to spend a
great deal of class time troubleshooting problems specific to students’ personal computers and
expressed the opinion that having more computer classrooms available would solve the problem, “I
would say, because we are teaching the technical courses, so we need a computer room … there's
probably only like two or three [Lucas Hall] computer rooms and it's just not enough.”
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Course Delivery
The standard equipment included in every LSB classroom consists of an instructor computer
(although faculty often use their own personal computers), a screen projector, audio system, and
video player. All LSB classrooms are connected to the campus computer network. Use of other
teaching technologies varies widely. Some participants readily embrace teaching technologies new
to them while others are less likely to do so either because they are unaware of them or because
they do not believe the time needed to learn them is worth the effort, “[D]o I really want to go to the
trouble of doing this?”
Reliance on Learning Management System
Faculty are making wide use of online platforms to augment their face-to-face course delivery and
provide continuous, asynchronous access to their course materials. Most of those interviewed make
use of Camino, the SCU learning management system, albeit to varying extents. While one faculty
member uses it simply as file storage, many others use it to blend, flip, and truly web-enhance their
courses.
“We're all having students do a lot of the work that we would normally do in the classroom,
I'll have them do at home or in groups online.”
They are posting syllabi, practice problems with solutions, slide decks, and case studies, for
example. The LMS build is becoming the official version of the course for many.
Despite its increasing adoption, however, a few faculty expressed frustration with the LMS, finding
it cumbersome to use. After some initial use, they ultimately stopped using it or switched to more
open delivery platforms, such as Google Drive or Google Sites. Yet another participant expressed
satisfaction with their LMS site being “good enough”, not wanting to invest more time in learning
the tool. In a few instances, other specialized, industry-wide platforms are used to disseminate and
share materials, such as GitHub for code, or publisher online textbook platforms.
Instructional Technology Challenges
Arranging external community collaborations while widely valued by teaching faculty is not
without its challenges. It can create additional time and workload needs. In some cases, institutional
resources are thought to not align well with external collaboration needs. For example, one faculty
member voiced frustration that collaborators could not get access to the learning management
system for greater immersion and participation with the students. The workaround of using Google
Docs for commenting and discussion was thought to be messy and inefficient.
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“The LMS doesn't support outside commenting. I have a lot of these students turning in
business plans and one way they could turn it in is to turn it into Camino. But then outside
commentators would like to comment on those plans. But Camino doesn't let outside people
who don't have an SCU ID to come in and comment.”
On the other hand, faculty are gaining an appreciation of, and facility with, using Zoom web
conferencing to bring in partners and guest speakers for consultations. There is also growing
recognition that web conferencing can broaden the scope of external collaborations. However, some
still struggle with the set-up, recording, and other aspects of the technology that might be an
impediment to wider adoption. As one faculty member shared: “I think I could do a better job of
using Zoom to bring in speakers from around the world to our classroom. Primarily I've been using
face-to-face people in Silicon Valley.”
4. Recommendations
The findings from this study suggest a number of key areas in which the SCU Library and its campus
collaborators might focus our efforts to develop action plans in support of undergraduate teaching
in business.
Leverage Collaboration
● Explore opportunities for subject librarians to collaborate in supporting business faculty,
particularly in courses with a multidisciplinary frame.
The highly multidisciplinary nature of business curriculum and resources creates
challenges in identifying resources and providing information support for students.
Librarians are well-situated to develop partnerships to support these needs.
● Explore opportunities to collaboratively engage with business faculty and other stakeholders
on campus to address student learning related to research and writing.
Faculty members expressed varying awareness of services to support student writing and
research. Librarians are engaged with various initiatives on campus to support student
learning in this area, and natural partners for extending support to the School of Business.
● Explore opportunities to develop functional expertise and/or collaborate with other
stakeholders (such as Academic Technology) to address the needs of business faculty and
students.
The materials and information needed by business faculty represent a number of areas that
vary considerably from other academic departments (including specialized and proprietary
datasets, industry experts, and local knowledge that falls out of traditional academic library
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sources). By developing functional expertise and partnering with other stakeholders,
librarians are well positioned to support these needs.
Steward Resources
● Explore mechanisms that support access, sharing, and re-use of teaching materials.
Faculty are challenged to keep their teaching materials current and available, given the
rapidly changing nature of their fields and the ephemerality of many online materials they
now use. There may be opportunities for the Library to help mitigate some of these
challenges by leveraging our expertise in resource management, platform provision, and
archival services. Specifically, the Library should consider how to support sharing, re-use,
and preservation of teaching materials.
● Identify and support non-traditional and emergent information and data needs.
Librarians should investigate the non-traditional or emerging information needs that may
reside outside the kinds of sources typically collected by the library. These needs might be
specific to a particular field - such as competitive intelligence - or they could be in varied,
non-scholarly formats. The Library might explore the kind of support faculty and students
may need when finding and using data, identify support gaps, and determine how the
library and partner stakeholders might respond.
Champion Textbook Affordability
● Explore strategic and comprehensive approaches to address textbook affordability.
Textbook affordability will be a mounting challenge as institutions grapple with the overall
unsustainable rising cost of higher education. At Santa Clara University, addressing this
issue also aligns with the institution’s Jesuit values and commitment to increasing diversity.
The library is well positioned to participate in advancing textbook affordability through
such means as increasing faculty awareness, assessing the needs of students, and piloting
programs to support faculty in adopting affordable or open access solutions.
