Once a full application is received, committee members receive a notice from the system that it is available for review. “The committees can mark-up [applications] in SharePoint, comment on the candidate, update the record status, note missing information, etc.,” Riss explains. The record for an admitted student can then be pushed out of SharePoint back into the SIS.
Converting to the new system met the usual resistance to a change in process. It was managed by making it “inconvenient” for committee members to continue using the hard-copy folders by requiring them to stay in the office during use.
As the system has grown in acceptance, other uses have been added, such as tracking fellowships. “We captured all the rule sets so everyone can see what the donor intended,” Riss says. “As fellowships are suggested, we document it so we don’t over-commit or not use the funds.”
“The bottom line is to make data visible, so all the faculty in the school can see all the information,” he adds.
Power Collaborators
Of course, college and university faculty and staff collaborate with more people than those located down the hall. Team members might be located on a satellite campus or at an entirely different institution, in which case video and web conferencing are the collaboration tools of choice.
An initiative in the state of Nevada to adopt a standard learning management system for high schools and public colleges and universities led to the adoption of Wimba for easy communication on the project, relates professor Vartouhi Asherian, an instructional designer at the College of Southern Nevada.
Needed features included ease of use, support for a variety of computer operating systems, synchronous and asynchronous capabilities, and a screen appearance that would work for K-20 students. “We were initially looking for just courses, but realized the administration might like the [on-demand] meeting feature because the use could be expanded,” she says.
Web conferencing has increased participation in Administrative Faculty Assembly meetings as faculty members from remote locations can now attend since they don’t have to worry about the cost and time involved in travel. “We had to do some by-law changes so we could accept their vote without seeing their faces,” Asherian says.
Recent budget cuts have encouraged use of the system for professional development and training sessions since some departments stopped reimbursing for travel expenses. The ability to share documents online during the meeting also saves on printing costs.
But there is a drawback. “If I’m a participant I’m bad,” Asherian confesses. “I’m alone in my office so I multitask.” However, even in a face-to-face meeting, people can work on a laptop or leave the room to take a phone call. “You can’t archive a physical meeting,” she points out.
Many higher education institutions are repurposing web conferencing technology originally put in place for synchronous distance learning classes. Clemson University (S.C.) leaders first tapped the existing Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro system for technology support purposes in 2005 when they implemented Microsoft Outlook. “We had about 5,000 employees we were trying to convert from a multitude of legacy services,” says Kathy Hoellen, director of teaching and learning services. The university used the system again the following summer for a Blackboard upgrade, and have used it for training and support ever since.
Prior to using a “Virtual Situation Room” through Connect, large-scale deployments required staff to relocate to a physical situation room stocked with white boards and extra phone lines to manage the implementation. Now, everyone can stay put and activity can be recorded and archived for later use.
Routine calls to the IT help desk are also handled through Connect with the screen-sharing capability used to aid troubleshooting. Training sessions are also conducted live online, which is especially cost effective if only one or two people in a remote location are attending. “We can now provide [remote locations] with the same support services and access to support personnel and training,” Hoellen says.
As a land grant university, Clemson support personnel are distributed across 50 sites. In addition to increasing efficiency, the online system had the unexpected benefit of increasing team spirit. “We’ve had distributed personnel tell us they felt more connected,” Hoellen says, because they have real-time access to coworkers and everyone receives information and updates at the same time.
