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Episode 8 - An introduction to Academic Affairs with Dr. David Stewart
Michele and Dan continue the conversation with Dr. David Stewart, Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Institutional Excellence and Professor of Pharmacy, about his role as the head of Academic Affairs at ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy. In this episode, we discuss services the department provides including insights into academic progression and student course evaluations.
Transcript:
Michele Williams
Welcome to White Coat Radio, a podcast from East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy in Johnson City, Tennessee. Each episode we cover a wide range of topics about the pharmacy school experience, from study tips to deep dives with faculty and student pharmacists. I'm one of your hosts, Doctor Michele Williams.
Dan Vanzant
And I'm Dan Vanzant. Today we'll be talking with Doctor David Stewart, interim associate dean of assessment and academic affairs and professor of pharmacy practice at Gatton. He specializes in cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. In this episode, we'll talk about Doctor Stewart's role as associate dean and learn more about how academic affairs serves the college and most importantly, our students. In particular, we're going to learn more about those course evaluations that students are asked to complete at the midterm and at the end of the semester—where they go and how they are used.
Dan Vanzant
Doctor Stewart, welcome to White Coat Radio.
David Stewart
Thank you, Dan. It's good to be here.
Michele Williams
So, Doctor Stewart, all three of us work in the Office of Academic Affairs—you as dean, Dan as our instructional design and technology manager, and I'm the academic specialist—but I'm not sure our listeners really know all that Academic Affairs does within Gatton College of Pharmacy. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
David Stewart
Yeah. So, you mentioned that I'm the interim associate dean, and I've been doing this role for about a year now. I have to admit, a year ago I don't think I knew all that Academic Affairs had within the College of Pharmacy. I was really fortunate to have some great folks in the office, and as you mentioned, everyone on the podcast here today is part of that office. We also have a director of assessment and institutional excellence, and an office coordinator. So it's a five‑person team.
I would say the two biggest buckets based on the title would be:
Academic Affairs covers things like curriculum, and then we have the assessment component. Assessment is really important for our accreditation efforts and also guides a lot of what we do here at the college—curricular design and improvements, etc.
Other things we do include student success, academic progression, instructional design issues for the college, and housing office duties. So those are probably the big buckets.
Dan Vanzant
Great. So as I mentioned in the introduction, Academic Affairs is responsible for distributing the midterm and end‑of‑semester course evaluations—formative and summative evaluations. We always encourage students to complete those. But what happens with those evaluations behind the scenes? How are they created? And then what happens when students fill them out?
David Stewart
Yeah, that’s a great question. And I get the same questions from students about how these things are used. Oftentimes it's not even a question—it may be more of a comment: “Why would I fill these out? Nobody ever reads them. I don't think they ever use them. I never see anything change.”
So I think from a student’s perspective, I can see why they would feel that way. What I really try to encourage students to understand—and what I tell them upfront—is how they are used, because I don't think we do a very good job of telling students what we do with the data they provide.
When a student receives a course evaluation—the technical name is a student assessment of instruction (SAI)—we’re asking them about two things: the course and the faculty. There are specific questions for each faculty member and for the course as a whole.
So who gets them?
I get a copy in Academic Affairs. The faculty member gets a copy. And the department chair for the faculty member also gets a copy. Our faculty are in one of two departments: the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences or the Department of Pharmacy Practice. Each department has a chair, and the chair is responsible for reviewing evaluations with faculty each year during annual evaluations.
So these evaluations are used not only by faculty for feedback but also as part of their performance evaluation regarding teaching effectiveness.
As a faculty member myself in Pharmacy Practice, our chair asks us to identify things we plan to change and to provide a written plan for improvements based on student feedback.
I find this very helpful because students often point things out I may not appreciate or didn’t realize were happening.
Students are often hesitant to complete evaluations because we ask for them before finals are due, but they are completely de‑identified and anonymous unless a student includes identifying info. The system anonymizes them immediately—we only get the responses.
Dan Vanzant
Okay. And did you mention this? Do any of those get added to accreditation documents?
David Stewart
Yes. Accreditation is one of those things—like in healthcare, where the Joint Commission accredits hospitals. If a hospital isn’t accredited, they can’t bill Medicare, and they’ll fail financially.
Likewise, if a College of Pharmacy is not accredited, students cannot sit for the national board exams. So accreditation is essential.
