Acronyms and Abbreviations at UCF

Colleges

BHC	Burnett Honors College
CAH	College of Arts and Humanities
CBA	College of Business Administration
CECS	College of Engineering & Computer Science
CEdHP	College of Education and Human Performance
CGS	College of Graduate Studies
COHPA	College of Health & Public Affairs
COM	College of Medicine
CON	College of Nursing
CREOL	College of Optics and Photonics
COS	College of Sciences
RCHM	Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Other Terms

A&P – Administrative & Professional

ACA – After Contract Award

ADA – Americans with Disabilitiies Act

ADI – Administrative Discretionary Increase

ADL – Advanced Distributed Learning. This course (ADL 5000) is taken online by faculty to become credentialed to teach their own online (or mixed-mode) courses that someone else has created. To teach a fully original online course, faculty must complete a different program called IDL 6543.

AESP – Annual Evaluation Standards and Procedures

ALC – Academic Learning Compacts. Operational Excellence (OEAS) coordinates this list of student learning outcomes for every major at UCF (i.e., what students will know by the time they graduate with each degree). http://www.oeas.ucf.edu/

ARGIS – Academic Research & Grant Information System. https://argis.research.ucf.edu/

BOG – Board of Governors

BOT – Board of Trustees

C&I – Centers & Institutes

CBA – Collective Bargaining Agreement. This is the formal agreement between the UCF Board of Trustees and the United Faculty of Florida that regulates the terms and conditions of employees at UCF, their duties, and the duties of the Board of Trustees. http://collectivebargaining.ucf.edu/completecba.asp

CDL – Center for Distributed Learning. This office coordinates all permissions, tech support, and assistance with online teaching. They do not control the university hardware like Internet access or email (those are supported by Computer Services). http://cdl.ucf.edu

CITI – Collaborative Instituional Training Initiative

CLERY – Clery Act

COI – Conflict of Interest

Co-PI – Co-Principal Investigator

CPE – Cumulative Progress Evaluation

DAL – Department Authorization List

DARPA – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DEA – Drug Enforcement Administration

DHHS – Department of Health and Human Services

DoD – Department of Defense

DRC – Division Review Committee; part of University Assessment. If you are assigned to work with a DRC, a DRC chairperson will give you specific instructions.

DROP – Deferred Retirement Option Program

EAR – Export Administration Regulations

EC – Export Control

ECRT – Effort Reporting and Certification

ELI – English Language Institute

EMPL-ID – (pronounced “em-pull I.D.”) Employee ID. This seven-digit number is identical to the UCFID, but is primarily used for personnel and financial matters on university forms.

EOM – End of Month

ePAF – Electronic Personnel Action Form

Essentials – Online training required to receive a course shell via Webcourses (more properly called Webcourses@UCF Essentials, to distinguish it from IDV Essentials). Faculty teaching face-to-face courses, with no reduction in seat time, can use Webcourses@UCF to hold syllabi and materials, or give quizzes, if they complete Essentials. Contact webcourses@ucf.edu to get started.

F&A – Finance and Accounting

F.S. – Florida Statutes

FAR – Faculty Activity Reporting

FAS – Faculty Activity System

FCTL – Karen L. Smith Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning. The Faculty Center is your first stop for navigating the UCF network of resources, this office aids with all aspects of teaching and learning. Located in CB1-207. http://www.fctl.ucf.edu

FDA – Food and Drug Administration

FERPA – Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. This act of Congress dictates that student records (including grades) are to be kept confidential. In practice, this means grades and other records should never be posted, displayed, or made available in a way that one student can learn another student’s grade. http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

FLC – Faculty Learning Community. Coordinated by the Faculty Center, these groups are made up of faculty members seeking to discuss faculty life or aspects of teaching, and typically meet several times each semester.

FMLA – Family Medical Leave Act

FQMS – Faculty Qualifications Management System

FRS – Florida Retirement System

FSEC – Florida Solar Energy Center

FSI – Florida Space Institute

FTE – Full Time Equivalent. This is shorthand for the percentages/components that make up a faculty member’s job. FTE always equals 1.0 (example: research 0.6, teaching 0.3, service 0.1).

FTIC – First Time in College (previously called “freshmen”).

