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?

Edit Write Save

Starting our wiki required…- $0- Minimal computer skills- 1 hour delegation meeting- 5-10 hours of individual work

building and populating the pages

http://brandeisacserv.wikispaces.com/

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

https://naspatech2011.wikispaces.com/

Complete our Presentation Evaluation

Questions?

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