Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs

Why does Academii exist?

Over the course of his career, the Founder and Dean of Academii became grieved to see many talented doctoral graduates fail in their attempts to land chosen administrative and teaching posts, especially when those scholars had invested years of life and a small fortune in that noble quest. That led to his personally coaching individuals seeking help. Now that the technology exists to make this service available at scale, more scholars can receive professional career training to pursue their dreams. In addition to equipping, Academii has a heart. It wants to provide a community of encouragement and inspiration to beleaguered academic candidates losing confidence in themselves or losing hope in their ability to mount a successful academic job search.

What makes Academii qualified to speak to these issues?

The Founder and Dean of Academii has an earned Ph.D., and additional research doctoral studies in these areas. He has directly led or has overseen a total of 7 doctoral programs in his academic career, at different institutions (Ph.D., Ed.D., D.Ed.Min., D.Min., DICS, and non-English language-versions of these). Moreover, he has conducted related research, taught in these programs, participated in colloquia, consortia, seminars, doctoral defenses, accreditation reviews, led conferences, read papers, given presentations, and developed and taught a Ph.D. seminar— all in this specific area of higher education career— for the better part of two decades.

In addition, he served as the VP, then Executive Director of an academic society for 12 years in the field of higher education. He now serves as an officer of a nation-wide Dean's council representing dozens of institutions, while currently serving on the Senior Leadership Team of his institution, as a Presidential Cabinet member). So whether it involves hiring policy, the vetting process, interviewing, and recommendations for hire or personally authorizing hires in administrative and faculty positions, these roles keep him close to the action. On nearly a daily basis, either in the academic classroom or in actual hiring processes, the Academii Dean interacts with doctoral students, candidates, and graduates eager to obtain positions in teaching or administration

What types of products and services will Academii provide?

Online Courses for Scholars: For Scholars seeking positions, these include a premier Master Class designed to transform the applicant into a convictional and convincing candidate, along with numerous courses targeting every major area of the search, hiring, and on-boarding process, along with microcredentials that represent bundles of completed sets of courses.

Online Course for Institutions: For Institutions seeking to make better scholarly hires, look for the one-of-a-kind © Academii Interview Strategy, which is based on helping find the best fit for your organization. This method and model was personally designed by the Academii Dean for actual searches, and it is being used both inside and outside his current academic institution.

Webinars: At intermittent times throughout the year, online webinars will target key skills designed to help scholars in the development of tools needed for the search process.

Group Events: A very limited calendar of online or in-person presentations, seminars, or symposia for select groups may be pursued by contacting the Academii Dean

What is the advantage of taking Academii courses?

First, virtually no program like Academii exists. There are a small number of expensive personalized coaching services, a few higher education-related blogs, and a handful of lone faculty members making social media posts on these topics, but no true comprehensive, cohesive, and accessible curriculum that joyfully and chronologically helps scholars through each stage of the academic search. Second, the Academii Dean successfully entered academe very early in his career, then progressed in time to full professor. Along the way, he has held not only teaching positions, but also mid-and-upper level administrative roles. These have included roles held throughout his career including posts as Associate Director, Program Director, Area Director, Extension Site Director, Department Chair, Associate Dean, Dean, Chief Academic Officer, Associate Vice-President, and other roles within the Provost's Office and Presidents Council. Serving in these high-level roles continues even now, as the Academii Dean serves and is involved on a near-weekly basis as a key part of or personally directing academic search processes and related faculty development. This current and expansive bird's-eye view of the search and candidating experience is invaluable in helping aspiring scholars like those seeking assistance from Academii.

What are Academii courses like?

They're engaging, challenging, and fun. They are built on a strong learning management system that creates an '"edu-tainment" feel, where learning becomes exciting. Courses are built into lessons and chapters, making content very logical and manageable. Even if scholars had only a few minutes at a time, chances are they could chip away at courses and complete them on a timely basis. Beyond this, the Academii Dean is personally building each course with good pedagogy, design, and beauty in mind. The user experience (UX) is central, and every course is marked by excellence and rather than cultivating fear and cynicism or presenting a cold, impersonal format), scholars are reminded of the revelry and wonder that attracted them to academe in the first place. All of this will be taking place, not alone, but in community through available discussion communities being organized.