Our accreditors ask us to report on quality improvement and how we use assessment data. We have latitude in how we use our data, but we must always have ongoing quality assurance processes. Evaluations help us show how we collect and use assessment data, including examples of where students suggested things and we implemented changes—or where we developed alternative solutions aimed at curricular effectiveness.
Students often feel like nothing changes because they typically won’t see the changes themselves. It's usually at least a full year before those changes happen—long after they’ve moved on and forgotten about the course.
And sometimes changes are iterative; we might refine something over two or three years. Students may think “They’re still doing that!” when in fact we’re improving it each cycle.
Michele Williams
And they just haven't seen that evolution as it took place.
David Stewart
Right. By the time the final version comes out, they’ve graduated and are working.
Dan Vanzant
Do you think that’s true of formative evaluations too? That faculty often don’t make changes mid‑semester, even though the intent is to?
David Stewart
Great question—and yes, that may contribute to student frustration. Formative assessments—open‑ended feedback about what’s going well or not going well—are meant to allow short‑term changes.
We usually try to do these around six weeks into the semester. Block courses complicate timing because they’re so short. If we don’t have good systems in place, we might miss the window.
This year we asked faculty for the optimal timing for formative evals so feedback would be meaningful. That worked well.
Best practice is for faculty to close the loop: tell students, “Here’s what I heard, here’s what I can change now, here’s what I may change in the future, and here’s what I can’t change and why.” Students need to feel heard, even if everything can’t change immediately.
Summative evaluations are easier to analyze—Likert scales, trends, comments. We can identify consistent areas for improvement more clearly. But again, students themselves rarely see the results of their feedback because changes occur in the next offering or several offerings later.
Dan Vanzant
Feels like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it into the sea.
Michele Williams
But there is somebody who finds that bottle.
Dan Vanzant
That's right—future classmates behind you.
Michele Williams
Yes. Students may not see the benefit of their feedback, but they benefit from the feedback of those who came before them.
David Stewart
Absolutely. They are reaping the benefits of previous students’ suggestions, and future classes will benefit from theirs.
Michele Williams
And some students give great feedback, it must be said.
Dan Vanzant
As a faculty member, what types of feedback do you find most helpful?
David Stewart
Generalizations are helpful, but specific examples are even more helpful. If a student says, “Dr. Stewart could present information more clearly,” I don’t know what that means. But if they say, “For example, when he explains things with a picture on a slide it’s helpful, but when it’s just words, I struggle,” that’s actionable.
If a student says expectations are unreasonable, that’s vague. But if they say, “There was too much pre‑reading—it took me this long—and the assignments took this long,” now I understand.
Michele Williams
So when students give open‑ended feedback, it helps if they include rich detail and an example.
David Stewart
Exactly.
Michele Williams
You also mentioned Academic Affairs oversees academic progression. Could you talk about that?
David Stewart
Academic progression can sound intimidating. But all students are monitored throughout their entire pharmacy education. Each semester, a committee reviews student grades and votes on progression.
If a student earns a non‑passing grade, the committee evaluates what’s needed.
You can’t be a pharmacist if you don’t master the content, so we must ensure competency.
For some students, if they earn a D in one course, they may complete expedited remediation over the summer. Others may need to repeat the course. Students doing very poorly may be dismissed.
The committee advises the dean. Academic Affairs oversees the administrative side—tracking, documentation, ensuring students are treated fairly and consistently.
Our goal is to help students progress. Student success is part of our office. Your role, Dr. Williams, involves supporting students through tutoring, success plans, mentoring, and resources. Students are often hesitant to seek help, but once they do, they often say, “Why didn’t I do that sooner?”
Michele Williams
Yes. Many students don’t realize how much support exists and how invested we are in their success. Pharmacy school is very different from undergrad—but Gatton especially is a supportive environment.
Dan Vanzant
Their success is a measure of our success.
David Stewart
Exactly. And if a large number of students consistently struggle, that reflects on us too. Education is always changing. Students today are different from students 20 years ago. Society has changed, K–12 changes, undergraduate differences… we must constantly adapt how we teach. It’s a never‑ending refinement process.
Michele Williams
Yes. That’s part of what makes higher education interesting—it never stays the same.
David Stewart
The one thing that stays the same is that it’s always changing.
Michele Williams
Definitely. Do you have any other questions, Dan?
Dan Vanzant
No, I’m good.
Michele Williams
Well, Doctor Stewart, thank you so much for talking to us today about the role of Academic Affairs and all the different things our department does at Gatton. We appreciate it very much.
David Stewart
It was a pleasure being your guest. Thank you.
Dan Vanzant
Doctor Williams.
