USM Rollout Update– August 2019
BY JEREMY BRITTON & AMY MCDONALD, UCD AGILE
Closing out Phase 3 of the USM Rollout
Phase 3 of rollout kicked off in May with the offices in the College of Science and College of Business; Quinn, Smurfit and the Centre for Distance Learning. During this Phase we ran WHY Statement and process mapping workshops and set each of the teams up with access to UniShare. These offices were USM Live by 1 August.
As we come to the end of the rollout, 207 staff in programme level offices and Registry are USM Live. This means a few things: 1) they are using UniShare to capture all one-to-one student interactions taking place in their unit office; 2) local team leads are being supported in making use of the data from UniShare to inform effective and efficient planning; and 3) each area is represented on the USM Learning Team, supporting joined-up thinking and planning.
oOo
Common Processes
One of the goals of USM is to ensure the consistent, high quality of service to students and staff across the University. One of the strands we are working on to help achieve this is establishing standard operating procedures for the processes and services shared by the offices operating the USM.
On 27 June the USM Learning Team, comprising members from all programme-level offices and Registry came together under the expert facilitation of Olga Murdoch, UCD Agile, to create a plan for designing and implementing a common process.
We have plenty of work to do over the next few months to keep the ball rolling on this project and we’re looking forward to working with UCD Agile, the programme and college offices, and all other stakeholders as we move forward. Keep an eye on our website for more updates!
oOo
To infinity… or at least to 2020
Since our last update the Unified Support Model Rollout Team (Jeremy and Amy) have been given the green-light to continue our good-work for another year. We are very appreciative of this opportunity to progress the work that we have begun, continue the rollout of USM to other areas and build upon the foundations we’ve laid. We have already begun our planning for the coming year and look forward to working with some of you in that context.
oOo
UniShare Users’ Coffee Morning @ the WST Summer School
The UniShare Users’ Coffee Morning was held as part of the Work Smarter Together Summer School in July. Our three main objectives for the morning were to;
1) Establish and Develop the UniShare community,
2) Capture insights, experiences and feedback from a diverse group of users
3) Provide a platform for skill sharing
Staff from programme-level offices, Student Advisers, Schools, Registry and IT Services attended the session. We really appreciated how enthusiastic and engaged everyone was in sharing their experiences and ideas on UniShare.
We used a software called Mentimeter to capture thoughts, insights, feedback and ideas arising from the session.
We’ve received positive feedback from those who attended the Coffee Morning, and we look forward to running similar events with the USM and UniShare communities in future.
oOo
USM Rollout – Registry
Over the past several months the USM Rollout Team have been coordinating with Iseult Ó Síocháin, Senior Project Manager, and the Registry USM Task Group. On the 24 July, Registry went USM-live with all teams now actively using UniShare to record their student interactions and with the launch of the newly revamped Student Desk Connector.
Finding the Right Path – The Student Desk Connector
While the Student Desk are the primary point of contact for student queries coming into Registry, many student queries also find their way to each of the back-office teams. One of our first sessions with each of the units was to discuss what student queries they were receiving and why. Our goal was to ensure that queries were being routed intelligently, ensuring the most effective and efficient service possible.
Working closely with each of the units in Registry we gathered a great deal of information relating to the types of queries received by the teams. Once we knew what the queries were, the teams clarified which queries needed their specific expertise and which could be routed to the Student Desk. The teams also provided a wealth of content that could be input into the Connector. The Student Desk Connector was then updated in line with this information. Now, when a student uses the Connector, they are either provided with their answer up-front or can submit a query that is routed to the Student Desk or escalated directly to the appropriate team depending on its complexity.
An easy-to-remember link has also been created where students can be directed with their queries. www.ucd.ie/askus
oOo
Contact:
Amy McDonald (amy.mcdonald@ucd.ie), UCD Agile
Jeremy Britton (jeremy.britton@ucd.ie), UCD Agile