ECOMMUNITIES HOW-TO (AND WHY-TO) Katie Morgan Pacific University Thursday 7/30/2015 General Interest Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

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ECOMMUNITIESHOW-TO (AND WHY-TO)

Katie Morgan

Pacific University

Thursday 7/30/2015General Interest

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

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SESSION RULES OF ETIQUETTE

Please turn off your cell phone/pager

If you must leave the session early, please do so as discreetly as possible

Please avoid side conversation during the session

Thank you for your cooperation!


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INTRODUCTION

Purpose

Q: The Forums/Commons are no more. LinkedIn hasn’t gotten traction. How do we connect with fellow Ellucian clients that we don’t already know?

A: (Hint) eCommunities

Result

You’ll be able to collaborate like a pro!


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SESSION AGENDA

1. What is eCommunities?

2. Getting Started

3. Getting to Content

4. Making Your Mark

5. Why eCommunities?


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WHAT IS ECOMMUNITIES?“It is what it is. It will be what you make it.”

- Unattributed quote on a sign


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WHAT IS ECOMMUNITIES?

What it’s not: The Hub

The Support Center

What it is: Client-driven collaboration space


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IT IS NOT: THE HUB

The Hub is simply a common login page. When you go there, you have the option to log in to a variety of Ellucian services, such as

Support Center

Download Center

XE Registry

other stuff

and yes, eCommunities


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THIS IS THE HUB:


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IT IS NOT: THE SUPPORT CENTER

Communication is primarily between a given client and Ellucian

Clients go there for Change Requests: research existing formal defect reports and

enhancement requests

Cases: submit help tickets to Ellucian’s technical support team

Ideas: formally submit enhancement requests

Releases: review documentation for software updates

Documentation Libraries: download manuals maintained by Ellucian

Other.stuff


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THIS IS THE SUPPORT CENTER:


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IT IS: CLIENT-DRIVEN COLLABORATION

Communication is primarily between any given client and all other clients (but Ellucian employees do chime in).

It’s Ellucian’s primary means of communicating important information out to the client base.

Clients can collaborate by Posting questions

Starting discussions

Uploading documents

Kicking off polls

Sharing videos


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GETTING STARTED“Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.”

- “Do Re Mi”, The Sound of Music


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GETTING STARTED

Start at The Hub (to log in) https://clientapps.ellucian.com

If you don’t have an account, you can request one on this site

Once logged in, you arrive at the instructional videos. Watch them!

Each is only a few minutes long.


https://clientapps.ellucian.com/

https://clientapps.ellucian.com/

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INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS


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FINDING WHAT’S RELEVANT

Places Spaces – Topics with content any client can view.

All spaces specific to Colleague clients start with the word Colleague.

Groups – Private spots (invitation only). Advisory boards use these for their internal content (like homework

assignments, etc)

People


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PLACES


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PLACES


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GETTING TO CONTENT“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul


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GETTING TO CONTENT

Are you a web person? View by spaces – or -

View by streams

Are you an email person? Send streams to email

Don’t want emails piling up? Use the daily digest.


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STREAMS

Provide ways of organizing content You can combine multiple places and multiple people together

into streams.

You create streams under Preferences

Are generated by “follows” Once a stream is built, you can click the follow button on a place

or person, and then choose which stream(s) the content should be included in.

Appear on the left navigation bar


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NAVIGATING BY STREAM


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FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW

Follow a space to a stream Turn on email notifications for the stream if you want posts that

appear in your stream to generate an email message.

Follow a space to the daily digest If you have daily digest emails turned on, you will get a daily

message with all of the posts in that space from that day.

Follow a person to a stream Yes, you can get content from specific people, regardless of

space.

Follow a person to the daily digest


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CONTROLLING YOUR EMAIL


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MAKING YOUR MARK“Why is it so scary to me to post my ignorance on the e-communities?”

― A correspondent who shall remain nameless


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MAKING YOUR MARK

Don’t be afraid to ask The veterans may have answers now, but they probably started

out being the ones asking the questions.

Don’t be afraid to answer You may have exactly the information someone else needs.

But please do search before asking! Someone else may already have asked.


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TYPES OF POSTS

Discussions

Documents This includes other files, like Excel spreadsheets, pdf’s, etc.

Polls

Videos


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ADDING NEW CONTENT


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DISCUSSIONS (VERSUS QUESTIONS)

Some discussions are questions. This is the default. A question presumes there will likely be a single correct answer.

Some discussions are just… discussions. There is not necessarily a single right answer (example, theoretical discussion about best practices).

Please uncheck the box that makes it a question.


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DOCUMENTS (VERSUS ATTACHMENTS)

You can post just a document. You can include a brief explanation for context.

Others can respond to it.

Pay attention to the settings. If you don’t want other people editing it, set it accordingly.

You can attach a document to a discussion/question. This can be helpful if you have screenshots with a question, or if

you’re answering something and have documentation that goes with it.


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HELPFUL HINTS

You can post any kind of content from the “Actions” dropdown menu near the top right of any page in eCommunities.

When posting a question, always double-check which Space it’s being posted to.


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MAXIMIZING QUESTIONS

When you get an answer, mark it as correct.

When you get responses that may be partially correct, mark it as helpful.

If you find the answer some other way, post it, and then mark it as correct. (You won’t be the first!)

If you don’t get an answer, you can create a case You need to be authorized to create new cases

You will receive a notification when your question becomes eligible


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SEARCHING

Global text search Will look for text in documents (including pdfs)

Filtering within spaces


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FILTERING WITHIN SPACES


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MORE FILTERING WITHIN SPACES


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MISCELLANEOUS TIPS & TRICKS

Likes

Categories

Tags


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WHY ECOMMUNITIES?“One man may hit the mark, another blunder; but heed not these distinctions. Only from the alliance of the one, working with and through the other, are great things born.”

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery


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WHY ECOMMUNITIES?


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FROM THE TRENCHES

“This is a nerve wracking process as the [clock] is ticking and yet there's still so much to do. The support from others on this page is valuable.”

- Michelle Stando, “Gainful Employment Plans for Colleague” discussion, Colleague Student space, eCommunities, 7/16/2015


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SESSION SUMMARY

eCommunities are Ellucian’s primary venue for providing information to the user community.

eCommunities are clients’ primary venue for getting answers, information, best practices, etc, from other clients.

Expect a learning curve. Be patient. Use the online videos. Experiment with your settings.


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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS


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THANK YOU!Katie Morgan

[email protected]
