The purpose of writing a blog or using blogs to expound on issues is one that has increased over the past five years as individuals and organizations use the medium as a journalistic venture to advertise, publish, and explain issues relating to work, business ventures,

Fig 1: Writing your own Blog

and personal opinions.

In this blog I have sought to use the medium to explain what the department is doing and provide solutions and ideas on different topics and programs. As I write each week, I am challenged to insure that my discourse is clear, concise and provides solutions for persons within higher educational institutions. As such, my writing must be professional, provide direction on issues in research administration, and grant programs, and showcase the world of instructional design and online learning for adult learners and educators.

As is seen in the archives of this blog (see Fig. 1), I have sought to provide a wide range of discussion on the above topic subjects in the hope of challenging those of us in higher educational institutions to see our role as educators and also learners. In so doing, I have come away with the following observations that I hope will be a guideline to those who may be on the fence on managing their own blog.

Observations:

1. Write on subjects your are comfortable with:
   How many times have we seen persons talk or write about issues that they either have no experience or exposure to. Rather than trying to be what you are not, discuss issues that you have a passion for or which your work/job responsibilities forces you to research and be a source of information. By writing on things you know, your language becomes easier to understand and your ideas and thoughts becomes more fluent. By providing opportunities for your readers to give feedback and comments you will strengthen your writing through the discourse being generated.
2. Write with brevity:
   You have a passion for a topic and your thoughts run into many pages of discourse. This may be acceptable if you are writing a document or white paper, but a blog forces you to be concise so that your readers understand immediately where you are going with the subject. If you have additional information, provide links for users to find other resources that bolster the topic so that your blog article does not come across as laborious and long winded.
3. Break up the article into sections:
   How many times have we heard that writing for the web is different than writing for a book or a paper? Research on usability and reading on the web, shows that once persons come to a website, they begin to scan the material looking for things that will interest them, and if so, then they begin to read for clarity and understanding. By breaking your article into sections or subheadings, separated by white spaces, you make your writing more pleasing so that readers have a clear picture of your writing.
4. Know your audience:
   If your topic is food and you use sport terminologies to explain your recipes, it shows that you do not understand you audience or care what your users are interested in seeing on your blog. Use language that is appropriate to the topic and you will gain many repeat readers. There is nothing worse than a great subject heading with terrible writing that turns off readers. Many blogs have applications that allow you for example to see the location where your users are coming from as well as other statistic that can help you to tailor your articles. Research these applications and make good use of them so that you can extend your blog’s reach and growth.
5. Read widely and do your research:
   All writers suffer from writers block as they struggle to constantly find topics to share and write about. If your blog has articles each week, you will struggle to come up with topics. The best way to reduce those periods where your creative juices seem to stop flowing is to read widely on the areas your have deemed important for your blog. Whether your source is from books, papers, websites, or journals, read widely and as you read make notes. In these notes you will find sub topics that can be expanded into a full article. Instead of trying to fit everything into one topic, divided them into separate articles and you will more than enough to discuss.
6. Proofread and correct mistakes quickly:
   Content is king in blogs, hence ensuring that all grammatical errors (punctuations, spelling, comas, etc.) are all corrected before you publish your article is a must, if you want to show professionalism in your writing and delivery. Ensuring that all your posts are free of these errors provides a good reading experience for your readers as well as for your professional career. Choose great topics are important but making it free of these types of errors is even better!

As I continue to share my thoughts on research administration in the higher educational arena and topics on instructional design and online learning, I trust you will be encouraged to make that move so that you too can share your ideas and expertise on topics that you have a real passion to write and discuss.

All the best for the future!

Over the last three years, both the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have encouraged collaboration among researchers primarily through the status of co-investigators and/or research collaborators as a way to insure a team-oriented research environment between departments and colleges within a university, as well as between institutions and research entities. (see Fig. 1)

Figure 1: Research, Collaborate, Development of Proposal

Developing Content

In a previous posting, titled “Content Development and Deployment: Using a Wiki” (d/d: 09/23/09), I had looked at using a wiki for the purpose of content development and article contributions for training and collaborative learning to enable easier access to documents by all persons. Today, I want to take that one step further by identifying a web tool that will allow all researchers to store and share Office documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), on research projects that they are developing for a current funding opportunity. Other files such as PDFs and graphics can also be uploaded. The tool is called Microsoft Office Live Workspace, a Beta service which offers free file sharing and online storage.
[Beta: Is a software release where the distribution (whether public or private) is of an initial or upgraded version of a computer software product. In many cases a Beta version is offered free.]

Creating your Account

Microsoft Office Live Workspace, is an online document creation and sharing workspace that allows for the storage and sharing of Office documents easily. If you have already have a hotmail account or a Windows Live account you will be able to sign in with the email address and password associated with that account. Otherwise you can create a new account to get started, where the usual form to fill out applicable personal data and receive a confirmation email to activate your Office Live Workspace account. Once signed in, you can begin to create the various workspaces you will need.

