Initiate Faculty (Activity) Input Workflow
Faculty Activity Reporting (FAR, Faculty180) provides an activity input workflow process for faculty to input and manage their information and activities, enhancing data completeness and accuracy. Faculty can log in and update their data anytime. The workflow typically starts after official enrollment numbers are finalized, with administrators uploading courses taught, verifying employment status, and notifying faculty that the input process has begun. Faculty members will then have access to their courses taught data where they can upload course-related supporting documents, such as syllabi, student evaluations, peer evaluations, and other documents that support their teaching. This article reviews how users with appropriate permissions can Initiate Faculty (activity) Input Workflows for faculty at their unit level and below.
New: Best Practice Webinar Recording
Check out our Initiating Activity Input Periods and Reviewing Submitted Forms for Approval August 2024 Best Practice Webinar. In this webinar we explored when and why to use initiated activity input periods, how to review and approve submitted forms, and what the input period looks like from the faculty perspective.
Create Workflow and Initiate the Activity Input Process
- Navigate to the Administration page and click Initiate Faculty Input Workflow under the Activity Input section.
- Filter the view by selecting the desired Start/End Date and Workflow Form to display in the list below. Click Refresh Report once you have selected the filters.
- Click the Pencil (Edit) icon to modify or click Add at the bottom of the page to create a new Faculty Input Workflow. The Initiate Faculty Input Workflow page will display.
Unit administratorss cannot edit inputs initiated by other unit administrators, even if they are in the same unit. Only Institutional Administrators (IAs) have the ability to edit inputs initiated by other users.
- Fill out the form. The table below contains information on each section on this page.
| Section | Details |
|---|---|
| Input Workflow Details |
Setting a due date does not prevent the Approve Faculty Input page from updating after that date. Initiated Activity Input forms always remain editable for administrators on the Approve Faculty Input page and dynamically update with changes from the faculty's Activities page, so approvers might see different activities at different times. Locking Initiated Activity Inputs in Multi-Step WorkflowsUpon initial submission, the task disappears from the faculty's homepage but remains unlocked under:
Once fully approved or once the due date passes, the form locks and moves to the Forms & Reports > Prior Activity Input Forms. Initiated Activity Input forms only lock on the Prior Activity Input Forms page for faculty and on the Reports > Prior Activity Input Forms page for administrators. This form is still editable/unlocked for Administrators on the Approve Faculty Input page. If no due date is set and the input workflow has only one step, the form will not lock. |
| Faculty Input Settings |
|
| Workflow Steps |
The Activity Input approval Workflow allows multiple levels of approval. The default first step is faculty self-submission of the Activity Input Form. If an institution doesn't use the workflow steps, faculty still submit the form for approval. The form is only available to faculty at Step One; subsequent steps are for Administrators only. Click Add Step to include more approval levels for administrators. You can customize the Submit and Reject Button Labels and add instructions to the workflow.
|
| Participating Faculty |
Click Select Faculty to choose faculty for the input workflow using the Faculty Selector Tool. To add a new faculty member after the workflow is created, they must be added manually; there is no dynamic process for this. Notification messages for participating faculty will appear in their dashboard's To Do section. |
5. Scroll to the bottom and click Save when finished. This will initiate the faculty input workflow and send an action message to faculty under the To Do section on their dashboard.
An automatic email is not sent to faculty members notifying them that the workflow was initiated. If you would like to send a message to faculty, you can do so from the Communications page or the Approve Faculty Input page.
FAQs
What Happens if a Faculty Member Misses a Deadline?
It is recommended to create a new Initiated Activity Input that includes all the faculty members who missed the deadline. Be sure to give the Initiated Activity Input the same name as before with “Late Submission” added so faculty members can see the difference.
Do not extend the deadline because doing so will extend the deadline for everyone within the Initiated Activity Input, not just a specified group.
Is there a report that shows who has completed/not completed the Activity Input form?
The full list of faculty members required to complete the form and their completion status can be found on the Approve Faculty Input page.