Integrate Outreach and Engagement
● Develop direct interventions to increase business faculty and student awareness of and access
to library resources.
Faculty generally reported low uptake and awareness of library resources by their students
and at times the faculty themselves also exhibited low awareness of existing library
resources and support services. The Library should consider new forms of intervention to
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mitigate this low uptake and awareness, such as developing boilerplate assignment
language for faculty adoption, providing turnkey support modules/services for Camino
integration, and advocating for greater library instructional integration beyond freshman
year.
Align Instructional Offerings
● Create compelling instructional offerings which align with the preferred teaching formats and
styles valued by business faculty.
Business faculty are receptive to support and collaboration when they perceive a good fit
with their teaching needs and their preferred ways of teaching. The Library should explore
how to cast our support to dovetail with their pedagogies and instructional methods - which
include preferences for real life contexts, case studies, and consulting relationships -- and
their modes of writing or publication. Building an increased instructional presence in
Camino should also be an area of targeted growth.
● Develop additional levers that would encourage faculty uptake of library instructional
expertise and offerings in order to ensure scaffolding of information literacy and writing in the
business school curriculum
.
Business faculty are likely to seek out research and writing expertise from peers on campus
only when they feel they cannot adequately meet a student need, and only if they feel that
the time spent collaborating will yield a high return on investment. Many do, however,
simultaneously express concern about students’ information literacy and writing skills. The
Library and other stakeholders (such as the Writing Center, Faculty Development Program,
various Core Committees) should consider together how to increase collaborations with the
LSB to support student learning related to information literacy/writing. At the same time,
the Library could explore how to deepen and market our information literacy expertise in
those areas judged by business faculty as important, yet under-represented in the
curriculum, including data privacy issues and intellectual property awareness.
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5. Appendix: Semi-Structured Interview Guide
Background and Methods
1. Tell me about your experiences as a teacher [E.g. How long you’ve been teaching, what you
typically teach, what you currently teach]
» Does your teaching incorporate any particular teaching methods or approaches? [E.g.
experiential learning, case method, design thinking, problem-based learning, flipped
classroom]?
» Have you received any support/relied on others towards developing your teaching
approach?
» Are there any other supports or resources that you think would be helpful for you?
2. Do you currently teach more general research or study skills in any of your courses? [E.g. finding
sources, evaluating sources, data literacy, financial literacy, critical thinking]
» How do you incorporate this into your courses? Have you experienced any challenges in
doing so?
» Does anyone support you in doing so and if so how? [E.g. instruction classes offered through
the library]
» Are there any other forms of support that would be helpful in doing this?
Working with Materials and Content
3. What materials do you typically create in the process of developing a course? [E.g. syllabi,
course website, online modules, lectures, assignments, tests]
» How do you make these materials available to students?
» Do you make these materials more widely available? [E.g. public course website or personal
website, sharing via listserv]
» How you experienced any challenges in creating and/or making these materials available?
» Do you ever consult with others as part of creating and/or making these materials
available?
» Are there any supports that could help you in creating and/or making these materials
available?
4. Beyond the materials you create in the process of developing a course, what other kinds of
content to students typically work with in your courses? [E.g. readings from textbooks or other
sources, practice datasets, films]
» How involved are you in how this content is selected and/or created?
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» How do you make these materials available to students?
» Do you make these materials more widely available? [E.g. public course website or personal
website, sharing via listserv]
» How you experienced any challenges in selecting, creating and/or making these materials
available?
» Do you ever consult with others as part of selecting, creating and/or making these materials
available?
» Are there any supports that could help you in selecting, creating and/or making these
materials available?
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Working with Tools
5. Have you considered using and/or are you currently working with data and/or analytics tools
to understand and improve your teaching? [E.g. dashboard or an app through a course
management system, early alert notification system on student performance via email]
» If no, why? (e.g. unaware of such offerings, current offerings are not useful, opposed to such
offerings)
» If a tool could be designed that leverages data (e.g. about students) in a way that
would be helpful towards your teaching, what data would feed into this and how
would this tool ideally work?
» Do you have any concerns in relation to how this data is collected and/or leveraged
(e.g. privacy)?
» If yes, what data and/or tools have you used and how? To what extent was this useful?
» Do you have any concerns in relation to how this data is collected and/or leveraged
(e.g. privacy)?
» What are some of the greatest challenges you’ve encountered in the process of using
these tools?
» Do you rely on anyone to support you in using these tools?
» Are there any other forms of support that would help you as you work with these
tools?
6. Do you rely on any other tools to support your teaching (E.g. clickers, smart boards)? If so,
» What are some of the greatest challenges you’ve encountered in the process of using these
tools?
» Do you rely on anyone to learn about and/or support you in using these tools?
» Are there any other forms of support that would help you as you work with these tools?
Wrapping Up
7. If there was a magic wand that could help you with some aspect of your teaching [beyond giving
you more money, time, or smarter students], what would you ask it to do for you?
8. Are there any ways that library or others on campus have helped you with your teaching in
ways that have not yet come up in this interview?
9. Are there any issues relating to your experiences teaching that you think that librarians and/or
others on campus who support you and your students should we be aware of that have not yet
come up in our discussion? [e.g. on the role of the library in supporting teaching, what makes
teaching in your specific area of Business or Business more widely that warrants unique
support].
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