School of Education

2008-2009 Annual Faculty Assessment

Dr. Jonathan Becker

Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Administration

Dr. Jonathan Becker presented his 2008-2009 Work Plan, 2008-2009 Final
Activity Report and Narrative, his 2009-2010 Initial Work Plan, and supporting
documents. His materials are complete and provide good evidence for reviewing
his work and his contribution to the Department and School. Dr. Becker had
allocated 33% to teaching, 44% to research and scholarly activity, and 23% to
service...

Teaching
Dr. Becker’s primary teaching during 2008-2009 was in the Ph.D. and Ed.D.
doctoral programs. In Fall 2008, he taught EDUS 710 and EDUS 890. In Spring
2009, he taught two sections in the Ed.D. program and a section of TEDU 560,
Instructional Strategies Using the Internet. Although Dr. Becker taught in three
departments during the academic year, he was serving administration students.
Jonathan’s breadth of expertise is a gift to our department. In addition to this
teaching, Dr. Becker chaired five dissertation committees, served on eight more,
and advised 20 doctoral students and 15 masters’ students.

Dr. Becker spends a great deal of thought and energy cultivating student
engagement through active, meaningful learning. This year he taught a fully
online course. For that course, he took a curriculum entirely focused on
integrating Web-based technology into the curriculum and made it a course
aligned with the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators
(NETS-A). This course, Educational Technology and School Leadership, is an
important addition to our masters and post-masters leadership programs. The
students in the course are asked to discover new applications of technology as
they explore technology-related policy and leadership issues. For example, the
final project asks students to use a Web-based collaborative authoring tool to
collectively (in small groups) design a technology plan for a fictitious school or
district.

Also as part of that course, Dr. Becker and his students have been using Wimba
Live Classroom to hold virtual roundtables or webinars where Dr. Becker holds
conversations with “experts” from around the world. Those conversations are
synchronous and, in addition to the students in the course, open to anyone
including the hundreds of educators who follow him on Twitter. The
conversations are recorded and archived so that students who could not attend
the webinar can watch and listen on their own time.

For our Ed.D. students, Dr. Becker has asked them to create a digital story of
their vision of school leadership. He gave them the theme, introduced them to
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some resources on digital storytelling, told them they were limited only by a 5-
minute time cap and the bounds of their creativity, and offered to be a learning
guide as needed. He is helping the doctoral students understand the power of
multimedia as a form of communication for educators and school leaders.

Other innovative uses of technology by Dr. Becker include:

• Demo and model the use of various tools as relevant. Dr. Becker does
this with both his students and with our department faculty.
• Uses Skype for dissertation advisement
• Uses Web-based surveys in several of his courses
• Writes an education blog that is read by thousands of people throughout
the country. Dr. Becker is an RSS feed for many, an extension of his
teaching and an additional way to think about how technology can expand
the ways we think of teaching and learning.

Dr. Becker approaches teaching from a problem-based, problem-finding, hands

on perspective. In addition, he gives liberally of his time to department and SOE
faculty.

Student evaluations for Dr. Becker are very high for EDUS 890 and in the Ed.D.
program. Comments from students in these classes were very positive. The
following are some of the responses to questions asking students what they
thought was most helpful and what the instructor did particularly well:
• Explained information
• Ease of instructor’s teaching style
• Everything. Loved the Zen video
• Very helpful on an individual basis
• Meetings and individual conferences
• Set up methods
• One-on-one conversations
• Available to help and giving sound advice

Ed.D. student comments were similarly positive:

• Dr. Becker is an enjoyable professor.
• Thank you for incorporating entertaining, high interest material in your
instruction.
• Thank you for incorporating entertaining, high interest material in your
instruction.
• He is very helpful.
• Technology discussions certainly are applicable to our profession.
• Great job.
• You are a master of your domain. I just get that you love
educational technology and it is great.
• I have thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Becker’s instruction during this semester.

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The ratings in EDUS 710 are somewhat lower. Research methods courses are
often rated lower than other courses; comparative data from other 710
instructors, I do not know how to think about these scores. I do know that every
ADMS faculty member who has taught this cohort has received lower than usual
scores. Because on student gave all 1’s, the median is perhaps a better
indicator.

The EDUS 710 student evaluations underscore another issue for the doctoral
students. Considerable anecdotal data from doctoral studies describes them as
students not prepared well for EDUS 710. Although they have taken EDUS 508
and 608 from adjuncts, the students across cohorts report that they do not feel
that they understand the content of these courses. This has been a consistent
theme since I began as chairperson. This lack of preparation – if it is that –
would an impact on the effectiveness of the EDUS 710 instructor. Dr. Becker
reported that this cohort had little or no understanding of statistics and that he
had to expand the course to include typical EDUS 608 content in addition to the
710 content.

