Description

During my roles, there have been many different times where I have communicated with different teams. In my previous role at UCL, I was part of a core team which consists 4 Learning Technologists, 3 Digital Educational Support Analysts and 2 Operational Managers. We all use a ticketing system called RemedyForce, where user queries are directed. In my current role, I work in an operational team consisting of 1 Senior Educational Technologist, 2 Educational Technologists and 3 Assistant Educational Technologists and user queries are directed to us via ServiceNow.

One project I was working on at UCL before I left in January was the promotion of the Active Learning Platform tools available in Lecturecast. For this project, the team each undertook different tasks, which included creation of leaflets for staff and students, aswell as separate posters and guidnace for staff on how to best use these tools. We used a padlet to keep track of who was doing what. Evidence for this can be seen in the Promoting ALP image. My task was to create guidance for staff on how to use the different tools available in ECHO360. Evidence for this can be seen in the What Can I do with ALP image.

During my time at UCL, I also provided support for the MOOCs and short courses platform UCLeXtend. One of the projects which I was involved in the migration of our short courses and MOOCs platform UCLeXtend to a different hosting provider. For this project, the team had decided a change of theme was required from the snap theme to different theme. I had taken part in the testing for the different themes under consideration. For evidence, I have attached the initial project planning meeting and my experience of the theme testing.

Reflection

The ticketing system allows any member of the team to be assigned a ticket while also keeping track of who had been assigned which ticket. As emails to the end user are recorded via a thread, it makes it easier when a ticket gets assigned to you, as this allows me to quickly recap what went on without going back and forth to different members of the team.

The ticketing system also allows me to communicate directly with the end user on what issues they are facing. One example of this can be seen in the Operational Issues, Glossary ticket. After this ticket, I updated the guidance so other users who may experience this issue will know of this issue when deciding the settings for their Glossary. This will reduce further confusion in the future, and will reduce tickets for the team.

For the ALP Tools Promotion, during the initial meeting, everyone had contributed ideas and practice on tasks which they thought would be good. This can be seen by the Anonymous creators in the image. I then added my name to which tasks I thought I could do. I enjoyed using a padlet for this task as it allowed me to visualise what tasks everyone was doing, rather than writing down meeting minutes and action points. It allowed me to contribute more, as writing meeting minutes can get intensive at times. In future, I would like to use padlet more, as it allows more people to contribute to a team initiative and feels more collaborative than writing meeting minutes.

For the eXtend theme testing, communication was done primarily via emails and meetings. At UCL, there was a flexible working policy. This meant the emails and Microsoft Teams were particularly useful as they kept a channel of communication between all of the team members even when were working from another office or from home. The initial meeting was valuable as it outlined the tasks which needed to be done. Because of the distance (someone could be working from home), for any communication, when emailing or messaging anyone via teams, I used to be as direct as possible, as this meant there was less confusion and we weren’t physically in the office to clarify any questions. I aim to use this practice in my tickets, as the users will want a straight to the point response to their query. Also, If the user is unfamiliar with technology, any extra information or me having to clarify anything would potentially make the user feel the technology is difficult.

Not from a communication perspective, but for me personally, this task was quite useful as it allowed me to put myself in the end users perspective and see the difference between the different sort of Virtual Learning Environments and how the type of user affects the design and UI of the VLE. As eXtend consists of paying customers who aren’t undergrad or postgraduate students, it has more flexibility in terms of the activities and plugins offered in courses, but needs to be easier on the eye and more fluid to the end user, to account for the fact that eXtend users don’t physically come in to the class regularly.

With regards to engaging with the wider community, at UCL, I attended the Reflect User Group, which promotes best practice for CampusPress. Listening to different speakers talk about the different use cases for which they are using the blogging platform. As a student, I never used blogging as a tool, so it was quite interesting to see how other teachers and students have used the tool. During the event,  lecturers also spoke about the challenges they faced with CampusPress and how they overcame them. Over ServiceNow, I do get queries from academics about CampusPress so hearing other lecturers experiences has helped me in answering queries. I would like to carry on attending this group, as I think it has helped me in using the platform and answering queries I get.

Evidence

Theme testing for eXtend email