November 14, 2007 Focus Group

Owned by Joyce Johnstone
Last updated: Apr 01, 2008Version comment
4 min read
November 14, 2007 Focus Group

MyInfoVault User Focus Group

Movember 14, 2007, Letters & Science Andrews Conference Room

Minutes

Present: Pat Aguilera (L&S: Statistics), Kelly Anders (Academic Personnel), Cynthia Anderson (CBS: MCB), Crystal Barber (Academic Personnel), Carolyn Borgnino (Academic Personnel), Sharon Boylan (CBS: Microbiology), Ruby Castillo (L&S: Statistics), Melanie Christensen (SOM: Internal Medicine), Jyotsna Gupta (IET), Joan Johnson (CBS: NPB), Lisa Johnston (IET), Joyce Johnstone (IET), Molly McClure (Education), Mary McNally (GSM), Connie Melendy (Academic Personnel), Cynthia Roberts (SOM:Med Micro & Immunology), Everett Wilson (Academic Personnel)

Connie Melendy welcomed the user group attendees, who were invited to view new releases and give candid feedback on the MIV program in order to make sure it is a strong, useful system that can be produced for the campus. Connie shared the history of the pilot, beginning with the development of a system to do effort reporting in the School of Medicine, which morphed into a merit and promotion program, and gave an overview of the refactoring that has taken place in 2006-07. She shared information about what is being used for merits and promotions on other UC campuses. She also outlined some of the differences between MIV and home-grown programs in departments, such as the program relying on a robust data base back-end, which will also for multiple uses such as NIH training grant bio sketches, retrieving data for external reviews of programs, faculty fields of interest, potential for on-line student evaluations, and more.

Joyce Johnstone provided an update on the status of the enhancements and the setbacks for the development that occurred during the spring and the analysis that was completed during the summer to resolve two major issues:

  • Architecture changes for the PDF packet generation process and the special character insert process were found to affect the CV and NIH Biosketch modules, which had been scheduled to be written in a later phase. The CV and NIH Biosketch may need to be delayed in order to complete the Version 2 enhancements.
  • During the testing phase in spring 2007 for the Version 2 enhancements, a considerable number of incorrectly formatted HTML tags were found in the existing database, which prevent the creation of the PDF packet.
  • The current schedule is for a fall 2008 release of Version 2 but delaying the CV and NIH Biosketch and/or providing a beta release could move the release date up. This will be investigated.
  • When MIV Version 2 is released, the MIV data will undergo a clean-up effort and changes in formatting processes will be implemented to ensure that the MIV data repository is housing pure data.
  1. All HTML will be removed
  2. MIV will provide methods for the applying formatting previously provided by entering HTML codes
  3. HTML codes will no longer be entered with the data. Any codes will appear as typed. The new formatting methods will be used to easily format the data
  4. A list of previously formatted data will be provided to schools and departments prior to the Version 2 release in preparation for re-applying the formatting once Version 2 is available

Lisa Johnston provided a brief demonstration of Version 2 improvements in MIV, which was followed by a general discussion of the program, particularly focusing on the delivery date for the new system.

Version 2

Version 2 Enhancements
  • New special character palette
  • Improved packet creation time
  • Improved design for the login page, main menu, data entry and packet menu screens
  • Improved menu navigation
  • Publications data entry screens consolidated into one screen
  • Grants and Contracts data entry screens consolidated into one screen
  • Easier and faster adding, deleting and updating for data entry
  • New "drag and drop" resequencing
  • Improved Design Packet - Extensive screen
  • Improved PubMed download screens
  • Improved Additional Information screens
  • Format Options screen
Version 2 Demonstration

MyInfoVault Web site Design Overview

  1. Navigation menu
  2. Help/Contact Us
  3. Breadcrumbs
  4. Screen size adjustable for different monitor sizes

Data Entry

  1. Select Faculty Account
  2. Journals
  3. Add/Edit/Delete
  4. Special Character Palette
  5. Resequence
  6. PubMed

Additional Information

  1. Formatting toolbar (WYSIWYG)
  2. Special Character Palette

New Format Rules and Options

  1. HTML Data Cleanup
  2. Manage Format Options

Create Packet

  1. Create My Packet/View My Packet
  2. Design Packet - Extensive

User Feedback

  1. Need packet packet functionality first. The timing is important so that it doesn't interfere with the packet processing cycle in the fall.
  2. Spring 2008 would be best, but no later than July 2008.
  3. School of Medicine faculty only need formatting in the CV and NIH Biosketch
  4. Administrative staff are not as concerned about the formatting but faculty do like to have their data formatted.
  5. CV and NIH Biosketch delays for a short period of time is OK as long as we inform faculty to save a copy of the CV and NIH Biosketch before becoming temporarily unavailable.
  6. If the formatting is not re-applied, it may be an issue for reviewers and the ease of reviewing a packet.
  7. I love MIV and it will just get better
  8. The changes demonstrated today are all positive. We do all our files in MIV.
  9. More work is needed for the Extending Knowledge format for CAES.
  10. A beta release for June 2008 should be investigated.

If you are interested in helping to shape MyInfoVault by participating in a focus group, send an email to:miv-help@ucdavis.edu.