Acronyms and Abbreviations

Classroom Building Acronyms

Colleges

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 Institutional Training Initiative

CLERY – Clery Act

COI – Conflict of Interest

Co-PI – Co-Principal Investigator

CPE – Cumulative Progress Evaluation

DAL – Department Authorization List

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

E&G – Education and General (E&G) funds “may be used for general instruction, research, public service, plant operations and maintenance, furniture, fixtures, equipment, student services, libraries, administrative support, and other enrollment-related and stand-alone operations of the university” (Financial Affairs “UCF Expenditure Guidelines”).

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

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. See https://cdl.ucf.edu/teach/professional-development/essentials/ or 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. https://fctl.ucf.edu

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

FMC – Faculty Multimedia Center. https://cdl.ucf.edu/support/fmc/

FMLA – Family Medical Leave Act

FQMS – Faculty Qualifications Management System

FRS – Florida Retirement System

FSEC – Florida Solar Energy Center

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.

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

IDL – Interactive Distributed Learning; this term is used in reference to professional development courses offered by CDL. The first class, IDL 6543, is the required face-to-face course before faculty can teach fully online classes. Contact your chair or director for permission to enroll. IDL 7000 is supplemental and is offered to faculty who wish to refresh or enhance their online teaching experience. https://cdl.ucf.edu/teach/professional-development/idl7000/

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

IKM – Institutional Knowledge Management. This office provides statistics and data about UCF students, graduation rates, and other institutional data.

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

ITR – Information Technologies and Resources

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.

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). Teaching schedules and grade submission are found here, as well as hyperlinks to subsystems like Webcourses@UCF and more. https://my.ucf.edu/

NCE – No Cost Extension. This term is often used with grants that are allowed to continue operating by stretching its original budget.

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 Faculty Excellence; there is also a separate HR Orientation.

NID – Network ID. This is the ID number 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/.

NTE – Non-Tenure Earning

Obojobo – A software environment for testing, practicing, and reading “learning objects.” Can work in conjunction with Webcourses. This word is not an abbreviation for anything. https://obojobo.ucf.edu/

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://oir.ucf.edu

OPS – Other Personnel Services

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

ORP – Optional Retirement Plan

OUR – Office of Undergraduate Research. https://academicsuccess.ucf.edu/our/

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

P&T – Promotion and Tenure

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/

PFSA – Pride Faculty and Staff Association

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 – Preparing Tomorrow’s Faculty. A voluntary, zero-credit-hour graduate course offered every fall and spring semester to help graduate students learn the principles of teaching and begin to assemble a teaching portfolio. https://fctl.ucf.edu/programs/gta-programs/

QEP – Quality Enhancement Plan. As part of the university’s accreditation with SACS-COC, UCF chooses a “quality enhancement plan” every ten years to develop and execute a university-wide, multi-year initiative seeking to improve student learning outcomes.

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. https://cdl.ucf.edu/support/webcourses/respondus/

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. https://facultyexcellence.ucf.edu/recognition/research-incentive-award/

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

SACS-COC – Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges; the official accrediting body for UCF. 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

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). https://facultyexcellence.ucf.edu/recognition/scholarship-of-teaching-and-learning/

SPE – Sustained Perfomance Evaluations

SPI – Student Perception of Instruction. 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 SPI results to aid in annual (formal) faculty evaluations. https://it.ucf.edu/our-services/test-scoring/student-perception-of-instruction/

SSWB– Student Success and Well-Being. Student-facing programs and services aimed at student success and retention. http://www.sdes.ucf.edu/

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 Institute– Participants apply to one of several tracks 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.

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

TLC – Teaching with Lecture Capture. TLC is a self-paced professional development course for faculty who wish to teach in a video streaming modality and who wish to present course content appropriate for video lecture capture. The program is a UCF prerequisite for delivery of an exclusively video streamed course (V), or a video streamed course with classroom attendance options (RV). https://cdl.ucf.edu/teach/professional-development/lecture-capture/

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 https://infosec.ucf.edu/identity-management/identity-details/.

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

VAMC – Veteran Affairs Medical Center

VARC – Veterans Academic Resource Center. This office assists student veterans and provides programming for them. https://varc.sdes.ucf.edu/

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

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

Workday – UCF’s enterprise software that controls all employee records and role-specific business processes, including procurement, expenses, accounting, recruiting and hiring, grants management and others.

If you’re new to the Higher Education system in the United States, you may appreciate this custom glossary of Higher Ed terms.