How is the Academii curriculum built?

Though work is being done on a number of fronts that includes help for institutions seeking to improve their selection process, Academii's primary purpose is to train scholars to seek academic positions. This fundamentally occurs in a curriculum which will become at least 1+24 courses. The foundational course is to be the Academii Master Course, designed to help the scholar prepare for an academic search and career at a personal level. The 24 course curriculum is designed to help the scholar in 4 distinct phases of the search process: (1) Core Program: The creation of one's application dossier, specifically the CV, cover letter, recommendations, references, various personal statements that may be needed, and advice about the application process; (2) Honors: The period of increasing one's influence and expertise while searching, networking, and applying for positions; (3) Fellows: The short-list phase of a candidating process, involving a campus visit, interviews, selection, negotiation, and acceptance; (4) Scholars: This covers a newly-hired professor or administrator from the time of hire through arriving on campus, including The completion of all four programs will make the scholar "Sage Certified" which communicates the comprehensive nature of a scholar's preparation for academe. Finally, scholars completing all four individual programs, resulting in Sage Certification, and successfully completing the Academii Master Class will receive the highest honor of this service, the Academii Master. Such persons will have the opportunity to receive a personal academic recommendation from the Academii Dean that may be used in ways helpful to them.

Are Academii courses view-only experiences or interactive with homework?

Academii courses are designed in such a way that scholars can work through the curriculum of each course in a set amount of time, while simply reading, listening, viewing, and reflecting on course content. The highly-recommended approach, however, is for the scholar to take extra time following exposure to the course content, and to immerse himself or herself in the accompanying exercises. Each course has an associated resource or tool that scholars are challenged to produce. Each of these are designed to push the candidate to prominence in the search process, due to the sheer excellence of their presentation and content in each given area.

What is the pricing structure and return policy?

The pricing of most Academii courses is based primarily on the cost model of "taking this content as an academic course", which is almost exactly what this is. A negligible percentage involves annual costs of leasing the best-in-class learning management system necessary to host the content, along with program promotion, and the time being spent to develop the course by the Academii Dean. Academii does not receive corporate or investor funding, so it is a private venture with all risks assumed by the Academii Dean. Because the material is time-tested and proven in effectiveness, there is a no return policy for access to purchased materials. Also note that, since the variables of a scholar's personal readiness and field-related position availability cannot be controlled, no guarantee of job offers is intended or implied, despite the impact this content is making.

Why isn't Academii completely free?

Most things that are free do not exist very long. That is because they are unsustainable and do not survive. Perhaps a quick lecture on economics might be in order... Academii is not free for the same reason everything else in the world isn't free (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, automobiles, cell phones, pet food, organic lettuce, vacations, etc.). Similarly, Academii isn't and cannot be free for the same reason your labor, your time, and what your labor produces is not free— because the entire world works on the basis of economics: the free exchange of goods and services for things of value.

Things of real worth have real value and have real costs. Producing goods and services requires producers to spend time, effort, and money— and to endure financial risks to bring those things into existence. In the case of Academii, the Dean has made enormous sacrifices, given incalculable amounts of time, and endured great direct and indirect financial costs to offer this service. It is impossible to quantify what is being required to make Academii a reality. The excruciating effort, expense, and expertise of producing the Academii website, resources, and experience is made manifest by the fact that no other service quite like it currently exists. The limited service(s) that do exist either have a different target audience, and/or are more narrow in scope, and/or are exorbibantly priced and are beyond the reach of most who are seeking academic positions.

Regarding the scholar's cost to participate in premium Academii resources, every attempt has been made to be sensitive. The goal has been to create a financial formula that balances the long-term sustainability of Academii against the risks and requirements of creating the resource, then inviting those interested in a career in higher education to decide whether the value of the Academii experience is equal to the investment required. It is our hope that these materials greatly increase scholars' success in grabbing the brass ring and reaching their dream—living the good life through a career in the ivory tower of academe.

My question has not been answered or I have another issue. What should I do?