Friday 21 September 2012

End of second week

The Student Information Points have been operational for two weeks now - Freshers Week (Week 0) and Week 1. So far everything is working ok and fairly smoothly. During both weeks we have been busier at the beginning of the week with a bit of a lull on Wed and Thurs then picking up again Friday.
Most of the enquiries have been directional i.e. to a building, part of building or service, or regarding matriculation or ID cards. Some have been covering a number of areas from students wanting to know whether they have done everything they need to do. Surprisingly, I think, we have had some students who really don't know what to do or where to go - some turn up from other parts of the UK or from overseas with no confirmation of their course and no accommodation - luckily they are few and far between.


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Friday 14 September 2012

Student Information Points - pictures

Student Information Point in the Main Library




Student Information Point at JCMB Kings Buildings (Science and Engineering)





Monday 10 September 2012

Student Information Points - up and running

Today our new Student Information Points (SIPs) 'went live' and went very well too.
First an update from last week - the SIP in the main library entrance was finished off with the new parts added to the front and side of the counter, the computers for staff and for students installed and the printer and the banners, posters, leaflets etc. all in place. The only thing we didn't have were seats which are still on order so we borrowed some from the library. (pictures to follow)

The other SIPs at Kings Buildings (Science and Engineering) were also finished off. I'm really pleased with the one at JCMB as it was put together very quickly. We are using laptops to start with and the wifi coverage is good.

The 'mobile flexible' site on the ground floor of the new library is great and will give us a presence in the new building and also let us pilot a roadshow type service.

The SIPs team have been brilliant - they are enthusiastic and helpful. They are all efficient and clever and nice - what more could you ask for? It's early days yet, we have existed as a team for less than a month and it is a different sort of challenge managing a new team and new service.

So today, we opened and at 9.00am almost immediately we have students coming to ask questions. It is the first day of Freshers week so lots of students have just arrived and are keen to get started finding their way around. We anticipate that we will have lots of enquiries at the beginning regarding finding places, services and departments. Also issues like matriculation, ID cards and accessing computers.
I haven't checked exactly how many enquiries we had today and we are still working on how we are going to log or record them but it was approximately 300 which is a great start.

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Moving on - new job and new blog title

Since my last post on this blog a lot has happened - too much to even begin to blog about so instead I'll start with the new. I have a new job at the University of Edinburgh. The role is Student Information Points Manager and it involves setting up and managing accessible information points for students to access at various places. To start with they will be situated at the main library in George Square and at the Kings Buildings in JCMB and in the Library.
So I've changed the name of this blog to Managing Student Information Points. I wasnt sure whether to start a completely new blog or carry on but I decided that I wanted to keep the old stuff and I have enough different blogs going on anyhow so a reduction rather than an increase would be best.