MSPnet Announces New Working Group Functionalities
Description
MSPnet serves the MSP community by providing both resources and collaborative tools. We are pleased to announce that we have added new tools to your project's Working Groups to better enable you to work with other project members.Highlights:
1. WORKING GROUP OVERVIEW
Working Groups provide teams of project members with their own space to share ideas and work.
Project-wide Working Group
Your project has a project-wide working group which is inclusive of all project colleagues who are members of MSPnet. When you add colleagues as members to MSPnet, they will automatically be incorporated into the "Project Working Group."
Creating other working groups within your project
Each project can form additional working groups, small or large, that enable partners to communicate and collaborate online. By default, all members can suggest new groups, but only administrators can create them. Administrators of each project can change this to permit all members within their project to create working groups. more info on this...
Several tools are available to each working group:
- Discussion Board - these are moderated threaded discussions.
- Calendar - keep group members informed of upcoming events.
- Surveys - this tool is described in detail below.
- File Manager - files can be shared and archived.
- Email Group - email whole group or subset of members.
- Digest Email
- nightly digest informs members of new acticvity within working group.
When you create working groups you can choose from three privacy settings:
- Private - Only working group members can see the working group in the listing and no one may apply.
- Project - Only your project members can see the group in the listing and may apply to join if they wish.
- Site - All MSPnet members will see the group listed in your project's working groups and all may apply.
Many projects have chosen to create smaller working groups for leadership teams, vertical teams, teacher workshop groups, etc. Projects use the working groups for the following collaborative efforts:
- Discuss a relevant article or event.
- Conduct a brainstorming session.
- Plan a workshop or seminar.
- Extend or supplement face-to-face interactions that may be restricted due to geography or time constraints.
- Archive and share documents without filling up email inboxes.
- Start a collaborative community of people with common goals within or across projects.
Visit your project's Working Groups now:
http://www.mspnet.org/primary_space.cfm/index.cfm/forums
2. INTRODUCING SURVEY TOOL
We have added a survey tool for you to use to collect data from members within a working group. The survey tool might be useful for something as simple as getting consensus on a meeting date to something as complex as creating a questionnaire to assess what participants have gained from a workshop.
When you create a survey you can make it anonymous or you can allow the respondents to be identified. The respondents will be notified as to which type of survey it is before they take the survey. You will also be able to see aggregate results immediately online, and you can choose whether or not respondents can also view the aggregate results.
When you create a survey you can elect to send it to your entire working group, or any subset of members of the working group. We suggest that you try out this new tool by creating a survey for yourself and one or two colleagues. We are eager to hear your feedback as to how it
works for you!
Visit your Project Working Group to create a survey:
http://www.mspnet.org/primary_space.cfm/index.cfm/prj_forum
3. EMAIL DIGESTS NOW CUSTOMIZED FOR YOU
We're doing our part to reduce your mailbox clutter!
All MSPnet Working Group Digests are now being combined into one email. Each night MSPnet will send you one email containing the day's activity for ALL of your working groups (including groups in the Hub). In the past, you would receive a separate email for each group to which you belong, now you will receive just one email. Note that if there is no activity in your groups, you will not receive an email.
4. UPDATES FOR ADMINISTRATORS
We have made the creation process for new working groups far simpler and more intuitive. Some of the specifics are listed below. For more information, please visit our extensive online help.
- When inviting people to a group, you now have the option to choose individuals by name or to choose groups of people by role (i.e. all evaluators, teachers, Co-PI's, etc.)
- New project members will automatically be added to the Project Working Group.
- Moderators can now edit the working group's name, description, and moderator list.
- New survey tool allows you to create surveys with customizable anonymity and privacy settings. You can also specify who can create new surveys (default allows project members to create new surveys, but you can change this.)
- Members now receive a combined working group digest email instead of receiving one digest for each group.
Please send us your feedback on this new functionality.