Creating your Workspaces

When you are signed into Live Workspace, you will see the screen divided into two panes:  a My Workspaces pane on the left and Documents on the right. In the My Workspaces pane, a Documents workspace is created by default where you will be uploading your Office documents. You can create additional workspaces by clicking the New Workspace link. I would recommend that persons create separate workspaces for sharing different projects for different persons or groups of persons. Once you click the New Workspaces link, you will be presented with various templates of workspaces for your workspace. These range from a Class workspace, Event Workspace, Meeting Workspace, to a Project Workspace. For my purpose I created the following workspaces. (See Fig. 2)

• Proposal Development workspace (using the essay template)
• Project Development workspace (using the project template)
• Workshops workspace (using the event template)
• Meetings workspace (using the meetings template)
• Find Funding workspace (using the study group template)

Figure 2: Office Live Workspace; Click to view larger image

It must be noted that by using the templates, various documents are automatically added to the workspace making the initial development easier before you start adding additional documents. You can also create a new workspace from a blank template and then add your own documents associated with that workspace.

Collaboration

Once you have created your workspaces, you can begin sharing documents or files with others. By uploading your document to your workspace you will see a Share link that will allow you to type or select from your address book the email addresses of persons you are allowing access to view and/or edit the document. You can share individual documents or workspaces with up to 100 people for online collaboration. This is accomplished by sending email invitations to persons you selected, inviting these persons into your workspace. You can also allow persons to view without having to sign into the Live Workspace.

If you have Microsoft Office XP, 2003, and 2007 installed on your computer, you will be able to install the Office Live Update program that will integrate your computer Office application with the Live Workspace. You will see in the Office application a Save To Office Live selection in the Save section.

Security

As indicated before you will be able to specify the type of access each user will have in accessing your documents, specific files, as well as view and editing rights. I would strongly suggest that all persons who are allowed to view documents must sign in to Office Live to view your documents. Versioning of documents is also a feature that can show who viewed, edited and performed other activities on files. Microsoft also provides anti-virus protection on each uploaded file.

Office Live Workspace

For those with concern about the security of your documents on “the cloud”, I would suggest that you treat your information the same as you would on your personal computer; do backups! At this time Microsoft is calling the service a beta, which may mean sometime in the future some features may have an associated fee charge. The usual legal information is provided for sharing and using the content of others and in its Frequently Asked Question section, it states “You control who can view, comment on, and edit your documents for collaboration. You manage permissions and decide whether someone has access to a single document or an entire workspace”. This service offers great potential for having access to needed documents that can be accessed from anywhere if you are traveling.

From document sharing to online collaboration to online storage, the service provides support that can be invaluable to researchers who are working with multiple stakeholders in research, projects, and service.

Does this offer any possibilities for use in your environment? Let us know how you are using this service.

NIH AREA Program Announcement Extended:

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has confirmed that it will extend the parent R15 Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program announcement (which expired in January) until January 8, 2010. A new R15 parent announcement will be published later this year.

Applicants should note three immediate changes: beginning with the October 25, 2009 receipt date, the funding limit for AREA awards will be increased to $300,000 direct costs, plus applicable facilities and administrative costs, over a project period of up to three years. Applicants should use the modular budget for direct cost amounts up to $250,000 or the detailed budget for direct costs amounts above $250,000.

Eligible institutions are those that have received less than $6 million in funding from NIH. All other aspects of PA-06-042 remain unchanged. For additional information, contact Mary Ann Guadagno at 301/594-4786 or guadagma@od.nih.gov.

Site Merges Federal and Private Education Funding News:

The Foundation Center has launched a new online resource to maximize the impact of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) education funding by linking Department of Education activity with the support provided by private foundations. Foundations for Education Excellence tracks foundation activity in the area of school reform and provides interactive maps, events, and reports related to ED’s reform goals.

Engineering in K 12 Education:

Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects of
Engineering education in K-12 classrooms is a small but growing phenomenon that may have implications for engineering and also for the other “STEM” subjects–science, technology, and mathematics. Specifically, engineering education may improve…

Award and Administration Guide:

The NSF has released an updated Award and Administration Guide, which will take effect in January 2010 – See report

HRSA Nursing – Health Resources and Services Administration:

ARRA-specific program that will provide $50 million for grants to purchase equipment to be used in health professions training.

Secretary Sebelius Releases $33 Million in ARRA Funds to Train Health Professionals:

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced awards totaling $33 million to expand the training of health care professionals.  The funds are part of the $500 million allotted to HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to address workforce shortages under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

You have met with the Sponsored Programs Specialist for your college, and agreed on the table of contents of your proposal based on the guidelines within the funding announcement. The proposal has been signed off by your department head and all necessary resources gathered – time to develop your budget! To plan all the needed resources, you must have a clear picture of the number and types of resources needed to complete the budget or you will encounter difficulties in writing the budget justification.

