On February 1, 2019, Project Board finished collecting its first year of reporting information for academics with ANR merit and promotion (M+P). Launched in May 2018, academics used Project Board to tell us information about their full time equivalent (FTE); populate their dossier exports for annual evaluations, merits, and promotions; share outcomes and activities to meet annual federal/organizational reporting requirements, and civil rights compliance documentation. The information entered into Project Board will also help ANR with advocacy efforts. On March 1, 2019, Project Board finished collecting its first year of reporting for CE Specialists with campus M+P. Participation rates follow.

• 94% of academics with ANR M+P participated in Project Board by entering data in at least one required field
• 91% of CE Specialists with participated in Project Board by entering data in at least one required field
• 78% of academics with ANR M+P reported theme narratives, where outcomes are communicated
• 75% of CE Specialists with campus M+P reported theme narratives, where outcomes are communicated

Project Board now has over 10K activities, which are searchable by anyone using the “Explore” feature. There are also 1200 projects (hoping this will be available in “Explore” later this year), and almost 600 theme narratives (will NOT be searchable due to sensitivity of information).

Surveys will collect input from users and the development team will prioritize improvements to Project Board as resources/funding become available.

A detailed timeline of system launch dates, trainings, and participation rates can be found in the table below.

In late April, Project Board will be available on ANR Portal for all academics with ANR merit and promotion processes. Project Board will be used for merit and promotion and organizational reporting starting with federal fiscal year 2018 (activities, projects, and outcomes starting on October 1, 2017). Below is information regarding Zoom training opportunities.

Audience: All academics with ANR merit and promotion.

Part One – What is Project Board?

What is Project Board? Why was it built? What purposes it will serve? Participants will receive answers to these questions via presentations by Affirmative Action, Academic Human Resources, and Program Planning and Evaluation.  There will be an emphasize on how Project Board has conceptually integrated the academic program review, civil rights compliance, and organizational reporting requirements.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Offered two times and recording will be made available: 10AM-11:30AM and 1PM-2:30PM

Part Two – How do I use Project Board?

How do I use Project Board? Participants will participate in a hands-on training session by completing tasks in Project Board and getting live technical assistance.

Thursday, May 3, 2018
Offered two times and recording will be made available: 10AM-11:30AM and 1PM-2:30PM

Part Three – Advanced Project Board features

TBA

Zoom Information 

TBA

Questions?

• Visit the Project Board Help (in progress) webpage at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ProjectBoardHelp/
• Academic Human Resources questions, contact Kim Ingram at kcingram@ucanr.edu
• Civil Rights Compliance/Affirmative Action questions, contact David White at dewhite@ucanr.edu
• DANRIS-X retrievals/historical questions, contact Chris Hanson at Christopher.hanson@ucop.edu
• Project Board/Program Planning and Evaluation questions, contact Kit Alviz at kit.alviz@ucop.edu

User testing for Project Board between September 2017 and February 2018 included a private session with the Project Board Academic Advisory Committee, three open sessions inviting all academics with ANR merit and promotion processes and CE Specialists with campus merit and promotion processes, and a private “soft launch” with a handful of CE Advisors. Participants included 21 CE advisors, 14 CE Specialists, three Dean's office staff, and seven other academic titles.

The input was extremely value for improving the system and ensuring a smooth user experience. Several participants indicated that this system is intuitive, friendly, and an improvement from DANRIS-X. Some input was incorporated immediately for review on the next user testing session, while other items required more exploration into policies.

Highlights of significant changes as a result of user testing input:

• Activity forms went through several improvements. University/Public Service and Professional Competence were separated from the other activity types. User experience was improved for specific activity data fields such as theme/project links, tags, and collaborators. The forms will be wider and will close upon saving.
• Civil Rights Compliance descriptive statistics were revised to indicate a new status of “no activities entered yet,” in addition to the parity/compliance statuses.
• Clientele Groups imported from CASA now appear correctly in CE Advisors' accounts.
• Mousefree usage continues to be improved and a guide is being compiled on this help page: http://ucanr.edu/sites/ProjectBoardHelp/Get_Started/#mousefree
• Specific instructions for Statewide Programs with existing reporting systems will be created so reduce duplicative data entry efforts between those systems and Project Board.

The development teams continue to meet weekly and biweekly to confirm policies and procedures, system improvements, and develop training plans.

You are welcome to play around in the Project Board testing environment and provide input by the end of February. Please review this brief presentation (https://ucop.box.com/s/lrhjhor61mln5zlyyict2mlusw6h219a) and follow the link on slide 9 to log in. Slide 11 has information on how to provide input to the development team.