GEP – General Education Program. These required, lower-division classes are sometimes called “core” courses at other colleges. They are often high-enrollment lecture classes. http://transfer.sdes.ucf.edu/docs/gepsheet1415.pdf

GRA – Graduate Research Assistant

GTA – Graduate Teaching Assistant

HR – Human Resources. http://hr.ucf.edu

HRIS – Human Resources Information Systems

I/L – Instructors and Lecturers

IAGS – International Affairs and Global Strategies. https://www.international.ucf.edu/

IARPA – Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity

ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement

IDL – Interactive Distributed Learning; this term is used with only one class named IDL 6543, which is the required face-to-face course before faculty can teach fully online classes. Contact your chair or director for permission to enroll.

IDS – Interdisciplinary Studies. This major at UCF allows students to combine multiple disciplines into a single course of study. http://www.is.ucf.edu

IDV – Interactive Distributed Video; this term is used with the CDL-class (training) called IDV-Essentials, which faculty must complete online before they can teach video-mode classes using the Panopto software.

IF – Information Fluency. This campus-wide initiative was the chosen “Quality Enhancement Plan” for UCF in 2006, and has continued since. http://if.ucf.edu

IKM – Institutional Knowledge Management

In-Unit – Regular positions at UCF classified as “in-unit” are part of a “bargaining unit” and are therefore covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement, a contract that lays out certain terms and conditions of employment. Most faculty members outside of the College of Medicine are in-unit.

IRB – Institutional Review Board. This panel of experts reviews all research involving human subjects (including surveys) before the research can begin. This includes classroom-based research. http://www.research.ucf.edu/Compliance/irb.html

IT – Information Technology

ITAR – International Traffic-in-Arms Regulations

ITR – Information Technologies and Resources

iTunesU – Storage space on iTunes for podcasts (or limited videos), accessed via the Media Manager window in the Online Course Tools tab of the portal.

Knights Email – Required student email at UCF. Students receive this at orientation or matriculation. Knights Email is a UCF-branded version of Outlook, and it is the official email for students, who are required to check it weekly. Faculty should contact students only at Knights Email. Faculty may also create their own Knights Email account; visit http://knightsmail.ucf.edu/ to get started.

LAPER – Leave and Pay Exception Report

LEP – Leadership Enhancement Program

Materia – Flash-based games and study tools faculty can set up for students to practice discrete sets of material. https://materia.ucf.edu/

M-mode – Mixed-mode teaching (also called “blended”) involves reduced seat time, with extra emphasis on Webcourses (it is a partly online class).

myUCF – The “portal” website with access to multiple UCF software systems, all with “single sign-on” (no need to sign in again to access them). Paycheck stubs, teaching schedules, and grade submission are found here, as well as hyperlinks to subsystems like Webcourses, iTunesU, and more. https://my.ucf.edu/

NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration. http://www.nasa.gov/

NCE – No Cost Extension

Network Systems – Department in Computer Services that controls the Internet connection to campus, firewalls, and wireless access.

NFO – New Faculty Orientation. This academic orientation is organized by the Faculty Center; there is also a separate HR Orientation.

NID – Network ID. This is a second ID number (after the UCFID) that is used to sign in to UCF computer systems and your UCF email. NIDs are often (but not always) composed of the first two letters of your first name and six randomly assigned numbers. To find out what your NID is, visit https://my.ucf.edu/nid.html. To change your NID password, visit http://mynid.ucf.edu/.

NIH – National Institutes of Health

NLT – No Later Than

NSF – National Science Foundation

NTE – Non-Tenure Earning

Obojobo – A Flash-based software environment for testing, practicing, and reading “learning objects.” Can work in conjunction with Webcourses. This word is not an abbreviation for anything.

OFC – Office of Foreign Assets Control

OIE – Office of Institutional Equity. http://www.oie.ucf.edu/

OIR – Office of Instructional Resources; coordinates hardware in classrooms (unless that room/building is controlled by a college instead). http://www.oir.ucf.edu

OPS – Other Personnel Services

ORC – Office of Research and Commercialization. All sponsored research at UCF must be coordinated with ORC; they will also help with the grant process. http://www.research.ucf.edu

ORP – Optional Retirement Plan

Outlook – UCF’s official email system (sometimes called Exchange, which is the name of the software controlling it).

P&T – Promotion and Tenure

PAF – Personnel Action Form

Panopto – Lecture-capture software, often used while teaching to live students. Captures PowerPoint (or document camera) as well as inset webcam-style video. http://oir.ucf.edu/lecture-capture/

PeopleSoft – UCF’s enterprise software that controls all student and employee records; also the core of Identity Management; myUCF provides the front-end access to PeopleSoft.

