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Ole Miss Today, Version 2

Posted on: October 25th, 2010 by kfg

Ole Miss Today was enabled five weeks ago, and last week we asked for feedback on how to make it more useful.  About thirty-five people responded with many good ideas.   These ideas are summarized below and are shown with time frame for implementation where appropriate.

Ideas to Be Implemented

  1. Use a generic subject line in daily e-mail messages.  (10/26/2010)
  2. Eliminate OMT afternoon update.  (10/26/2010)
  3. Include more on-screen help and error checking to help message submitters choose the correct target audience. (11/1/2010)
  4. Limit the number of consecutive days a message can be displayed.  Will add a 21 day limit for now and may reduce further in the future. (11/1/2010)
  5. Move “Select All” box on the e-mail to advisee page to the top of the advisee list.  (11/1/2010)
  6. Provide a better explanation of how test mode works.  (11/1/2010)
  7. Add more on-screen instructions to message submitters to enter descriptive subjects and summaries. (11/1/2010)
  8. Provide a “Don’t show again” option for individual messages within the consolidated message. (11/23/2010)
  9. Provide a one-step  text-only method for instructors and advisors to quickly send e-mail and SMS messages without the extra OMT steps. Integrate this into existing myOleMiss interfaces such as class rolls, e.g., quickly text a single student from the class roll display.  This will form the basis for a mobile version with equivalent functionality.  (11/23/2010)
  10. Include a table of contents in consolidated messages for easier navigation between sections; highlight new messages in TOC.  (11/23/2010)
  11. Mark new items as new; Include date submitted in message display.  (11/23/2010)
  12. Allow for OMT messages in the current Guest and future Parents roles. (11/23/2010)
  13. Show campus events in chronological order.  (11/23/2010)
  14. Add a Cc option w/ WebIDs for OMT messages.  (11/23/2010)
  15. Add a “don’t e-mail” option to prevent a message from being included in the daily message. (11/23/2010)
  16. Add an option to send to “my organization” when selecting recipients.  (11/23/2010)
  17. Condense Blog and URL message type options into one type. (11/23/2010)
  18. Provide a way to view/search through historical messages. (11/23/2010 or later)
  19. Provide a way to “share” a single message that is listed in the consolidated message. (11/23/2010 or later)
  20. Allow for a PDF upload with an HTML message.  (11/23/2010 or later)

Ideas to Be Deferred

  1. Allow users to opt out of certain message types.  This is difficult to implement and will increased the run time for dynamically generated message.  May add in future versions.
  2. Integrate OMT events with the campus calendar.  This absolutely needs to be done and will be addressed in future versions.  Requires developing long term plan and coordinating with OrgSync and the Campus Calendar.
  3. Store fixed lists of users and commonly-used selection values for future retrieval.  This is a good idea, but is hard to implement due to the rich set of selection options.  May add in future versions.
  4. Provide a way to preview how the message will look in final form.  This is a good idea but is hard to implement due to the fact that messgaes and uploaded files are not stored parmanently until the message is actually submitted.  May add in future versions.

Ideas That Are Not Technically Feasible

  1. Integrate OMT with Blackboard.  Blackboard is an out of the box product, and we can’t make modifications.
  2. Make the student and employee selection options mutually exclusive.
  3. Support cut and paste from WordPerfect.

Important: The implementation of OMT Version 2 will require taking OMT down on Tuesday, 11/23. 

Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions!  We want OMT to work well for UM students, faculty and staff and appreciate your feedback.

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