Staff Profiles – Update

The new staff profiles system is a major achievement in consolidating data from all around the university and displaying it in an engaging, useful way for public access. But it can be confusing when staff need to change something on their page because the data comes from so many different areas. This article will shine some light on how it works, and how we can assist our academic staff with updating their profiles.

The staff profiles are located at http://www.uws.edu.au/staff_profiles (opens in a new window)

Editing a profile?

A great feature of the new system is that all staff have direct access to edit some elements of their pages via the ‘Edit Profile’ button at the top right of their profile page. The items that can be directly edited are:
  • Photo
  • Biography
  • Professional Memberships
  • Interests, Awards, Committees
  • Research description
  • Teaching Units
  • Multimedia links
Additionally there are many items that have a ‘tickbox’ next to them, allowing them to be hidden if the staff member so desires. These include:
  • Contact Details
  • Supervision Details
  • Research Projects
  • Publications

There are a lot of items that are not available for direct editing in this system, because they are fed from the authoritative source. This was designed to simplify the process for staff, as new publications, qualifications etc. only need to be updated in the authoritative system, and the details will propagate. However when managing profiles it can become a bit confusing as there are several different systems to deal with. For instance:
  • Qualifications, Title, Name, Job Title and Department (unit) are all fed from the HR database, and staff who need any of these items changed will need to contact either their supervisor or HR. The best contact in HR for staff profiles enquiries is currently Kirstie Allen.
  • Contact details are fed from the Staff Directory. These can be updated by completing the Staff Directory update form
  • Research Projects are updated automatically from the Office of Research Services database. These are usually correct as projects cannot proceed without being entered in this system, however ORS should be contacted for any queries regarding these entries.
  • Publications are fed from the ORS Researcher Portal. New items can be added by visiting the link below (no login required)
    • ORS Researcher Portal (opens in a new window). Changes to existing items will require getting in touch with ORS, Gary Long (opens in a new window) can assist for these types of change requests.
  • Supervision details are supplied by each School to the Postgraduate Research Student Admin area in the Registrar’s Office. Staff are able to show/hide these entries directly in the editing interface, but if there are serious errors and omissions then they will need to ask their School to correct these details with the Registrar’s Office. NOTE THAT BY DEFAULT THESE ITEMS ARE NOT DISPLAYED – they need to be turned on manually by staff. This is due to the inconsistencies in the data held in the authoritative source.

Upcoming fixes and plans

ITS continues to refine this system, and shortly we hope to roll out the following updates:

  • fixing the Qualifications data connection, as currently updates are not appearing as they should
  • displaying one job by default, rather than all current occupancies a person has in the system
  • providing a mechanism in the editor so staff can select which job, or multiple jobs, they would like displayed
  • adding more explanatory text next to each section

These changes should be rolled out in the next week or two. Additional updates are also being planned for the coming months.

Who to contact for further information?

Email staffprofiles@lists.uws.edu.au if you have any questions about this system.

Screenshot of the Staff Profiles

Screenshot of Staff Profile