Budget amount

Here are six suggestions to ensure that your budget fits the work detailed in the proposal and not have a problem in justifying each line item.

1. Defining resources – People and equipment

So far you have articulated clearly what your proposal will be doing based on the research, the expected outcomes and how to get to those outcomes, but how much money are you expecting the proposal to cost and over what length of time? Having an accurate idea of the skill-set of people required on the project and equipment if any, are an important criteria otherwise reviewers are going to see padding in the numbers and the money being requested.

2. Scheduling of resources – Time-line

You have all your resources (people and equipment) identified and now you have to calculate time and availability of people. Have you ensured that persons have the permission of their department head as well as time based on their commitments to other projects? What about the skill-set of these persons? Is it a strong fit for your project or are you adding persons because they are available or have received funding already from that agency? Be careful, as reviewers will identify the weaknesses and you will receive fewer points in the comments. Choose only persons who can provide sufficient time and provide strong skills to your project.

3. Always be realistic – Don’t pad the numbers!

Forget about requesting money for equipment because you “want it”, or because “everybody thinks your should have it”. You will have to justify the line item in the budget and being realistic about areas that can be achieved it a better fit than trying to pad your budget. For example, if you state that travel will be required to foreign countries to do surveys, ask yourself if electronic communication could not do the same with outside contractors, and leave travel for the presentation of your paper to an international body. Make sure to plan resources with some contingency amount (10% – 20% of total) to allow for those unexpected problems that will arise during your project.

4. Take the initiative – Do your part

Yes the Sponsored Research office and its personnel are there to support you in developing your proposal and calculating your budget, but don’t expect them to know the salary of personnel on the project. Supply the data! You need to travel by plane to various cities? Find out the cost of the plane fair, per diem costs for each day and the cost of the hotels. Supply the data! You don’t understand the fringe benefits and cost sharing and all the required data needed to complete the budget calculation? Meet with them and be a partner in completing the numbers. Remember they want to help but they need you to invest time and effort so that the entire proposal and budget can be completed and sent off before the deadline. Do your part!

5. Priorities – What is important

Changes to your project during the implementation will occur, so one has to prioritize and make quick decisions to correct or stabilize the project. This could have an impact on your deliverables or not; in either case always have an external evaluator who will be able to bring an unbiased perspective so that the project can stay on target.

6. Always Plan Ahead – Murphy’s Law

Show me a plan/project that goes according to plan and I will show you a proposal that always gets funded. Not possible! If within your project timeline you have an idea of the critical elements that will affect the completion of the project and other elements that will not affect your plan, then you have strong control of what matters. So planning ahead is a great idea especially when collaboration between persons and institutions is vital to the success of the project.

Quote: (Author unknown)

“When working on a project, if you put away a tool that you’re certain you’re finished with, you will need it instantly”

The upcoming National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) 51st annual meeting in Washington D.C. from October 20 – 24th

NCURA Logo

provides a wide opportunity of training, discussions and meetings that affords research administrators like me a great opportunity to widen our knowledge base to ably support faculty and staff engaged in external research. This will be my first time, so I am excited at the opportunity afforded to me to strengthen my understanding of research administration.

As I reviewed the various sessions and discussion groups for the conference, I couldn’t help but wonder how sponsored departments work to increase the knowledge base of faculty so that they can find information to questions and documentation they need in a timely manner. One idea that I have been considering for some time is the use of a Wiki for the development of a user-generated system that provides the necessary information that this group will need.

Web 2.0 Software:

Now, I must confess I am not particularly wild over the term Web 2.0 (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and all its (supposedly) great benefits, simply because many persons rave about it as if it is the panacea for all our problems, when we have not yet researched the challenges it brings nor has the various elements been sufficiently used or applied. Call me “old school”, but I like things that have been used sufficiently in time and space before I can say it works for everything.

That said, a wiki offers the ability to create content that is relevant and timely to the needs of the target group. Unlike the usual web pages, a wiki allows a pre-defined number of users (in our case, research faculty and staff) “to freely create and edit web page content using any web browser”. (Taken from http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki; “What is Wiki”; September 23, 2009).

User Content:

Users will be able to add content, links to external pages, and organize contributions to be edited, without having to worry about technical web issues and coding. As an instructional designer (where I design and develop learning material for classroom and online courses), this is a plus as collaborative learning strengthens the understanding of material faster than just hearing from persons. The type of topics I envisage developing are techniques of proposal development, sponsored budget calculation, strategies for building and strengthening international collaborations, compliance topics (such as human subjects, animal care and use, and export control), grants.gov submissions, Pre and Post award issues, Finding funding, sub-recipient monitoring, responsible conduct of research, award closeouts, and many other important topics in sponsored programs.