View all episodes
By East Tennessee State UniversityMichele and Dan continue the conversation with Dr. David Stewart, Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Institutional Excellence and Professor of Pharmacy, about his role as the head of Academic Affairs at ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy. In this episode, we discuss services the department provides including insights into academic progression and student course evaluations.
Transcript:
Michele Williams
Welcome to White Coat Radio, a podcast from East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy in Johnson City, Tennessee. Each episode we cover a wide range of topics about the pharmacy school experience, from study tips to deep dives with faculty and student pharmacists. I'm one of your hosts, Doctor Michele Williams.
Dan Vanzant
And I'm Dan Vanzant. Today we'll be talking with Doctor David Stewart, interim associate dean of assessment and academic affairs and professor of pharmacy practice at Gatton. He specializes in cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. In this episode, we'll talk about Doctor Stewart's role as associate dean and learn more about how academic affairs serves the college and most importantly, our students. In particular, we're going to learn more about those course evaluations that students are asked to complete at the midterm and at the end of the semester—where they go and how they are used.
Dan Vanzant
Doctor Stewart, welcome to White Coat Radio.
David Stewart
Thank you, Dan. It's good to be here.
Michele Williams
So, Doctor Stewart, all three of us work in the Office of Academic Affairs—you as dean, Dan as our instructional design and technology manager, and I'm the academic specialist—but I'm not sure our listeners really know all that Academic Affairs does within Gatton College of Pharmacy. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
David Stewart
Yeah. So, you mentioned that I'm the interim associate dean, and I've been doing this role for about a year now. I have to admit, a year ago I don't think I knew all that Academic Affairs had within the College of Pharmacy. I was really fortunate to have some great folks in the office, and as you mentioned, everyone on the podcast here today is part of that office. We also have a director of assessment and institutional excellence, and an office coordinator. So it's a five‑person team.
I would say the two biggest buckets based on the title would be:
Academic Affairs covers things like curriculum, and then we have the assessment component. Assessment is really important for our accreditation efforts and also guides a lot of what we do here at the college—curricular design and improvements, etc.
Other things we do include student success, academic progression, instructional design issues for the college, and housing office duties. So those are probably the big buckets.
Dan Vanzant
Great. So as I mentioned in the introduction, Academic Affairs is responsible for distributing the midterm and end‑of‑semester course evaluations—formative and summative evaluations. We always encourage students to complete those. But what happens with those evaluations behind the scenes? How are they created? And then what happens when students fill them out?
David Stewart
Yeah, that’s a great question. And I get the same questions from students about how these things are used. Oftentimes it's not even a question—it may be more of a comment: “Why would I fill these out? Nobody ever reads them. I don't think they ever use them. I never see anything change.”
So I think from a student’s perspective, I can see why they would feel that way. What I really try to encourage students to understand—and what I tell them upfront—is how they are used, because I don't think we do a very good job of telling students what we do with the data they provide.
When a student receives a course evaluation—the technical name is a student assessment of instruction (SAI)—we’re asking them about two things: the course and the faculty. There are specific questions for each faculty member and for the course as a whole.
So who gets them?
I get a copy in Academic Affairs. The faculty member gets a copy. And the department chair for the faculty member also gets a copy. Our faculty are in one of two departments: the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences or the Department of Pharmacy Practice. Each department has a chair, and the chair is responsible for reviewing evaluations with faculty each year during annual evaluations.
So these evaluations are used not only by faculty for feedback but also as part of their performance evaluation regarding teaching effectiveness.
As a faculty member myself in Pharmacy Practice, our chair asks us to identify things we plan to change and to provide a written plan for improvements based on student feedback.
I find this very helpful because students often point things out I may not appreciate or didn’t realize were happening.
Students are often hesitant to complete evaluations because we ask for them before finals are due, but they are completely de‑identified and anonymous unless a student includes identifying info. The system anonymizes them immediately—we only get the responses.
Dan Vanzant
Okay. And did you mention this? Do any of those get added to accreditation documents?
David Stewart
Yes. Accreditation is one of those things—like in healthcare, where the Joint Commission accredits hospitals. If a hospital isn’t accredited, they can’t bill Medicare, and they’ll fail financially.
Likewise, if a College of Pharmacy is not accredited, students cannot sit for the national board exams. So accreditation is essential.
Our accreditors ask us to report on quality improvement and how we use assessment data. We have latitude in how we use our data, but we must always have ongoing quality assurance processes. Evaluations help us show how we collect and use assessment data, including examples of where students suggested things and we implemented changes—or where we developed alternative solutions aimed at curricular effectiveness.
