The ABET Professional Development Summary generates a summary table of professional development activities completed by faculty, supporting the professional development section of the ABET Self-Study Questionnaire. This article explains what the report produces, the Faculty Success screen it draws from, and the report options available when running it.
This article is intended for Faculty Success Administrators, Deans, and Department Heads responsible for preparing ABET accreditation materials.
About the ABET Professional Development Summary
ABET's accreditation criteria require that faculty demonstrate ongoing professional development as part of their overall competence. The Self-Study Questionnaire asks programs to provide detailed descriptions of professional development activities for each faculty member. The ABET Professional Development Summary supports this requirement by generating a structured summary of activities entered in the Faculty Development Activities Attended screen in Faculty Success.
The report produces two sections:
- Summary table: Organized by College, Department/Program, and Activity Type, showing the count of activities, number of faculty participating, and total faculty for each grouping.
- Detail section (optional): Lists each faculty member's individual professional development activities with full citation details, including activity type, title, sponsoring organization, location, and dates. This section is controlled by the Display item citation? report option described below.
For the current professional development requirements for your commission, refer to the ABET Self-Study Questionnaire templates on the ABET website.
Report Data
- Screen: Faculty Development Activities Attended
- Records included: All records within the report date range.
The report draws from all Faculty Development Activities Attended records that fall within the date range selected when running the report. Each record contributes one row to the detail section and is counted in the summary table under its corresponding College, Department, and Activity Type.
Fields Used in the Report
The following fields from the Faculty Development Activities Attended screen appear in the report output:
- Activity Type: Used to group records in the summary table and appears in the citation format. If Activity Type is set to "Other," the Explanation of "Other" field value is used instead.
- Title
- Sponsoring Organization
- City, State, and Country
- Brief Description
- Start Date and End Date
Records with a single-day activity should have only an End Date entered, with the Start Date left blank. For ongoing activities not yet completed, enter the Start Date only and leave the End Date blank. To learn more about how activity dates influence report results, visit Significant Dates and Reporting.
Report Date Range and Options
Select a date range that covers the academic year of your Self-Study Report, consistent with the date range used for running Tables 6-1 and 6-2. All Faculty Development Activities Attended records with dates that fall within the selected range will be included in the report.
Report Options
When running the ABET Professional Development Summary, the report includes one configurable option under Report Options:
Display item citation? controls whether a detail section appears below the summary table in the report output.
- No (default): The report outputs the summary table only, organized by College, Department/Program, and Activity Type.
- Yes: The report outputs the summary table followed by a detail section listing each faculty member's individual activities in citation format. Each citation includes the activity type, title, sponsoring organization, location, and dates.
Selecting Yes is recommended when preparing the professional development section of your Self-Study Report, as it provides the detailed descriptions of each faculty member's activities that ABET requires.
Preparing Your Data
Before running the report, confirm the following for each faculty member included in the program:
- Faculty Development Activities Attended records exist for the target academic year with Activity Type, Title, Sponsoring Organization, and Date Fields completed.
- If Activity Type is set to Other, the Explanation of "Other" field is also completed, as this value will appear in the citation in place of the Activity Type.
- Faculty members are correctly assigned to their College and Department/Program in Yearly Data, as the summary table groups results by these values.