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Ole Miss Today, Version 2

October 25, 2010 by

Ole Miss Today was enabled five weeks ago, and last week we asked for feedback on how to make it more useful.  About thirty-five people responded with many good ideas.   These ideas are summarized below and are shown with time frame for implementation where appropriate.

Ideas to Be Implemented

  1. Use a generic subject line in daily e-mail messages.  (10/26/2010)
  2. Eliminate OMT afternoon update.  (10/26/2010)
  3. Include more on-screen help and error checking to help message submitters choose the correct target audience. (11/1/2010)
  4. Limit the number of consecutive days a message can be displayed.  Will add a 21 day limit for now and may reduce further in the future. (11/1/2010)
  5. Move “Select All” box on the e-mail to advisee page to the top of the advisee list.  (11/1/2010)
  6. Provide a better explanation of how test mode works.  (11/1/2010)
  7. Add more on-screen instructions to message submitters to enter descriptive subjects and summaries. (11/1/2010)
  8. Provide a “Don’t show again” option for individual messages within the consolidated message. (11/23/2010)
  9. Provide a one-step  text-only method for instructors and advisors to quickly send e-mail and SMS messages without the extra OMT steps. Integrate this into existing myOleMiss interfaces such as class rolls, e.g., quickly text a single student from the class roll display.  This will form the basis for a mobile version with equivalent functionality.  (11/23/2010)
  10. Include a table of contents in consolidated messages for easier navigation between sections; highlight new messages in TOC.  (11/23/2010)
  11. Mark new items as new; Include date submitted in message display.  (11/23/2010)
  12. Allow for OMT messages in the current Guest and future Parents roles. (11/23/2010)
  13. Show campus events in chronological order.  (11/23/2010)
  14. Add a Cc option w/ WebIDs for OMT messages.  (11/23/2010)
  15. Add a “don’t e-mail” option to prevent a message from being included in the daily message. (11/23/2010)
  16. Add an option to send to “my organization” when selecting recipients.  (11/23/2010)
  17. Condense Blog and URL message type options into one type. (11/23/2010)
  18. Provide a way to view/search through historical messages. (11/23/2010 or later)
  19. Provide a way to “share” a single message that is listed in the consolidated message. (11/23/2010 or later)
  20. Allow for a PDF upload with an HTML message.  (11/23/2010 or later)

Ideas to Be Deferred

  1. Allow users to opt out of certain message types.  This is difficult to implement and will increased the run time for dynamically generated message.  May add in future versions.
  2. Integrate OMT events with the campus calendar.  This absolutely needs to be done and will be addressed in future versions.  Requires developing long term plan and coordinating with OrgSync and the Campus Calendar.
  3. Store fixed lists of users and commonly-used selection values for future retrieval.  This is a good idea, but is hard to implement due to the rich set of selection options.  May add in future versions.
  4. Provide a way to preview how the message will look in final form.  This is a good idea but is hard to implement due to the fact that messgaes and uploaded files are not stored parmanently until the message is actually submitted.  May add in future versions.

Ideas That Are Not Technically Feasible

  1. Integrate OMT with Blackboard.  Blackboard is an out of the box product, and we can’t make modifications.
  2. Make the student and employee selection options mutually exclusive.
  3. Support cut and paste from WordPerfect.

Important: The implementation of OMT Version 2 will require taking OMT down on Tuesday, 11/23. 

Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions!  We want OMT to work well for UM students, faculty and staff and appreciate your feedback.

Filed Under: UM Today Tagged With:

Analytics Reporting: New SAP Reports at Your Fingertips

October 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Need a report showing female undergraduate students for 2010-11?   Transfer Students from Tate County?   University courses with/without bookings?    Graduation data?   The Office of Information Technology is proud to announce the rollout of Analytics Reporting, a new SAP reporting tool that enables authorized users to build, view, and quickly access SAP reports based on specified data selections.

Analytics Reporting uses SAP’s Business Intelligence, a data warehouse that is refreshed nightly from the SAP transaction system.  So, the information in the reports is accurate as of the previous night.  The first set of reports that have been rolled out are Student Lifecycle Management (SLCM) reports for which the targeted audience is academic administrators.

