do: Soothing course admin headaches with SharePoint

Running an academic or training programme can mean grappling with several systems, lots of spreadsheets and, as a consequence, version control issues. This talk will consider how to run the administrative side of a programme in SharePoint to make things more efficient and to help provide students and course participants with useful sources of clear, current information.

This  do: talk will interest programme leaders and administrators.

Speaker: John Miles
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John Miles invites anyone who is interested to visit the Humanities training site in SharePoint, to see what they have set up:
https://sharepoint.nexus.ox.ac.uk/training
Watch the recorded talk

16 February 2015

Posted in Spring 2015 | Comments Off on do: Soothing course admin headaches with SharePoint

do: Win friends and influence people using Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project can be an effective aid to accommodating the differences your colleagues bring to your project/event/research, and can enable you to keep your colleagues happy and get the job done.
Do this successfully and you will create effective, collaborative working relationships with people who will be willing to work with you again and potentially give you more of their time.

Sara Tindall is Project Manager for the Technology-Assisted Lifelong learning unit, based at the Department for Continuing Education.

This do: talk is for anyone who manages projects, events or research collaborations that involve getting a number of people to work together to reach a goal.

Speaker: Sara Tindall
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17 February 2015

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do: Fifteen favourite functions – making Excel easier

In Excel you’ll soon discover the power of a well-chosen function. The problem is there are so many it’s hard to know what might be useful. This talk takes 15 favourites of mine and shows you how to use them alone and in combination to simplify formulas and solve some tricky spreadsheet problems.

  • Is INDEX a MATCH for VLOOKUP?
  • Does COUNT always count?
  • What can you FIND with LEN?
  • Could that formula be IFfy?
  • Will you be CONVERTed?

Speaker: Duncan Young
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Download the spreadsheet with examples
23 February 2015

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do: SharePoint an administration and collaboration workspace

Sharepoint is a powerful tool that can help you organise and share information, has granular security and is accessible from anywhere.

This  do: talk is for anyone who needs to share information and wants to spend less time on admin.

Speaker: Sean Nightingale
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Watch the recorded talk
24 February 2015

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do: Running committees with SharePoint

Committees at the University of Oxford can be simple, or very complex beasts.

This do: talk introduces the idea of using SharePoint to help manage those committees. It will interest anyone who looks after a committee or working group, who wants to spend less time on admin.

You may wish to try to ‘go paperless’ and have everything available from one web page. You may wish to keep a check on versions of a document that the committee is working on. Or to work on some documents for the committee, only releasing them for everyone on the committee to read when they are ‘published’. As part of the SharePoint Best Practices project a site template was produced for managing committees and distributing the documents. It has recently been improved further.

Speaker: Mark Norman
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Watch the recorded talk
2 March 2015

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do: Chorus in action

Chorus is the University of Oxford’s new unified communications service. It will replace existing telephony systems in a phased approach by 2017 and offer new ways for people across the University to work better together.

We apologise that this event has been cancelled.

Posted in Spring 2015 | Comments Off on do: Chorus in action

do: Backing up your data to the HFS

Do you have data that you don’t want to lose? You can keep it safe with the HFS, IT Services’ Backup and Archive service. You can back up work-related data currently on your machine; or, if you have data that’s of long-term value to the University, you can archive it, and we will keep it for you.

This do: talk will interest anyone who has work-related data that they don’t want to lose.

Speaker: Jason Zerdin
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Watch the recorded talk 
10 March 2015

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do: Me, myself and IT: solving business problems with IT, a case study

The Exams and Assessments team have been using IT to tackle various administrative problems.

This do: session will be a case study of some of the things they have been working on and the systems used to tackle the business problems, namely Sharepoint and Microsoft Access. The talk will suit anyone interested in making use of Sharepoint or other systems in their business.

Speaker: Gavin Taylor
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Watch the recorded talk   w 
11 March 2015

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do: Code with your kids

This do: session explores what computer programming is all about, why it’s fun to learn and what free software is available to help get started.
It also explains how parents can support the new computing curriculum. No knowledge of coding is required and no technical jargon will be used!

