In addition to the Student Information Points desks at the main library, at KB library and at KB JCMB, we are undertaking outreach activities. Basically this involves setting up and operating mobile and flexible SIPs at other locations around the University. The University covers a wide area and diverse collection of buildings around the city.
We, the SIP team, have liaised with every service and School (academic dept) across the University and identified locations where it would be useful to have a presence for a day. The locations we are trying first are Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) (at three different buildings), the School of Education at Moray House, the Veterinary School at Easter Bush and also Pollock Halls which are the student halls of residence.
Today was our first outreach at ECA and it was very successful. The SIP assistant who has been liaising with ECA went there for the day and was joined by Student Support Officers from the school. One of the SIP supervisors went along for part of the day too.
The set up is easy - a table and chairs. But we have a large banner, posters and leaflets too plus a laptop. Also the business cards to advertise the text service have just been printed so there were lots of those to give out which are a convenient size. Most importantly sweets - lots of sweets to hand out to students with stickers attached giving details of the SIP.
Another initiative we have at the moment is a design competition (more details to follow) so posters about that were distributed.
The day was very successful and was a great way to raise awareness of what the Student Information Points can do to help and where to find information.
This evening two members of the team were going to Pollock Halls to do the same thing and this has gone very well too. All the supplies of posters, cards and sweets have been been given out and readily accepted.
One of the reasons that the outreach activity is successful is that it is proactive and the SIP supervisors and assistants are very personable with great customer service skills. They strike a very good balance in their approach with friendliness, knowledge and professionalism.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Text enquiry service for Student Information Points
Text enquiry service for Student Information Points
In addition to the face to face enquiry service that we
offer at the Student Information Points we are developing a number of other
channels of communication and delivery. We don't offer a telephone service at
present but we do offer an email service. Students can email infopoint@ed.ac.uk with enquiries about
anything and we will email them back as soon as possible which is usually
within an hour.
Also we have now developed and launched a text service. This
means that students can text their enquiry to a number and they will receive a
reply asap - we will aim for an immediate response between 9.00 - 5.00 Mon - Fri. To send an enquiry, text SIP then a space then the
enquiry to 07950081379
Basically the text service uses txttools which is now
Blackboard ConnectTxt. I've used it before in my previous job and most of the system was already set up at the University of Edinburgh and it just required a few additions to make it 'two way'. It
is most commonly used to text out - to send students messages about their
course, assignment dates, cancelled lectures, upcoming events etc. But it can
be set up and used for incoming text messages which is how we are using it for
the Student Information Points.
The texts can be sent and received through the web
interface which is simple and straightforward to use. (It is possible to use
the text through a Blackboard building block although this used to be a little
slow but may have improved now). We have had the system set up so that the
texts come into the Outlook email inbox and are replied to as an email which
then appears as a text to the enquirers phone. It's a fairly simple system that
works well. The advantage of the texts coming to the Outlook email are that
they can be processed by the same person and in the same way as any email
enquiries. Also you don't have to be logged into the ConnectTxt web site as the
text will just appear in your inbox. This also provides a way of tracking any
text replies so that they can be retrieved and followed up at a later if
necessary.
Monday, 15 October 2012
Meetings and meeting people
One of the exciting aspects of starting a new job is meeting new people. Over the last month I have met lots of new people and been to lots of meetings. As far as meeting new people in a work environment is concerned it can be overwhelming and I think you have to take on board the fact that you are not going to remember everyone and will have to follow it up later. One way that I have tried to do this is by making a quick note of people's names and then looking them up later. Or asking them if it would be alright to drop them an email in the following few days. Email makes it so much easier to follow people up as you can usually find them in the institutions global email address book even if you were not quite sure of their name. It also helps that it will have their department so for instance if you meet someone who you know is from Registry or Chemistry but didn't quite catch their name you can go and look up their department and job title and track them down. You have to be pro active to some extent and make the most of the fact that you are new and can ask people if they want to meet for a coffee/ chat/ update because you're interested in what they do or would appreciate their advice etc. I'm getting better at this than I would have been in the past although I've only realised this on reflection as I've done it without thinking. You have to be careful not to put your foot in it and work out whether someone is going to be happy to talk to you or going to be too busy or important but with a bit of care, it works. At least if you are new and make a faux pas you've got a good excuse being new. I have been very fortunate in that everyone at University of Edinburgh has been very kind, helpful and friendly. I have also met some very interesting people who are efficient and clever which appeals greatly.