PHS – Public Health Service

Physical Plant – UCF’s term for the facilities office, which handles such services as housekeeping, maintenance, and postal services on campus. http://www.fo.ucf.edu

PI – Principal Investigator

Portal – Synonym for “myUCF”

PTF – Proposal Transmittal Form

PTSD – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

QEP – Quality Enhancement Plan. As part of the university’s accreditation with SACS-COC, UCF has to choose a “quality enhancement plan” every ten years to advance a particular cause/agenda. In 2006, the QEP chosen was Information Fluency.

RCR – Responsible Conduct of Research

Respondus – Free third-party software that enables plain-text quizzes to be uploaded to Webcourses@UCF with a few clicks.

RFO – Resonsible Fiscal Officer

RFP – Request for Proposals. The formal call for proposals to win competitive offers for funding.

RIA – Research Incentive Award. This competitive award adds $5,000 to base salary; see the provost’s website for details. http://facultyrelations.ucf.edu/awards-leaves/research-incentive-award-ria/

RITE – Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness. This research-based subgroup is part of CDL and investigates mostly online learning. http://cdl.ucf.edu/research/rite

SACS-COC – Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges; the official accrediting body for UCF and the region. http://www.sacs.org

SARC – Student Academic Resource Center. Tutorial, supplemental instruction, and study skills workshops for students. http://sarc.sdes.ucf.edu

SAS – Student Accessibility Services. Coordinates requests for accommodation for students with disabilities. http://sas.sdes.ucf.edu

SDES – Student Development & Enrollment Services. Student-facing programs and services aimed at student success and retention. http://www.sdes.ucf.edu/

SLO – Student Learning Outcomes. Part of the ALC “contract” with students for each major.

SoTL – Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. This refers to publications, presentations, and grants in peer-reviewed journals about teaching methods and practices. See the Faculty Center website for information about SoTL design and implementation. UCF sponsors a SoTL Award that adds $5000 to faculty base salaries (see the provost’s website for details). http://facultyrelations.ucf.edu/awards-leaves/scholarship-of-teaching-and-learning-sotl-2/

SPE – Sustained Perfomance Evaluations

SPI – Special Pay Increase

SPoI – Student Perception of Instruction (sometimes abbreviated as SPI). These reviews of class/faculty performance are given to students at the end of each class when they log in to myUCF. Some departments use SPoI results to aid in annual (formal) faculty evaluations. http://teach.ucf.edu/resources/online-evaluations

STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. These disciplines are often referred to in the aggregate, and many programs are customized for STEM audiences.

Summer Faculty Development Conference – Participants apply to one of several tracks (CSWF, Diversity, International, IF, FCTL, Service-Learning, STEM, WAC) at this funded, UCF-specific conference; faculty do not present research at this conference; rather, they attend to gather ideas. Many tracks also require work toward a final product and complete collaborative projects.

SUS – State University System

T&P – Tenure and Promotion. Contact Faculty Excellence (407-823-1113) with any questions.

TAR – Travel Authorization Request

TIP – Teaching Incentive Program Award. This competitive award adds $5,000 to base salary; see the provost’s website for details.

TurnItIn – Plagiarism detection and prevention service. Faculty must attend a workshop with FCTL to obtain a TurnItIn account. http://turnitin.com

UCFID - This is a second ID number (besides the NID) and is used as a unique identifier for faculty, staff, and students. The UCFID is the same seven digits of your employee ID (EMPL-ID). For more information about the UCFID and where it is used, visit http://myid.ucf.edu/.

UCFRF – UCF Research Foundation

UFF-UCF – United Faculty of Florida is the professional association and collective bargaining agent for faculty members of colleges and universities in Florida, and is an affiliate of the Florida Education Association, which is affiliated with both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

USPS – University Support Personnel System

VA – Veteran Affairs

VAMC – Veteran Affairs Medical Center

VARC – Veterans Academic Resource Center. This office assists student veterans and provides programming for them. http://www.va.ucf.edu

VR – Very Respectfully

W-mode – Web-mode (aka fully online) class, with minimal or no face-to-face.

Webcourses@UCF – UCF’s course management system is Canvas by Instructure and branded Webcourses@UCF. Types of classes include face-to-face (enhanced), mixed-mode reduced seat time (M), and fully on the web (W). Visit http://teach.ucf.edu/ for more information.

Winter Faculty Development Conference – Participants apply to this funded, UCF-specific conference (sponsored by FCTL); faculty members make teaching-related presentations and participate in think-tank style sessions during this event.

WRT – With Respect To