This brief introduction to learning what coding is and how it’s done will be especially interesting for parents who get asked by their children to help with the new computing curriculum. It’s also a good starting point for anyone who thinks they might be interested in learning what coding is all about and why it might be fun to learn.

Speaker: Steve Albury
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Watch the recorded talk   w 
17 March 2015

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do: Using WebLearn to reduce the burden of administering a course

Although WebLearn is useful for teaching and learning, did you know that it also has tools which can help with the administrative burden, so you can become more effective and efficient?
This do: session will focus on these WebLearn tools: Surveys, Sign-up, Calendar, Announcements and Email Archives. The talk will be relevant and useful for administrators and researchers.

Speaker: Fawei Geng
——
Watch the recorded talk 
18 March 2015

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do: Lunchtime talks 2014

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do: is a series of lunch time talks that highlight the use of IT technology in support of business systems and processes in the University.

The talks that were given in the Spring 2014 season are described below.

If you could be interested in doing a do: or if you have an idea for a talk that would be useful – contact us.

do02“do-do, dee-doo”do03

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do: An Excel adventure in dates and times

Why is Easter late this year? This do: talk is for anybody who uses dates and times in their Excel work. We will explore functions, formulas and formats that are under-appreciated, or even hidden.

Learn how to work with dates and times, including calculations that work on dates. Understand how Excel formats dates, and explore some interesting formats. And, after all, find out how to calculate the date when Easter will fall.

Duncan Young has been a member of the University’s Financials Training Team since 2006 and gave his first Excel course in 1993. Since then he has given countless courses in all aspects of Excel, including installation and programming, and was part of the team which wrote and delivered Microsoft’s internal helpdesk training for Excel 2002.

———-

Duncan Young, who gave this talk, says this:

The book I held up was “Excel Formulas” by John Walkenbach. Below is the Excel 2010 version, but obviously people should buy whichever one is appropriate to their version:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Excel-2010-Formulas-Spreadsheets-Bookshelf/dp/0470475366/ref=la_B000APG96Y_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394810723&sr=1-7

Look at the slides from this talk:
Do talk Duncan Young Excel Adventure 2014-03

Try out the workbooks with formulas from this talk:
Do Talk Duncan Young Excel Workbooks Formulas

Posted in Spring 2014 | Comments Off on do: An Excel adventure in dates and times

do: The Zen of Visual Analytics in a Big Data World

Come and find out how we can leverage the ‘Cycle of Visual Analysis’ to find a needle in the haystack of Big Data world. The human visual system is powerful, and when we add fast, intuitive interaction to this experience, we empower everyone to analyze and share data effectively.

You will hear about how academic organizations around the world have been leveraging the ‘Cycle of Visual Analysis’ to balance data, analysis and reporting requirements across the system.

Mrunal Shridhar is experienced in operational strategy consulting, with strengths in improving performance and efficiency across the supply chain. His fact-driven analytical approach helps people transform data into actionable information of decision-making quality.

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Look at the slides from this talk:

Do talk Tableau Mrunal Shridhar 2014-03

You can read more about the Tableau software, and set up a free 14-day trial at www.tableausoftware.com

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do: Soothing course admin headaches with SharePoint

Running an academic or training programme can mean grappling with several systems, lots of spreadsheets and, as a consequence, endless version control issues.

This do: talk will consider how to run the administrative side of a programme in SharePoint, to make things more efficient and to help provide students and course participants with useful sources of clear, current information. It will interest anyone who wants to run an academic or training programme more smoothly.

You will hear about using SharePoint to run a programme more efficiently, maintaining good communications and hosting resources.

———-
John Miles invites anyone who is interested to visit the Humanities training site in SharePoint, to see what they have set up:

https://sharepoint.nexus.ox.ac.uk/training

Posted in Spring 2014 | Comments Off on do: Soothing course admin headaches with SharePoint

do: Managing versions of program code with Git

Managing code changes in a programming project isn’t easy, especially when collaborating with other developers. Git automates many of these tasks such as merging, tracking, diffing and rolling back code. This talk will present a practical introduction to common tasks using Git.

