Looking ahead to Freshers Week and Inductions

Over the last couple of weeks we have started to think about what the Student Information Point service will be offering and participating in during Freshers Week and Induction.  There are no definite plans yet but we are liaising with other parts of the University to make sure that we have a joined up approach or, more realistically, at least know what is happening and how we can ensure that this information reaches students.  The Student Information Points are a strand of the Student Experience Project - another strand is Inductions and there are three Induction Development Planners.  It is great that we are part of the project with them as they work in the same offices and it is easy to collaborate with them.  They have just produced and circulated the draft central induction plan which outlines events and activities which take place centrally i.e. mainly University wide as opposed to at a College or School level .  This means that we can feature the SIP service and any activities that we propose running in the plan and also know what else is going on.
I have been to meetings of the Information Services Freshers Week Working Group so that we can liaise over activities and services that will be offered in the libraries.  The SIP desk in the central area is located in the Main Library so it is important that we know what is going on.  Also so we know how to direct students to the online information that they need and link this to information that we will be promoting and signposting to.
One of the main places that students need to go to during Freshers Week is to Adam House where they can get their University ID card if it has not been sent to their Halls and also to see Finance.  This year we are going to have a presence at Adam House as it is where there is heavy footfall of new students who will be trying to find out about everything and will have enquiries.  There is quite a big space but we have decide how to make best use of it - is it better to have an enquiry desk / information point set up or better to have a more flexible mobile approach and circulate among the crowd?  

Adam House Ground Floor

Regular meetings day

When I looked back over this blog recently I realised that I had been posting to it since 2009 which seems a long time ago now.  Also that some of the early posts in particular were quick posts about everyday happenings which are quite useful to have a record of to refer back to.  Recently I have posted more lengthy posts about more interesting aspects of managing a service or particular initiatives which others in a similar role might find useful.  However I miss the mundane posts so am going to pick up some of those too.
This week I had a day off on Monday which gave me a longer weekend as I had been to Cambridge.  Yesterday, Tuesday, I spent quite a lot of the day catching up on emails and catching up with the rest of the team.  Then we had the regular supervisors/managers meeting which is myself and the two supervisors and consists of a general chat of what has been happening with the Student Information Points, any meetings or events that have happened or are going to happen and anything that we need to have on the agenda for the team meeting.
The team meeting happens on a Wednesday morning and we open the Student Information Points slightly later to allow for this.  I think team/department meetings are very important and should happen on a regular basis for two main reasons.  Firstly to catch up with what is happening and plan operational stuff for the week ahead - if everyone's there it's easier to circulate the information and get a consensus and saves time.  Secondly, it's a forum and an opportunity for people to raise any issues they have - communication is important but also difficult unless you work at it and create opportunities for it to happen.
Also today I had my fortnightly catch up with my line manager - it's not usually Wednesday, it's usually Friday but gets moved around depending on diaries.  This is my opportunity to let him know what's happening, ask for his advice on some things and ask him to pass up to a higher level some issues that need decisions making.  It's also a chance for him to let me know what's happening at a more strategic level and for us to discuss where and how we want the Student Information Points to develop as part of the Student Experience Project.

Student Information Points - from start to some success

This is a very belated summary of the Student Information Points (SIPs) from when we began in August until the end of Semester 1 in December.  It has been an interesting, exciting and challenging 5 months - a valuable experience for myself and the rest of the SIP team.
We did a presentation event in November which went well and was a milestone for us as it enabled us to put down a marker at a certain point to say what we had achieved, or at least the progress we had made. The audience for this presentation was a cross section of staff from across the University including support / central services and also academic / schools. I presented a cut down but updated version of this presentation in the first week of this Semester and again it was good to 'mark' our progress.
On a practical level the Student Information Points have been operational on a daily basis since the 10th September which was the first day of Freshers week.  We've offered a face to face service and an online presence including the website and social media sites.  The SIPs have offered an electronic communication service including email and text.  
We have been based at the Main Library in George Square and also in two places at Kings Buildings. We are constantly reviewing our locations especially at Kings Buildings to work out where is the best place for us to offer an accessible and useful information service for students. We've also done some Outreach which is when we have set up a 'mobile SIP desk' in buildings at other campuses of the University.  These include the Edinburgh College of Art, Moray House - School of Education, Easter Bush - the School of Veterinary Studies.  

The SIP team have done an excellent job in collecting and collating information from across the University and as you are probably aware the University of Edinburgh is a vast and diverse place.  This has been one of the crucial factors contributing to the success of the service and means that we can answer any question.  We may not know the answer but the team know a great deal and know how to find it out if need be.
An important part of collecting the information has been liaising with staff across the University in central services and in schools.  This has been interesting and challenging and has included a lot of work by the team and myself at different levels to achieve this. We have liaised with individual staff and also through meetings, committees and groups.  I don't think there is a set formula for building up these relationships,  they are different in each area and some of the schools are very different to each other.  Also as we are part of a bigger project it is different to being part of a department ourselves so this has had advantages and disadvantages.
The logging and recording of enquiries has been valuable as it has given us the data we need to constantly review the service that we offer. It has also enabled us to give feedback about the sort of questions that students are asking and the sort of information that they need communicating to them.  Most of our enquiries have been from students although some have been from visitors, potential students and also from staff. We are looking at ways of collecting the data so that we have more information about the type of enquirer as well as the type of enquiry.   
We have lots of plans for Semester 2.  The Student Support Project, of which we are a strand, is growing so there are opportunities to collaborate with communications and with inductions.  We are developing our web presence and looking at ways we can communicate about our service and also be a communication channel for other services. We're looking at what else  we can offer in order to add 'substance' to the service and provide documentation that students need.  We held a competition for students to design a logo for our posters and materials so we are hoping to use these ideas to update our brand and raise our profile.
Lots to look forward to.