Faculty Credentialing Tools

Paper, PantherNet and Online Process

1. Non-employees who are teaching courses for Palm Beach State, and/or who will have access to student records.  Please contact HR to complete the Student Records tutorial (FERPA). 
   
   Non-employees who will not be teaching courses for Palm Beach State, and/or who will not have access to student records, should begin with Step 2.
   
   
2. Non-employees should complete the Computer Use Agreement Form and submit to Department Chair (or appropriate supervisor)
   
   
3. Department Chair (or appropriate supervisor) should complete the Non-employee Email Account Request Form.  [User must be logged into the network or access via remote desktop in order to view]
   
   
4. Department personnel should submit both completed forms to Human Resources. HR will certify completion of the forms and load the non-employee into PantherNet (which creates a Palm Beach State email address, People Finder entry, and makes them available for PantherNet faculty credentialing)

Approval Process

To ensure maximum efficiency, it is suggested that this process start concurrently with the paper process as listed above.

1. Submit Online Roster documentation (transcripts, etc.) for credentialing approval
   
   All faculty credentialing requests should be submitted to the Academic Deans Council for credit, prep and CCP.  For CCE and avocational the associate dean or dean approves the credential.  Academic Services will process the credential on PantherNet
   
   
2. Once credentialed, the department can add the instructor to the class
   
   

Note: All instructors tied to a course can view the class roster, but only the PRIMARY instructor can grade.

Step 1 – Potential Instructor formally applies to Palm Beach State
All potential instructors should formally apply to the college to ensure eligibility to work in the United States.

Step 2 - Prepare the Online Faculty Roster
For Credit, College Preparatory and CCPFaculty - All faculty who teach Credit, College Preparatory and CCPcourses must have a Dean complete an Online Faculty Roster in the *Online Faculty Credentialing Database (OFCD) and submit it for approval to Deans' Council. This online roster will include information from the applicant’s transcript and any relevant certifications, licenses, and verified work experience (if applicable based on credentialing criteria).

*Intranet Access Only -To access the Online Faculty Credentialing Database from home, you will need to set-up Virtual Private Network (VPN) access first. Please call the help desk at 868-3100 for assistance.

When reviewing graduate transcripts that include both semester and quarter hours, each graduate course in the discipline should be listed on the Online Faculty Roster. The OFCD will convert the graduate quarter hours to graduate semester hours using the conversion formula below.

Formulae:
1 quarter hour = .667 semester hours
1 semester hour=1.5 quarter hours

Example: An individual possesses a Master’s degree in the discipline, 15 graduate semester hours in the discipline, and a second transcript from another accredited institution.

5 quarter hours x .667 = 3.335 equated semester hours
15 semester hours + 3.335 = 18.335 semester hours.

Additional Notes:
1. Undergraduate classes taken as an undergraduate cannot count towards graduate hours in the discipline. (If needed, these courses can be listed on the "Other Credentialing Information Screen" of the OFCD.)
2. Courses taken that are described as eligible for counting towards a Bachelor’s degree or graduate degree may be counted if the course is taken after admission into graduate school and if it is counted towards the graduate degree in the appropriate discipline.

For CCE and other noncredit Faculty:
All faculty who teach CCE and other noncredit courses (avocational and lifelong learning) must have the appropriate Dean and/or Associate Dean complete an Online Faculty Roster in the Online Faculty Credentialing Database(OFCD). This online roster should include the applicant’s transcript and any relevant certifications and/or licensures.

Step 3 – Deans' Council Review
The Academic Deans' Council will review the Online Faculty Roster and either approve it, reject it or ask for further discussion at the next Deans' Council meeting. All applicants with foreign credentials must be evaluated by one of the Palm Beach State College approved Foreign Transcript Evaluators.

The VPAA has final approval of Credit/Prep/CCPfaculty rosters.

