The USM Team are committed to surfacing local solutions to common issues. We believe that if someone has found an effective way of solving a problem in one area, there is a good chance that it will be of value to another. This section of the website is dedicated to advertising these community-led solutions.
UView Buddy
Gregori Meakin (College of Arts & Humanites Office) has created an Excel workbook that works with the UView Module Details report in Infohub. The purpose of the Buddy is to assist with analysisng student records and running compliance checks quickly and precisely. Using Excel and conditional formatting to process the data, Gregori has produced a tool which can help colleagues in College and School offices across campus, to easily see a full and accurate picture of a student’s record and registration.
An up to date version of Gregori’s (opens in a new window)UView Buddy can be found in our shared Google Drive.
Google Calendar Appointment Slots
Jb Mangaya-ay Kenny (College of Science Office) found that using the appointment slots functionality in Google Calendar was a very effective way to schedule appointments with students. The helpful guides that Jb put together include details on how to set up the appointment slots, as well as how to invite students to make use of them.
An up to date version of (opens in a new window)Creating Google Calendar Appointment Slots for students is linked to in our shared Google Drive.
Making it easier for colleagues to find out what each other do
Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out who the best person is to contact for particular things in a given office. The Staff Directory is a useful resource for this but lacks the detail of what specific areas of the business an individual is responsible for. There is a section of each member’s profile on the Staff Directory called “About Me” that enables a person to enter free-text that appears to anyone who views their profile. Colleagues from a variety of different offices came together through the Remote Working Group to agree on a common template for sharing this information.
An up to date version of this “(opens in a new window)About Me template” is linked to here in our shared Google Drive.