Electronic Faculty Activity Reporting

Virginia Tech uses a scholarly activities and research information management system to collect and manage information about research and scholarship, creative works, teaching, extension, outreach, and service activities. This system combines data sources from within and outside the university, including faculty activities data that is automatically pulled into or manually entered into the university's instance of Elements (produced by Symplectic). 

In addition to collating data about faculty activities, Elements enables deposit and claiming of scholarly works in the VTechWorks institutional repository and allows those with an Elements account (faculty and graduate students) to display a profile on Virginia Tech Experts, a searchable, public profile system that increases visibility of faculty scholarship, teaching, and professional activities.

The Elements data combines with other university data sources to feed the University Data Commons (UDC), which allows for automated production of: annual electronic faculty activity reports (efars); promotion and tenure dossiers; and individual, department, college, and university level reports -- all of which are output as MicroSoft Word documents and can be further edited and customized by users once produced.

This connected system is implemented on behalf of the Executive Vice President and Office of the Provost and is coordinated by partners from Faculty Affairs, Academic Resource Management, and University Libraries, with involvement by colleagues in the Office of Research and Innovation, academic College leadership, and with input from Faculty users and other stakeholders.

Training for users of these systems is available through Virginia Tech's Professional Development Network and upon request. See all current workshops, workshop topics, and custom options for your area on our Workshops page.