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Campus IT

uWaterloo and Faculty Member Information: Identifying Common Data Needs (and possible use of OFIS)

As Faculties review their web sites in the lead up to the move to the new Drupal installation, they are considering how to collect and present data for faculty member pages. That information, along with other faculty member data, is used also for performance reviews and grant applications. An application called OFIS (Online Faculty Information System) collects data for such uses in Engineering. Other Faculties may be solving this in other ways. This topic has been identified for an investigation to learn where greater collaboration, and possibly creation of a project, might benefit these shared activities.

It seems a good start to assemble interested people from across uWaterloo to learn about current activities and needs. Information gathered from the session will be presented to the University Committee on Information Systems and Technology, UCIST, for discussion. Depending upon the outcomes of the meeting and discussions, a project may be struck to help progress activities in a strategic way to benefit the interested parties and uWaterloo as a whole.

Session Topics

The Faculty of Engineering wrote an application called OFIS (Online Faculty Information System) for multiple purposes including creating individual faculty member web pages, assembling information for faculty progression, and collecting required information for funding agencies. Other Faculties have their own faculty information/presentation systems (e.g., for displaying researcher information on web pages), or are considering creating their own solutions. Would it make sense to work toward one solution for all Faculties on campus that could be tailored to meet the needs of each Faculty and individual faculty members? If there is a need, what are the next steps?

This information sharing session is intended to discover what common interests exist for collecting and reusing such faculty data, what activities are underway, and how areas might benefit from collaboration.

Topics to address at the session:

  1. What are your Faculty’s data needs in these areas?
  2. What tools and processes are you using to solve these needs?
  3. From your understanding of OFIS (a brief description will be provided at the session), how might your needs be met (or not) with OFIS
  4. What benefits might be had from pursuing a joint and unified process towards this type of data collection across uWaterloo?
  5. Anything else?

If you are interested in participating in the session held on Thursday , October 27th, 2:00 – 3:30, MC2009, please contact bob.hicks@uwaterloo.ca

Last updated on October 5, 2011.