The Dustless Training ManualUsing Wikis to Get Everyone on the Same Page
PJ Dickson Brian KoslowskiKatie McFaddin
Laurie Nelson
Brandeis University
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Today we will cover…
- the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing a wiki for paperless training
- what resources/skills are required to get started
- how to launch, build, and control access to a wiki
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Our Challenge• Our Team: 5 academic advisors and 1 support staff• Our Situation: Fast and significant turnover• Our Problem:• Weak program and materials for training new advisors• Little formal recording of institutional memory• Information sharing cumbersome, time consuming
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“Will I Get a Training Manual?”• Past Efforts were largely ineffective:
• Frequent changes in policy/procedure & in many exceptions• “Omega”: shared server not searchable, organized• Mystery notes, from job holder to job holder, e.g “Schedule meeting
with committee members”
• Our approach - Build manual as you learn• Documentation of procedures, policies, and “standard” exceptions• Develop training calendar for advisors to come
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What Happens After Training?• Even as established Advisors we found ongoing challenges:
• Complex Internal policies/procedures• Depth of Information
• Things outside the norm• Responsibilities unique to one team member
• Efficiency and Quality Control• Email templates
• Easy Access to Information
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-Immediately dated-Not eco-friendly-Not easy to link to resources-Typically one person’s project -Hard to find info
-Available online-Google Campus-Can control access-Difficult to organize-Not able to hyperlink files without disrupting text
-Available online-Free-Can control access-Content is searchable -Designed for group input-Dynamic
Paper Google Site WikiX X
Why Did We Choose a Wiki?
Starting our wiki required…- $0- Minimal computer skills- 1 hour delegation meeting- 5-10 hours of individual work
building and populating the pages
Instructions for each type of committee petition, with links
to helpful documents & forms
Operations calendar, organized by month.
Repeated projects and tasks for the
office are listed by week.
Email templates for oft-used emails to
students and instructors
Detailed instructions for secondary
assignments (peer tutoring)
Wiki is fully search-able. Can search content of
some pdfs.
To edit a page, click “Edit” in the upper
corner. The page will open for editing.
To create a new page, click “New Page”
To link to a file, click “File”1.
Click “Upload Files”, select file, and choose “Link to File”
2.
Benefits
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CollaborativeCentralizedEnvironmentally friendlyEasy to updateHolisticIndependent of a serverCommunal constructivism(Virtual) Community of practice
LimitationsSome people prefer paperLimited formatting Requires universal involvementRequires frequent updatingInternet-dependentSecurity--we don’t post student data
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Next StepsSystematize updatingExpand user pool?Integrate into a training calendarConsider multimedia
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Public Wiki
NASPAtech2011.wikispaces.comUsername: NASPA1Password: naspa1
Complete our Presentation Evaluation
Questions?
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