I've been to quite a few formal and informal meetings. At the start I was invited to meetings in order to talk about our part of the overall project. The Student Information Points are a small part of the Enhancing Student Support project. At first I talked in general terms about what we were hoping to do and how we envisaged it would work. As time has gone on it has been possible to start feeding back on our progress and give information of the current situation and further developments. The more practice you get with meetings the better and I have become more experienced especially over the last 5 years. Every institution, organisation, committee, group does it slightly differently. Sometimes it is very formal and people speak through the chair, sometimes it is a free for all. You have to work out who are the most important people either by rank or by stake in the project or group. Sometimes there are minutes, sometimes notes and sometimes it s up to you to take your own. The more experience you have then the easier it is to work out the system and pattern that is being used. I tend to prepare a set of notes in advance of what I could say if asked or if I have already been asked to contribute, I'll take a summary sheet with me. You don't necessarily have to use them but its good to have. It gives some structure and generally makes a better impression.
I've been to quite a few formal and informal meetings. At the start I was invited to meetings in order to talk about our part of the overall project. The Student Information Points are a small part of the Enhancing Student Support project. At first I talked in general terms about what we were hoping to do and how we envisaged it would work. As time has gone on it has been possible to start feeding back on our progress and give information of the current situation and further developments. The more practice you get with meetings the better and I have become more experienced especially over the last 5 years. Every institution, organisation, committee, group does it slightly differently. Sometimes it is very formal and people speak through the chair, sometimes it is a free for all. You have to work out who are the most important people either by rank or by stake in the project or group. Sometimes there are minutes, sometimes notes and sometimes it s up to you to take your own. The more experience you have then the easier it is to work out the system and pattern that is being used. I tend to prepare a set of notes in advance of what I could say if asked or if I have already been asked to contribute, I'll take a summary sheet with me. You don't necessarily have to use them but its good to have. It gives some structure and generally makes a better impression.
Friday, 5 October 2012
Collecting enquiry data from Student Information Points
We are now at the end of our fourth week and so far so good. The Student Information Points have been operational at the three sites every day and we have dealt with hundreds of enquiries.
One of the most important aspects of the enquiry service for me from the beginning was that we needed to record the enquiries in some sort of way. I wanted to ensure that we collected the data in one form or another from the start. The two main reasons for this were that I wanted a record right from the start which would show what we were doing i.e. the activity of the service in so much as it could be measured. Secondly because I suspected that this was something that wasn't necessarily being recorded in other areas and would be of interest further down the line.
Collecting and presenting data can easily become an enormous task, never ending in fact and this was something to consider. What I wanted was a quick and easy way with the basic requirements that it took less than 20 seconds to record an enquiry (preferably less than 10) and that it could be used by more than one person simultaneously. An additional requirement was that, if possible, it would be saved automatically.
Therefore we decided to use a Google form. In the past I've used them for the 'user' to fill in but for the Student Information Points we are using them for the team on the desks to fill in to record an enquiry that they have been asked. To start with I created a form based on the ideas from the team. Our SIP service was due to start in Freshers Week, and it did, but because it is a new service we didn't know what questions were going to be asked. So we guessed and it turned out that we were quite close to what we needed. We used version 1 of the form for Week 0 (Fresher's week) and Week 1 and then updated the form to reflect the questions that had been asked. So we now have data from two lots of two weeks - there are not many changes between version 1 and version 2 of the form so much of it can be compared across the 4 weeks.
It has been surprisingly trouble free. All the team have been able to access it and use it from the 3 different physical sites on a variety of computers and laptops every day. It has proven to be quick enough to fill in even for the simplest enquiries such as directions. Ok, it's not sophisticated but we don't need it to be. The fact that it saves automatically into the spreadsheet has been useful and then we can export the results and collate and analyse them. The rest of the SIP team have been brilliant at doing this and producing graphs and reports - much quicker and more efficient than me :)
In the future we will review and develop the way we collect the data from the enquiries. We need to consider how we need to protect the data if we start having enquiries that contain details about individual students rather than general enquiries. We need to look at how we use the University systems and how we integrate the data that we collect with other systems. I expect that we will also need to review our data collection methods when we receive feedback from presenting our information to the interested parties.
But for now, it works.
One of the most important aspects of the enquiry service for me from the beginning was that we needed to record the enquiries in some sort of way. I wanted to ensure that we collected the data in one form or another from the start. The two main reasons for this were that I wanted a record right from the start which would show what we were doing i.e. the activity of the service in so much as it could be measured. Secondly because I suspected that this was something that wasn't necessarily being recorded in other areas and would be of interest further down the line.
Collecting and presenting data can easily become an enormous task, never ending in fact and this was something to consider. What I wanted was a quick and easy way with the basic requirements that it took less than 20 seconds to record an enquiry (preferably less than 10) and that it could be used by more than one person simultaneously. An additional requirement was that, if possible, it would be saved automatically.
Therefore we decided to use a Google form. In the past I've used them for the 'user' to fill in but for the Student Information Points we are using them for the team on the desks to fill in to record an enquiry that they have been asked. To start with I created a form based on the ideas from the team. Our SIP service was due to start in Freshers Week, and it did, but because it is a new service we didn't know what questions were going to be asked. So we guessed and it turned out that we were quite close to what we needed. We used version 1 of the form for Week 0 (Fresher's week) and Week 1 and then updated the form to reflect the questions that had been asked. So we now have data from two lots of two weeks - there are not many changes between version 1 and version 2 of the form so much of it can be compared across the 4 weeks.
