My objective was a mixed approach of quantative e and qualitative data to measure the success of using a department wiki for the Change of Enrollment Department. It was important for me to know not only how often data was being accessed but also if it was easy to access, update, and understand. The key for the wiki was to extinguish current challenges the department faced understanding and adhering to changing policies and procedures and insuring all employees had the same accurate information. The current path to information was to ask the most experienced person and rarely resulted in informing the team if procedures were not being completed correctly. By having a central location for all members to access it would prevent differences in how work is being completed and accuracy of the final work. As Administrator of the wiki, I was able to keep tabs on all discussions taking place, evaluate and answer all questions posted, and also all changes made to the wiki. I also asked members to write a personal evaluation of the ClearWiki used in cycle one so I could determine their likes, dislikes, and concerns.
After changing tools for cycle 2, I saw a much better response from users. The format was much more user friendly and collaborative. Members felt less like they were reading a policy manual and more like they were an intrical part of improving processes in the department. Communication overall improved the most and gave all members of the team a sense of empowerment. Currently management is evaluating work to see if the use of the web tool carried over into the accuracy in our procedures and I believe that is did.
Currently just finishing up week two of GSM but already finding many ways it assists me in my action research. Work, like school, comes with the task of dealing with employees and clients that all learn differently. The guest speaker from the week 2 Wibma session brought this to the surface for me and allowed me to understand that I need to take into account that not everyone will find my action research as useful as I hope it will be. Individual learning style should not prevent anyone from accessing information pertinent to the job. Having different avenues like weekly meetings or virtual sessions will only establish more communication and understanding of the information we are adding online.