You will learn about version control systems and see a basic Git workflow. You will hear about Git tools and clients, and the importance of GitHub. If you are working on programming projects – either as a lone programmer or in a team – then this do: talk is for you.
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Ben Holmes, who gave this talk, has sent these helpful comments:

Thank you for attending the talk about Git, I hope you enjoyed it. If you are interested the presentation can be found at  https://github.com/bdvholmes/git-intro-talk

There is a link to the online presentation in the readme or you can download a PDF from the Releases tab.

If you have any questions or would like to know more I would be happy to answer some questions, you can email me at  ben.holmes@it.ox.ac.uk

Posted in Spring 2014 | Comments Off on do: Managing versions of program code with Git

do: Mailing groups of people at Oxford

Sending email to one person is easy, but when you’re sending to lots of people there are multiple options. The options may depend on who will use the group, who is in it, how you want to process responses, as well as how you want to manage it.

This do: talk helps you understand which of those options is most appropriate to your needs. You may just need a simple group in Outlook, you might need a formal web-managed Mail List, or perhaps an Exchange Distribution Group is called for. After this talk you’ll know which will suit your needs best.

You will learn about group-mailing concepts and consider the benefits, limitations and best practice for: Outlook Contact Groups, Mail Lists and Distribution Groups. This talk will interest anyone who needs to email a group of people and is unsure about the best way to do so.
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Look at the slides from this talk:

Do talk Mailing Groups at Oxford Matthew Gaskin

Posted in Spring 2014 | Comments Off on do: Mailing groups of people at Oxford

do: Running committees with SharePoint

Committees at the University of Oxford can be simple, or very complex beasts.  This do: talk introduces the idea of using SharePoint to help manage those committees.

You may wish to try to ‘go paperless’ and have everything available from one web page.  You may wish to keep a check on versions of a document that the committee is working on.  Or to work on some documents for the committee, only releasing them for everyone on the committee to read when they are ‘published’. As part of the SharePoint Best Practices project, a site template was produced for managing committees and distributing the documents.  It has recently been improved further.  Come along and hear about how to use it.

This talk will interest anyone who looks after a committee or working group, who wants to spend less time on admin.

———-
Look at the slides from this talk:

Do talk SharePointCommitteeSites Mark Norman 2014-02

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do: Send emails and documents safely

This do: session describes how you can use both University and other software & services to exchange documents with your colleagues securely. Hear about using OxFile and SharePoint, passwords and encryption and how to keep safe and comply with University policies.

Whether you’re sending CVs by email, sharing and working on committee papers or just don’t want anyone to read your emails, this session is for you.

 

Posted in Spring 2014 | Comments Off on do: Send emails and documents safely

do: Time management

Beth Asbury is an administrator at the Pitt Rivers Museum and she has several years of experience in similar positions elsewhere. She has found time management training invaluable, and she is happy to share some of the tips and tricks she learned with others.

In this do: talk, Beth will be discussing ‘time bandits’ and how to deal with them, energy levels, prioritising tasks, ‘elephant tasks’, delegation, scheduling and workload analysis.

These skills are useful for anyone who has more than one thing to do every day, and not only for administrators!

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Look at the slides from this talk:

Do talk Beth Asbury Time Management 2014-03

Do talk Beth Asbury Frog Time Sheet 2014-03

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do: How WebLearn can reduce the administrative burden

WebLearn is useful for teaching and learning, but did you know that it also has tools which can help with the administrative burden, so you can become more effective and efficient?
This do: session will focus on these WebLearn tools: Surveys, Sign-up, Calendar, Announcements and Email Archives.

It is relevant and useful for administrators as well as researchers.

———-
Look at the slides from this talk: do talk Fawei Geng WebLearn reduces admin burden

Posted in Spring 2014 | Comments Off on do: How WebLearn can reduce the administrative burden