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Teach a Process? Do it with a Screencast

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Screencasting

Academic Personnel has a new way of rapidly training staff to use “Recruit,” UCI’s Web-based faculty hiring system. As the cornerstone for their e-learning solution, the Recruit support team, with the help of Camtasia Studio recording software, has produced a number of screencasts.

A screencast is a video that is produced by capturing motion visuals, text, and audio from a computer screen. Learners are instructed to watch the demonstration screencasts and then follow the exercises in an accompanying training workbook that they download from the site. Both the videos and the workbook reside within the Recruit system, and are reachable via the online Help after the user logs in. This self-paced training is a flexible and efficient way to help new users, or even seasoned users who have been away from the system for a while and are looking for a refresher course.

If you want to teach a computer process, consider screencasting. Your learners will be able to play, pause, and rewind whenever the need arises.

Advanced Webfiles Collaboration and Sharing Techniques

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WebFiles

UCI has long provided faculty, staff, and graduate students a flexible, online, file sharing service in Webfiles. An introductory article on Webfiles can be found in the IT News Archives.

The simple Webfiles operations – uploading documents, setting permissions, creating directories – are easily mastered.  However, Webfiles has features very useful in file sharing which are not as obvious but that you should be aware of.

Tickets

Tickets are a method for defining permissions to a document or directory in your Webfiles account, which you can then email to other people so they can access the material.  They act as web links which take your colleague directly to the document.  You can specify such things as a window of time in which access is granted, whether it grants read-only permission or read-write, or even that a document may only be accessed a fixed number of times.  You can specify a password and share that separately, in the event the URL gets publicized to people you didn’t mean to give access.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are shortcuts to files and directories in your account – or that of someone else to which you’ve been granted access.  They are presented in their own small area on the left hand side of the Webfiles display.  Like bookmarks in a web browser, you can add, delete, and rename your bookmarks.

Groups

Ordinarily, Webfiles allows you to grant read, read-write, or other permissions to individuals, to all Webfiles users, or to the world at large.  If you wish only a certain group of Webfiles users to access one of your documents, you can define a group that includes just them, and then grant that group the desired privileges.

Quotas

You may specify a disk quota for any directory in your Webfiles account, placing a ceiling on the amount of data that may be stored in that directory.  This can be useful if you create a directory for others to deposit documents, and you want to limit the amount of your 2Gb Webfiles storage capacity you wish consumed.  You can also paritition your account, assigning a fraction of your storage to each one.  This allows you to use one directory principally, but if you run out of space you can count on having some spare for short-term emergency use until you have a chance to delete some files.

Web sites

You can publish simple web sites using your Webfiles account by creating an index.html file, uploading it into one of your directories, and granting access permissions to others.  The webfiles directory path (e.g., https://webfiles.uci.edu/UCInetID/directory/) becomes the URL for your new web  site.

WebDAV

WebDAV is a technology that allows you to access your Webfiles account as if it were a local directory, allowing you to view the files, open, edit, and save documents in place, browse sub-directories, drag-and-drop, etc.

If you would like more information about Webfiles, consider attending one of OIT’s quarterly classes, accessbile through TED.

Recruit Updated

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Recruit Web Site

Recruit Web Site

The faculty recruitment process at UCI is managed by the web application “Recruit.” NACS has improved Recruit’s applicant interface based on feedback from applicants as well as the academic personnel analysts who manage faculty recruitment.

Since its launch just over three years ago, more than 15,000 applicants have used the Recruit system.  The system allows applicants to apply electronically and enables the search committee to see applicant files online. Recruit is part of Academic Personnel Systems, built as a partnership between the Office of Academic Personnel and NACS, and based on an earlier version from ICS.

Extensive help is now available on-line for all Recruit users — not only for the applicants, but also for their references, academic personnel analysts and for search committee members who may be unfamiliar with the system’s interface. The on-line help is organized by job or task. For example, a member of a search committee will easily find help on how to review documents or filter the view of a large applicant pool. Compared to printed materials, on-line documentation has become increasingly prevalent because of the advantage in updating the content as well as instant accessibility.

The Recruit website can be found at http://recruit.ap.uci.edu/

Faculty Recruitment Tool Update

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Recruit Web Site

Recruit Web Site

Recruit is a campus-wide, Web-based program for managing the faculty recruitment process. Recruit is part of Academic Personnel Systems, built as a partnership between the Office of Academic Personnel and NACS.

Recently, an important demographic data-gathering component was integrated into the system. This data was previously collected and managed through the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity’s Faculty Applicant Survey Tracking system or “Fast”.

Recruit adapted the capabilities of the Fast system and now collects and stores anonymous applicant demographic data for all academic recruitments. Once an applicant fulfills the application requirements for a faculty position, Recruit links them to the survey. There they are asked to report sex and ethnicity anonymously on a one-page questionnaire.

Recruit administrators produce aggregate reports, enabling search committees and equity advisors to ensure the applicant pool represents multicultural and otherwise diverse populations, in compliance with federal regulations regarding equal opportunity and affirmative action in employment.

Since its launch just over two years ago, Recruit has been used by more than 11,000 men and women seeking a faculty post. In addition, Recruit’s data bank currently houses 50,989 applicant files and maintains 18,523 records for references.

The Recruit website can be found at recruit.ap.uci.edu

Microsoft Office Training

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NACS recently hosted 3 weeks of task-based, hands-on training on Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Project, and Access.

This annual offering serves dozens of staff and faculty throughout UCI. Morning or afternoon classes are $79 (departmental recharge required) and are conducted using the Mobile Laptop Training Lab in conjunction with the UCI wireless network in the Engineering Gateway Building and other locations on campus.

To view the course outlines and register for future courses, see: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/training . To keep abreast of training opportunities, subscribe to the NACS-Seminars mailing list at http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/nacs-seminars