eCalendar Project Overview

Presentation to Communications Huddle

August 12, 2010

Prepared by: Bonnie Borenstein, Enrolment ServicesAndrew Dias, eCalendar Project Manager Project Management Office

What are Calendars?

Nine program calendars, published annually:

– Summer Studies

– Undergraduate (and revision)

– Graduate General Information and University Regulations

– Graduate & Postdoctoral Calendar

– Graduate Fellowships

– Scholarships

– Health Sciences

– Continuing Education

– Faculty of Law

Contain programs, policies, regulations

Production involves virtually every academic unit and many administrative units

Used by students, advisors, applicants, recruiters, high school counsellors,

parents and others

Available in HTML (www.mcgill.ca/students/courses/calendars) and PDF formats

Change Required

1. Need to improve language and structure

2. Need to update the editing process and reviewing tools

3. Need to improve the web-based publication: user-friendly, searchable,

navigable

Driving Force: The Principal’s Task Force

“Students repeatedly expressed frustration at their inability to find the

information they need, and might reasonably expect to have, on

everything from program and course options, to administrative

supports, to activities going on in the University that might interest

them.”

- Focus on Students: Principal’s Task Force on Student Life and

Learning (Appendix D)

“A critical communications tool for students is the undergraduate course

calendar. Many have found it unfathomable.”

- Principal’s Report (September 2007: Simplifying Regulations, page 5)

Solution: An eCalendar Project

1. Partnership with Project Management Office; creation of:

A formal project, with charter

An executive committee

A steering committee

Project team (SME, IT, CCS, PM)

2. Scope of Project

Undergraduate calendar, 300 users

Building foundations for future calendars

First pilot selected was the Faculty of Law, 30 users

Solution: An eCalendar Project

3. Tools

eCalendar project was selected as a pilot for the newly acquired enterprise content

management system (ECM), and would test: workflows, document security, signoffs,

publication (HTML & PDF)

eCalendar website would be built using Drupal web content management system

4. Consultation

Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC)

calendar survey data and best practices

Research on best practices by Enrolment Services

Research of other institutions by an independent consultant

Task Force on Student Life & Learning: “Improving the Online Experience”

Advisory group of professors and staff

Focus group for undergraduate students

Focus group for Law students

Focus group for CEGEP counsellors

Calendar Coordinators

Solution: An eCalendar Project

5. Change Management

Training

Kick-off meeting/launch activities

Regular Communication

Results: Language

Language was extensively re-written to be more user-friendly

Example:

“It is recommended that students who lack proficiency in English avail

themselves of the opportunity to take an intensive English as a second

language course prior to, or early in, their program of studies.”

Changed to:

“If you need to improve your English skills, you should take an intensive

course in English as a second language before or at the start of your

studies.”

Results: Editing & Reviewing Cycle

Use the university’s new enterprise content management system

(“Documentum”) to manage the production of the calendars

Break down the calendar into smaller “topics”

Content will be written in “XML” format

Automated paperless workflow for editing and reviewing of each topic

Repositories for eCalendar Content

Banner:

courses

and

programs

CMS: all

other

calendar

information

• Content that is in the CMS will be revised through “workflows”

• Snapshots of programs will imported into the CMS so that they can be revised

through the same workflows

• Courses will be revised in the usual way (status quo)

Banner:

courses

and

programs

CMS: all

other

calendar

information

Roles (simplified workflow)

Results: Publication

Publish a dynamic web-based calendar, as well as a PDF version

Make it easy to find the information you want

Provide searchable, up-to-date course and program lists, directly from Banner

Publish official calendar content to department or faculty websites (coming

soon)

Provide meaningful URLs, e.g.

http://www.mcgill.ca/study/law/info/law_faculty_council

Feedback From Users

“This is so great compared to the way it used to be! It's really easy to navigate.

Thank you for making it easier for us. ”

“Great new layout, much easier to use and understand. ”

“KEEP THIS! MAKE THIS PERMANENT! THIS WEBSITE IS SO MUCH

CLEARER THAN THE OLD ONE!”

“As a student in Science, my initial reaction is that this site's format is very new

and very different from what I'm used to navigating. Being able to access all this

information online is definitely more convenient than making sure I have the big,

hardcopy version with me all the time.”

As well as constructive criticism….

eCalendar Roadmap

Over time, all nine university calendars will be migrated to the eCalendar system.

Pilot: Faculty of Law calendar –published in September 2009

Undergraduate calendar – published in late March 2010

Remaining seven calendars: 2011-2013

– Graduate and Continuing Education will be next

Refining searches and functionality

Demo and Q & A