We’re reflecting on our May Open Forums very positively and hope anyone who came along is too! With engaging demonstrations and significant audience participation, the monthly event has found its stride.
Congratulations to Jayne Bloodworth and Sophie Lucas-Smith for delivering crowd-pleasing demonstrations of KentVision, the University’s soon to be student management system. At venues in Canterbury and Medway, the demonstrations inspired much discussion, and although there was, very naturally, some hesitation at the thought of change amongst attendees, the dominant reaction at the end of the Forum was excitement and positivity.
Congratulations and thanks from us to attendees as well, for staring change in the face, working through the topics of the day and ending on a high!
Jayne gave an insight into Timetable Management, working through an array of tasks related to additional academic and non-modular events. Attendees of the Canterbury Forum will be very pleased to know their feedback inspired an improvement! Predefined filters can be used as a manageable way to target non-modular events at a specific group of people, apply the appropriate filtering and the event will only be available for the targeted group to view and select. Filters include schools, departments, statuses and levels of study. Jayne was asked if a filter could also be included specifically for Tier 4 Visa students. Although not an original requirement, as a result of the question, a Tier 4 Visa students filter has been added. Whilst we would like it to be, it’s not always the case we can act on feedback so efficiently and constructively, but this is an exception we hope you’re pleased with! See more of the Timetable Management demonstration here.
Sophie illustrated just how beneficial rules can be in system design when demonstrating functionality developed for the Student Immigration Compliance Team. It’s essential for the team to be able to identify accurately, quickly and easily whether something is amiss with a student’s compliance – this is achieved with a straightforward yet incredibly effective dynamic status indicator. Taking it’s visual lead from traffic lights, the status header runs from green, through to amber, then red before getting really serious by flashing! Yes, flashing! This is able to work dynamically as predetermined rules are able to change the status as new information becomes apparent. Although the status indicator is arguably most popular with it’s strong visual, we shouldn’t forget the benefits of the new ‘review status’ functionality or automated emails either … so find out more here. And don’t miss the SDS vs KentVision slides if you’re interested in a little heathy competition (We are biased, but really, there is no competition!).
There was an addition to the agenda at these events too, an addition that we feel contributed to the success of each afternoon: Lee Martin occupied an area of the room, along with his laptop, to offer a ‘walk around’ KentVision during breaks from presentations. The idea is a request based personalised experience where attendees are able to join Lee, solo or in a small enough group to squeeze around a laptop, and peruse KentVision screens and functionality at their own pace for a preview of look, feel, tasks and tools that they can really relate to. Attendance seemed to be the hot topic during these Forums, and it’s up to you to come along and put Lee through his paces to set the next hot topic.
As with all the Forums, a key point of the afternoon is re-iterating that there is a larger process of transformation at work in KentVision. There are cultural changes to be understood and accepted. Our Change Manager, Jayne Hornsby, reminded us this understanding and acceptance will make it all the clearer why KentVision brings with it refinement of our downstream processes and a system that operates a little differently than we might be used to.
These Forums offer a taste of KentVision, with an introduction to cultural changes and demonstrations illustrating look and feel. Once you have a taste, of course you want more though! Not a problem. Forums are not the only way to engage with KentVision. In preparation for launch you will have access to an array of online resources and the KentVision Handbook, we’ll run Change Sessions to target specific areas for specific groups and individuals, alongside which User Acceptance Testing will be the first opportunity for some users to get genuinely hands on with KentVision before training. If you want to be ‘in the know’, prepared for and able to get the best out of KentVision then look out for how to get involved and visit our web pages to keep up to date with everything on offer.
If a more interactive means of getting to grips with these cultural changes is better for you, you can join us at one of two Change Sessions: ‘Introduction to KentVision’ or ‘Business Rules, Deadlines and Reference Data’. Consideration of the new ‘world view’ forged by cultural changes will form the backbone of these sessions. They have already proved popular, so save your spot now or keep an eye out for more sessions if you’re interested. These, alongside a number of other sessions, are designed to introduce the scope of change to staff before, during, and after training takes place. Although we encourage you to familiarise yourself with the general principles underpinning the design of KentVision wherever possible, we know talking these things through is what brings them to life for many people!
We hope you’re all the more interested in joining us at anyone of these activities, and looking forward to the launch of KentVision!