All faculty must meet the stated credentials in the Instructional Credentialing Criteria Manual. In exceptional cases, faculty not meeting the stated criteria may be considered for appointment using the following guidelines:

Exceptions to stated faculty credentials occur in two cases:
1. The faculty member has outstanding professional experience and demonstrated contributions to the teaching discipline, which may be presented in lieu of formal academic preparation.
2. The faculty member has training in a closely related discipline and the competencies needed to teach the course objectives were covered in the related disciplines.

In these cases, the submitting Dean and/or Associate Dean must provide documentation as to how the faculty member’s experience and/or education allows him/her to teach the objectives in the course, using the Justification and Exceptions form.

Step 4 - Loading Faculty Credentials on the PantherNet System - After the faculty credentials have been approved by the Academic Deans' Council for Credit/Preparatory/CCP, or by a Dean or Associate Dean for CCE/avocational and verification is made that the faculty member has been added to the Human Resources system, the Online Faculty Roster is forwarded to Academic Services for input into PantherNet. Once this is accomplished all those involved in preparing and approving the online Faculty roster will be notified. Then the faculty class schedule can be loaded.

Step 5- Official Transcripts sent to Human Resources - The faculty member is responsible for ensuring that official transcripts are sent to Human Resources. If Human Resources has not received the official transcript of an adjunct in the initial term in which they are teaching, they cannot continue to teach in subsequent terms at Palm Beach State until such time the official transcript is received. This is college policy and must be followed.

Reference Materials:

Online Faculty Credentialing Database (OFCD)   [User must be logged into the network or access via remote desktop in order to view]

Justification fof Exception to Credentialing Criteria Form

1. Do all persons teaching need to be credentialed, even CCE and avocational?

Yes, all faculty need to be credentialed through the process established in the credentialing manual. Associate Deans/Deans can directly credential faculty for CCE and avocational; all program based (credit, prep and CCP) will need clearance through the Dean’s Council.

2. I’m just updating an existing instructor for an additional course – do I still need approval from the Deans' Council?

Yes. For example, if a person has been teaching MAT 1033 Intermediate Algebra, their credentials would need to be reviewed to see if they could teach other classes. It is best to prepare a faculty roster from the start with all possible courses a faculty member is qualified to teach even if they might not initially be teaching those courses.

3. What should the sequence be for hiring an instructor – is it important?

Yes, very important. For any potential instructor, the first step should be for the person to complete an application with Human Resources and confirm their eligibility to work in the U.S. The second step should be to obtain an official or unofficial transcript and prepare the online faculty roster for Deans' Council review and submission to Academic Services. The third step should be adding the person to the class as a primary or secondary instructor. The fourth step should be to file a Personal Action Form (PAF) with Human Resources. If things happen out of sequence, delays will occur. For example, though you can have someone’s credentials approved BEFORE they have applied to HR, there is no way that the person’s credentials can be loaded onto PantherNet because they do not exist in the system. You will need to be check daily to see when the person is loaded as an applicant or employee and then send the credentials forward to Academic Services to be entered into the IRM system.

Steps:
1. Potential instructor should apply to HR
2. Review of faculty credentials – Academic Services adds to PantherNet if approved
3. Add person to class as instructor
4. File PAF form with HR

4. What if I am not sure if the person qualifies under the credentialing criteria or I think the criteria are wrong?

The purpose of the Deans' Council review is to gain input from colleagues on a person’s credentials to teach given our written criteria. Our goal is to use the credentialing manual as posted each academic year. If refinements are needed, they can be incorporated into next year’s manual.

5. Does Academic Services perform a “final check? against the credentialing manual, and keep files for the submitted faculty rosters?

No, Academic Services personnel do not re-check any credentialing eligibility – we add or update the credential and add a note to the electronic file as to the date added. We do not keep or file any faculty rosters.

The manuals below are the previous editions of the Palm Beach State Instructional Credentialing Criteria

• 2024-25 Instructional Credentialing Criteria
• 2021-22 Instructional Credentialing Criteria
• 2020-21 Instructional Credentialing Criteria
• 2019-20 Instructional Credentialing Criteria