One area where a wiki could have a great impact for faculty is in the development of their proposals. Just imagine faculty being able to develop their proposals

Faculty collaboration

with the help of other faculty or proposal development specialists without having to email countless copies of changes and worrying about which copy is the most recent.

The information technology (IT) department at universities may already have a wiki that could be ported for sponsored programs use. In doing a search of wikis (open source and proprietary) I compiled the list below that should help as a start point for sponsored programs departments.

List of Wiki software:

• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki – MediaWiki free
• http://www.dokuwiki.org/ – DokuWiki free
• http://sites.google.com/ – Google Sites
• http://www.tiddlywiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
• http://tiddlyspot.com/ – free hosting for wiki
• http://www.screwturn.eu/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 – open source
• http://www.myomnibus.com/browser.php?page=HomePage
• http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/ – proprietary

Each of the above wikis have different flavors of security and development issues that can be best addressed by your IT support department who will also help in the implementation of the software.

I intend to attend as many of the training sessions at the NCURA conference, so that I can begin the development, of what I hope, will be a widening of the education and knowledge for our faculty as we support their research, project and service work.

Are there any sponsored programs departments using a wiki in this fashion?

Will let you know how this self-imposed project goes!

The challenge of designing a comprehensive training program that supports the introduction of a new computer application within a university is one that can be exciting at one end, but daunting in its scope and nature.

Application training

Just imagine, you are about to roll-out a system where one of its functions allows users to view their work schedules yet no one is able to do so, because the training showed everything else but that! What a frightening thought

Implementation Strategy:

The ability to develop a successful training and awareness strategy needs the support of many players and a careful review of the areas to be shown so that persons using the system will have lower frustration levels as possible.

It all begins with an implementation strategy that itemizes the various supporting players, a timeline of training for a successful rollout, to strong documentation that supports the learning. Not to mention support from university administrators that gives their total support and weight to the program. After all, providing training is one thing, but if top personnel are not providing the necessary support and directives, how can one influence users to be a part of the training?

The first item to be developed is the creation of a timeline that will guide all persons as to the date of the system rollout and the various groups that will be trained, as well as support personnel that can answer questions or comments from users. This timeline should be prominently displayed on websites, central work areas (in colleges, departments and centers, and in a newsletter so that all persons are aware of the important dates and schedules.

Create a planning group comprised of system personnel, university administrators, and faculty, and students who will bring different perspectives to the meeting. The more diverse the better!

Publicize the Training:

From there, this same group can help to develop the methods of publicizing the process. Within universities, the vastness of the audience from faculty, staff, and students means the challenge to build awareness is challenging and needs multiple events and mediums to get the message out. With the emergence of social media networks (Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Wikis, etc) there are greater opportunities to get the message out faster and more effective than trying to call a campus meeting!

Other ideas are the development of a training website that is dedicated to providing information on training schedules and other areas of using the application, as well as a newsletter that is periodically sent to users.

The next item is the training documentation. Documentation that comprises scripts, short job cues, frequently asked questions lists, workshop documents, and online training material that will support the actual training medium. Create learning that is interactive and allows users to learn it, try it and then do it!

Delivery methods:

What delivery method will you be using? Will it be a blended approach such as online training (otherwise called e-learning), lecture capture, webinars, classrooms, workshops, in person (small groups) training at specific dates and times, and downloadable documents with a “Did you know” information? Can you use simulations, videos with short presentations that help users practice? How about setting up a testing server of the application so that users can get a real-like feel of the system to be used? My experience is that all of the above delivery methods have their weaknesses, but by providing different approaches, you are more likely to reach greater number of users and provide effective training.

You should also identify a small training group to test your training materials on as a means of formatove evaulation to see the strengths and weaknesses of the training material. Incorporate their suggestions and begin your training.

Finally lesson guides and brochures are great for users to review the subject material and to keep as a handy tool when they forget steps in a process.

The guide would comprise the following:

Organization of the Guide:

Each lesson includes a brief introduction to the lesson, along with the objectives of that lesson. In addition, each lesson includes the following information, when applicable:

• Topics relating to each lesson objective
• Process description relating to each topic
• Step-by-step process explanations
• Topic exercises
• Lesson exercises
• Lesson review

The guide also includes Appendix reference information.

Documentation and Feedback:

At the end of this process, provide for your users, the ability to give feedbacks on the training and the processes used, as well as any other matter they deem important. This helps to identify issues that users had the most problems that will ultimately provide you with a summative evaluation that will strengthen the training and the corresponding documentation before you go live. This is like a plan, learn, adjust, implement and assess process. (See image below)

When the application is finally rolled out, begin to document your experiences along with best practices and lessons learnt, for this process will come back in another project.

Seqence of Training Strategy

Who said your work has ended?