Students often feel like nothing changes because they typically won’t see the changes themselves. It's usually at least a full year before those changes happen—long after they’ve moved on and forgotten about the course.
And sometimes changes are iterative; we might refine something over two or three years. Students may think “They’re still doing that!” when in fact we’re improving it each cycle.
Michele Williams
And they just haven't seen that evolution as it took place.
David Stewart
Right. By the time the final version comes out, they’ve graduated and are working.
Dan Vanzant
Do you think that’s true of formative evaluations too? That faculty often don’t make changes mid‑semester, even though the intent is to?
David Stewart
Great question—and yes, that may contribute to student frustration. Formative assessments—open‑ended feedback about what’s going well or not going well—are meant to allow short‑term changes.
We usually try to do these around six weeks into the semester. Block courses complicate timing because they’re so short. If we don’t have good systems in place, we might miss the window.
This year we asked faculty for the optimal timing for formative evals so feedback would be meaningful. That worked well.
Best practice is for faculty to close the loop: tell students, “Here’s what I heard, here’s what I can change now, here’s what I may change in the future, and here’s what I can’t change and why.” Students need to feel heard, even if everything can’t change immediately.
Summative evaluations are easier to analyze—Likert scales, trends, comments. We can identify consistent areas for improvement more clearly. But again, students themselves rarely see the results of their feedback because changes occur in the next offering or several offerings later.
Dan Vanzant
Feels like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it into the sea.
Michele Williams
But there is somebody who finds that bottle.
Dan Vanzant
That's right—future classmates behind you.
Michele Williams
Yes. Students may not see the benefit of their feedback, but they benefit from the feedback of those who came before them.
David Stewart
Absolutely. They are reaping the benefits of previous students’ suggestions, and future classes will benefit from theirs.
Michele Williams
And some students give great feedback, it must be said.
Dan Vanzant
As a faculty member, what types of feedback do you find most helpful?
David Stewart
Generalizations are helpful, but specific examples are even more helpful. If a student says, “Dr. Stewart could present information more clearly,” I don’t know what that means. But if they say, “For example, when he explains things with a picture on a slide it’s helpful, but when it’s just words, I struggle,” that’s actionable.
If a student says expectations are unreasonable, that’s vague. But if they say, “There was too much pre‑reading—it took me this long—and the assignments took this long,” now I understand.
Michele Williams
So when students give open‑ended feedback, it helps if they include rich detail and an example.
David Stewart
Exactly.
Michele Williams
You also mentioned Academic Affairs oversees academic progression. Could you talk about that?
David Stewart
Academic progression can sound intimidating. But all students are monitored throughout their entire pharmacy education. Each semester, a committee reviews student grades and votes on progression.
If a student earns a non‑passing grade, the committee evaluates what’s needed.
You can’t be a pharmacist if you don’t master the content, so we must ensure competency.
For some students, if they earn a D in one course, they may complete expedited remediation over the summer. Others may need to repeat the course. Students doing very poorly may be dismissed.
The committee advises the dean. Academic Affairs oversees the administrative side—tracking, documentation, ensuring students are treated fairly and consistently.
Our goal is to help students progress. Student success is part of our office. Your role, Dr. Williams, involves supporting students through tutoring, success plans, mentoring, and resources. Students are often hesitant to seek help, but once they do, they often say, “Why didn’t I do that sooner?”
Michele Williams
Yes. Many students don’t realize how much support exists and how invested we are in their success. Pharmacy school is very different from undergrad—but Gatton especially is a supportive environment.
Dan Vanzant
Their success is a measure of our success.
David Stewart
Exactly. And if a large number of students consistently struggle, that reflects on us too. Education is always changing. Students today are different from students 20 years ago. Society has changed, K–12 changes, undergraduate differences… we must constantly adapt how we teach. It’s a never‑ending refinement process.
Michele Williams
Yes. That’s part of what makes higher education interesting—it never stays the same.
David Stewart
The one thing that stays the same is that it’s always changing.
Michele Williams
Definitely. Do you have any other questions, Dan?
Dan Vanzant
No, I’m good.
Michele Williams
Well, Doctor Stewart, thank you so much for talking to us today about the role of Academic Affairs and all the different things our department does at Gatton. We appreciate it very much.
David Stewart
It was a pleasure being your guest. Thank you.
Dan Vanzant
Doctor Williams.