Report examples (existing, but not limited to) are based on the student life cycle management areas such as admissions, enrollment, course offerings and bookings, student specializations and graduation data.  If other information is needed, authorized users will also be able to request new report information to be added.

Administrators can now also view their budget information and academic administrators can view majors, minors, emphasis, concentrations, etc. by an offering school or department.

You’ll be able to build and view specific reports based on academic year and term, campus, state, school, country, department, program of study, admission category, gender, ethnicity, etc.   These are just a few examples of reports that are at your fingertips and easily accessible.  Reports won’t even have to be run in the background!   With your continued request for certain types of data, Analytics Reporting will become the University of Mississippi’s sophisticated tool for delivering reports at your fingertips!

Authorized users can access these reports in myOleMiss by choosing the Employee tab => then, Analytics or via the following link:   www.olemiss.edu/analytics .  Training sessions are scheduled for Feb 23rd and 24th. To sign up, follow the link:  http://www.olemiss.edu/saptraining .

Filed Under: Web Applications

New UM Web Directory

October 5, 2010 by

The Web Directory is a powerful new tool on the UM Web site for locating information about campus offices, organizations, committees, and even buildings. Replacing the old “Web Registry,” the new Web Directory provides much more than just a list of departmental Web sites.  And now you can even search using a department’s alias.

Web Directory

Screenshot of the Web Directory

A Guided Tour

Even though it is located within the myOleMiss portal, the most common way people will find the Web Directory is through the A-Z Index located on the UM home and secondary pages. The system is built on the concept of searchable, interlinked information pages, or “infopages.”   Let’s say you’re on the UM home page and you want to find the fax number of the English department.  You would first pull up the A-Z Index and select “E” for English.  You’ll be presented with a list of directory entries whose names or aliases start with the letter “e.”  This page also shows the main interface for the Web Directory which includes a search field and checkboxes indicating the types of entries returned.  Each type of entry is identified by its icon.

Although you can probably locate “English” in the list without too much work, let’s limit the types of entries returned by unselecting Buildings, Committees, and Other Entities.  (The English department is an “organization” within the University, so we’ll leave that one checked.)  Now click the letter “E” again and you will see only organizations which begin with “e.”  Note that if you had clicked the “Go” button with “E” in the search field, it would retrieve a long list of the entries which contain an “e” anywhere in their titles. Only the alphabetic links limit the search to just first letters.

Now that you have found the “English” link, click it to reveal an infopage for that department. The fax number you needed is there, along with the mailing address, the link to the department’s Web site, and even its position within the greater University structure (e.g., in the College of Liberal Arts).

You’ll notice the Web Directory is tied-in with the Campus Map.  So if you changed your mind and decided to deliver your letter in person instead of faxing it, you could follow the building link to the infopage for Bondurant Hall where you can see it on a map. On that page you might notice that Modern Languages also uses Bondurant, and you could follow that link to explore further. To return to the directory home page, select the “Web Directory Search” link at the top right corner of the page.

User-Contributed Content

In that corner of the screen you will also see the “Request a Change/Correction” link which is where the process of updating the directory’s content begins. If you should find any information that is old, wrong, or omitted, you may use that form to submit the correction. This system, like the one before it, relies on responsible parties to take ownership of their directory entries and keep the information current.

What’s Another Name for “Alias?”

The use of aliases opens a whole new level of functionality not previously available.  In the past, separate entries were needed for “College of Liberal Arts” and “Liberal Arts.”  With the ability to list multiple aliases for an entry, a single entry can show up under both the “C” and the “L.”  Aliases can be added using the same “Request a Change/Correction” form.

Also included in the directory are standing committees along with membership lists when available. Other entities, such as groups, clubs, and student organizations (not to be confused with organizations within the University), are also represented.  If you are a responsible member of one of these and would like to list more information about your group or add a link to its Web site, use the “Request a Change/Correction” link and provide the information you want listed.

Please feel free to explore and contribute to the new Web Directory.  You might discover something you didn’t know.

Filed Under: Web Site