Use of the World Wide Web for information gathering and distribution is hardly a new innovation; rather, that is its fundamental purpose. However, only recently have college and university departments begun exploring the web’s potential as a means of replacing or enhancing traditional methods of faculty assessment. By providing a web-based system for faculty to report professional activities, the review process can be made more efficient, more flexible, and–with a little luck–a less arduous task for all involved.

The Peter Treistman Fine Arts Center for New Media was charged with providing such a system for The University of Arizona’s College of Fine Arts in the Spring of 1997. The result was OPAL: Online Professional Activities Log. OPAL consists of a set of relational databases configured to serve and gather information over the web. The software components include FileMaker Pro 3.0 (http://www.filemaker.com/), WebSTAR 2.1 (http://www.starnine.com/), and WEB•FM 3.0 (http://macweb.com/)—all resident on the college’s web server (a Power Macintosh 8550/120; http://www.apple.com/).

The web as a delivery method solves the problem of platform differences within the college, though it does assume reasonable computer access and skill for all faculty members. As a dynamic system, administrators have instant and current access to all the gathered data and its analysis. The web also allows for an efficient ‘evolution’ of the system itself: changes in the questions asked, the answers given, and even the processes used to manipulate the gathered data.

Much of the information found in the typical promotion and tenure review document is the same information requested of faculty members by public relations and marketing personnel. Incorporating the ability for access to relevant portions of the data gathered in OPAL - including the eventual ability to create ‘on-the-fly’ promotional web pages generated by OPAL itself - relieves the burden on faculty members of reporting redundant information to several different offices.

One of the largest challenges in creating OPAL was in designing the web forms themselves. The system has to require faculty to provide certain quantifiable data while allowing them the opportunity to elaborate as needed. This is an ongoing process that also gives administrators a unique opportunity to examine the amount and nature of the data being gathered.

The other main challenge in the implementation of OPAL, as with any technological tool, was providing sufficient support for faculty with little or no experience with the web. Peer mentoring proved an excellent solution within the School of Music and Dance. The Treistman Center held a handful of OPAL "starter" workshops, and attendees of those sessions, in turn, opened their doors to colleagues who needed assistance in navigating OPAL’s pages.

In its first few months of existence, OPAL has established a significant foundation for an efficient and robust means of gathering information from the Fine Arts faculty. It is not a finished product, as it is designed to expand to fit the needs of the college and its departments.