Student comments from EDUS 710 are all positive:

• Being able to resubmit incorrect assignments
• Instructional videos
• Posted necessary information online and offered tutorial websites and
additional methods for learning information
• All aspects. I learned a lot.
• Incorporated different teaching modes incorporating technology in ways
that I am motivated to use.’\
• Wish e had this course much earlier in our track. I learned a lot, although I
still don’t feel as prepared as I should be.
• Video on BB helped tremendously.
If any one item is scored less high by students, it is the return of assignment with
feedback in a timely manner. This is an area to examine next year.

EDUS EDUS 710 Ed.D.

890
Mean Mean Mean
(Median)
The instructor was well prepared for this 5 4.8 (5.0) 4.7
course
The instructor presented course material in 4.9 4.1 (4) 4.75
an organized and informative manner
The instructor’s choice of instructional 4.9 3.6 (4) N/A
materials facilitated my learning in this course
The instructor’s teaching techniques helped 5 3.4 (4) N/A
me learn the material in this course
The instructor was available outside of the 5 3.5 (4) 4.7
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classroom.
The instructor encouraged discussion, 5 4.5 (5) 4.75
participation, and questions in the course.
The instructor treated students with courtesy 5 4.7 (5) 4.7
and respect.
The instructor clearly presented evaluative 4.9 4.2 (4) N/A
criteria for assessing my work.
The instructor graded and returned students’ 4.8 3.3 (3.5) N/A
written work in a timely manner.
This course helped me understand what will 4.9 4.4 (4.5) N/A
be expected of me as a professional.
As a result of this course, my knowledge and 5.0 4.3 (4.0_ N/A
skills were increased in the subject matter.
The instructor had a mastery of the subject N/A N/A 4.9
matter.
I would like to have this professor again in the N/A N/A 4.65
program.

Dr. Becker is supportive of his dissertation students and three of them have
successfully defended a prospectus this year.

Dr. Becker’s teaching is excellent. As an example of how the department values

his teaching, we selected Dr. Becker’s assignments as our centerpiece for the
Carnegie meeting in June. Moreover, he was presented the SOE Technology
Teaching Award this year.

Research and Scholarship

This year, Dr. Becker published an online book, Online School Law Guide, and
two journal articles. In addition, Dr. Becker has five articles nearly complete that
will be submitted for publication in Summer 2009. Three of these papers grew
out of AERA presentations.

Dr. Becker also publishes his ideas on his Educational Insanity blog. The
strength of this form of scholarship is great. For instance, between September 1,
2008 and May 15, 2009, 3,813 unique visitors visited his blog 5,082 times and
viewed 7,751 pages. These visitors come from 88 countries. This scholarship
carries out one of our department missions, which is to take our place as public
intellectuals. Dr. Becker leads the department in his reach and his ability to
influence policy and practice.

Reading Dr. Becker’s description of his scholarship this year is a learning

experience. This is not a list of publications, but rather a reflective description of
his thinking, his growth, and his accomplishments.

Dr. Becker presented seven papers at five different meetings, including AERA,
UCEA, Educon 2.1, COSN , and K-12 Online Conference. In addition, he has
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paid attention to regional work, reaching out to make connections with colleagues
from other universities and from Virginia school divisions.

Dr. Becker has submitted three major grant proposals: two to NSF and one to
IES. These were large grants and from feedback we’ve received, it seems that
at least one NSF grant will be funded. The level of grant work this year is
tremendous and a good sign for the future.

On top of publications, presentations, and grant writing, Dr. Becker was awarded
XXX for his work in technology. Jonathan has had an excellent year

Service
Dr. Becker is an outstanding organizational citizen. He coordinates the
leadership track of the doctoral program. With over 100 doctoral students, this is
an enormous responsibility. Students have been enthusiastic with the ways in
which Dr. Becker is providing information and reaching out to help. Dr. Becker
served as chairperson of a SOE committee, Research and Professional
Development, he was the SOE representative of the University Graduate
Council,, and a member of VCU’s Instructional Technology Advisory Group.
Nationally, he is co-chair of the UCEA-SIG on Technology.

Dr. Becker shows strong service activity and has had an excellent year.

Summary
Dr. Becker had a good second year at VCU. His teaching is strong, his research
is exciting and diverse, and he is an excellent organizational citizen. Dr. Becker
is making a national name for himself, he is reaching out to state organizations,
and he is involved regionally, having been invited to serve on a Chesterfield
School Division Committee.

Dr. Becker’s performance in the three areas of responsibility is assessed as

follows:

Teaching 5 Excellent
Research and Scholarly Activity 5 Excellent
Service 5 Excellent

Summary Rating

Dr. Becker’s summary rating is excellent. I have attached two other letters of
recommendation I wrote for Dr. Becker this year to provide the broad record of
my evaluation of his work.

Dr. Becker is recommended for a continuing contract.

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Signed _________________________________________
Date____________________
Charol Shakeshaft, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Educational Leadership

The faculty member’s signature below indicates that this document has been
read and reviewed. It does not necessarily reflect agreement. If desired, the
faculty member may submit a response and attach it to this assessment.

Signed ____ ___________________________________

Jonathan Becker, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership
Date________28 May 2008____________

Rejoinder from Dr. Becker: yes, attached no