CEP 812 PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity

What is the important educational need that you are seeking to address?      

The educational need that I am seeking to address is to establish effective training (tutorial, e-manual, in-person training and/or useful handouts) that will help department administrators to learn to use INSZoom H-1B tracking system. The goal of this training is to have at least 70-80% percent of department administrators using the system. That will reduce the email and phone call traffic to the Office for International Students and Scholars (OISS). Department administrators will learn to track the process of pending H-1B case(s) for current or prospective employees in their department, submit forms and fill out questionnaires and run visa expiry report through the INSZoom department interface. There is currently no effective training established. I work mainly with department administrators to process visa paperwork for Michigan State University international faculty and staff. MSU hosts about three hundred international scholars (researchers, tenure-track faculty, and administrative staff). I usually process about 100 (either new or renewal) visas a year. It is very important to keep track of all these individuals and their visa end dates. Department administrators must notify OISS of any title, location or changes in duties or if foreign employee left the university prior to their visa end date.  Before I started the job, there was no tracking system for these employees other then Excel sheet. Office for International Students and Scholars have purchased a system that not only helps track of these international scholars but allows us to fill out different immigrations forms online, save them and run various reports. This system also has a departmental interface. Department have a capability to log in the system and see how many international employees are working in their department; they can also see their visa expiry dates and visa application status. The problem is that department administrators are not trained in using this system and those who were emailed with log in information are not using the system. I would like to create an e-manual or a training program where I would introduce department administrators to the INSzoom departmental interface and convince them to use it by showing its capabilities.

How you plan to address this educational issue with technology?  

I plan to develop an e-manual by creating a slidecast or screencast which will have screen shots of the INSzoom departmental interface and at the top of each screenshot explanations of each page and/or have my voice in the background explaining each slide and how to access and navigate the system. I have designed a survey for all department administrators with the explanation of the INSzoom system and its capabilities. I will then ask them if they think this program may be beneficial to them. I will also survey them to ascertain what they think the best way to learn to use the program. I have just gotten an approval from my supervisor to send out a survey. It will be sent out on Monday, April 4, 2011 and received by department administrators on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. I will ask them to respond to my survey by Friday, April 8, 2011.

Logistics of solution: What is the scope?

Once training is developed, the tool will be used indefinitely. Department administrators will be able to access the system from their offices as well as from any other location. The manual or training slides will be posted on OISS website. Only departments who sponsor and currently employ international scholars will be able to access the INSzoom system. Departments will be sent a password and user name. Only department administrators will be able to access the system. International scholars will not be able to access the system.

Relevant research and resources.

Since I will be working with adults, I did some research about adult learning strategies. What I found was: adults are problem centered, results oriented, and  self directed. They typically do not depend on others for direction. Adult learners are often skeptical about new information. They prefer to try it out before accepting it. Adult learners require learning to make sense. For that reason, I have to prove them why INSZoom tracking and record keeping system is so great. I have to convince them that it will make their job so much easier. *Adult Learning Strategies: http://online.rit.edu/faculty/teaching_strategies/adult_learners.cfm http://diythemes.com/thesis/how-to-create-screencasts/ This article talks about how to create a successful screencast. http://www.techsmith.com/  I am planning to use Jing to capture the screenshots of my screen and write and explanation of each page.

A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.

During this course, I plan to survey department administrators and I hope to start creating a manual on how to log in to access INSZoom system and how to navigate some of the basic information. After the course complete, I hope to finish implementing my project by creating a manual that will be accessible online for every department administrator. I hope to also create a very detailed manual. I will survey department administrators after they used the system to find out whether they found the INSZoom system useful and ask them for any suggestions. I hope to receive some suggestions on how to make the training more efficient.

How would you know you were successful?

I would know if I were successful with my training implementation after I survey department administrators and receive positive feedback. I would know if I were successful if 70-80% of all department administrators were using the manual and INSZoom department interface. I would know if I were successful if I received less emails and phone calls from department asking about pending foreign employees case statuses or other information that could be accessed on INSZoom department interface.