It has been surprisingly trouble free. All the team have been able to access it and use it from the 3 different physical sites on a variety of computers and laptops every day. It has proven to be quick enough to fill in even for the simplest enquiries such as directions. Ok, it's not sophisticated but we don't need it to be. The fact that it saves automatically into the spreadsheet has been useful and then we can export the results and collate and analyse them. The rest of the SIP team have been brilliant at doing this and producing graphs and reports - much quicker and more efficient than me :)
In the future we will review and develop the way we collect the data from the enquiries. We need to consider how we need to protect the data if we start having enquiries that contain details about individual students rather than general enquiries. We need to look at how we use the University systems and how we integrate the data that we collect with other systems. I expect that we will also need to review our data collection methods when we receive feedback from presenting our information to the interested parties.
But for now, it works.
Friday, 21 September 2012
End of second week
The Student Information Points have been operational for two weeks now - Freshers Week (Week 0) and Week 1. So far everything is working ok and fairly smoothly. During both weeks we have been busier at the beginning of the week with a bit of a lull on Wed and Thurs then picking up again Friday.
Most of the enquiries have been directional i.e. to a building, part of building or service, or regarding matriculation or ID cards. Some have been covering a number of areas from students wanting to know whether they have done everything they need to do. Surprisingly, I think, we have had some students who really don't know what to do or where to go - some turn up from other parts of the UK or from overseas with no confirmation of their course and no accommodation - luckily they are few and far between.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Most of the enquiries have been directional i.e. to a building, part of building or service, or regarding matriculation or ID cards. Some have been covering a number of areas from students wanting to know whether they have done everything they need to do. Surprisingly, I think, we have had some students who really don't know what to do or where to go - some turn up from other parts of the UK or from overseas with no confirmation of their course and no accommodation - luckily they are few and far between.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Friday, 14 September 2012
Student Information Points - pictures
Student Information Point in the Main Library
Student Information Point at JCMB Kings Buildings (Science and Engineering)
Student Information Point at JCMB Kings Buildings (Science and Engineering)
Monday, 10 September 2012
Student Information Points - up and running
Today our new Student Information Points (SIPs) 'went live' and went very well too.
First an update from last week - the SIP in the main library entrance was finished off with the new parts added to the front and side of the counter, the computers for staff and for students installed and the printer and the banners, posters, leaflets etc. all in place. The only thing we didn't have were seats which are still on order so we borrowed some from the library. (pictures to follow)
The other SIPs at Kings Buildings (Science and Engineering) were also finished off. I'm really pleased with the one at JCMB as it was put together very quickly. We are using laptops to start with and the wifi coverage is good.
The 'mobile flexible' site on the ground floor of the new library is great and will give us a presence in the new building and also let us pilot a roadshow type service.
The SIPs team have been brilliant - they are enthusiastic and helpful. They are all efficient and clever and nice - what more could you ask for? It's early days yet, we have existed as a team for less than a month and it is a different sort of challenge managing a new team and new service.
So today, we opened and at 9.00am almost immediately we have students coming to ask questions. It is the first day of Freshers week so lots of students have just arrived and are keen to get started finding their way around. We anticipate that we will have lots of enquiries at the beginning regarding finding places, services and departments. Also issues like matriculation, ID cards and accessing computers.
I haven't checked exactly how many enquiries we had today and we are still working on how we are going to log or record them but it was approximately 300 which is a great start.
First an update from last week - the SIP in the main library entrance was finished off with the new parts added to the front and side of the counter, the computers for staff and for students installed and the printer and the banners, posters, leaflets etc. all in place. The only thing we didn't have were seats which are still on order so we borrowed some from the library. (pictures to follow)
The other SIPs at Kings Buildings (Science and Engineering) were also finished off. I'm really pleased with the one at JCMB as it was put together very quickly. We are using laptops to start with and the wifi coverage is good.
The 'mobile flexible' site on the ground floor of the new library is great and will give us a presence in the new building and also let us pilot a roadshow type service.
The SIPs team have been brilliant - they are enthusiastic and helpful. They are all efficient and clever and nice - what more could you ask for? It's early days yet, we have existed as a team for less than a month and it is a different sort of challenge managing a new team and new service.
So today, we opened and at 9.00am almost immediately we have students coming to ask questions. It is the first day of Freshers week so lots of students have just arrived and are keen to get started finding their way around. We anticipate that we will have lots of enquiries at the beginning regarding finding places, services and departments. Also issues like matriculation, ID cards and accessing computers.
I haven't checked exactly how many enquiries we had today and we are still working on how we are going to log or record them but it was approximately 300 which is a great start.
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