Johnson School Checks Its eePulse
Christian Rockwell '00
Issue date: 4/6/00 Section: Johnson News
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One element of continuous improvement in any organization is constructive real-time feedback. Recognizing this, Johnson has investigated and implemented several feedback vehicles for members of the Johnson community over the past two years. The most recent creation is eepulse. This online, bi-weekly student polling service promises to allow more targeted feedback on specific issues. Ideally, this will enable the administration to be much more responsive to student concerns and issues.
The Johnson community has seen many manifestations of feedback forums over the past two years. The Student Web Interface contained one such forum for students to provide feedback and ask questions. With the dissolution of the web interface, the next generation CourseInfo service took over the responsibility of providing feedback services. Today, CourseInfo offers both Discussion Board and Virtual Chat capabilities. Students can log into CourseInfo and enter into on-line dynamic chats with other members of the community. Additionally, students can submit questions and comments to both a General Discussion Board as well as an SFC Feedback Board. Comments are then read and responded to by specific members of the student body or administration. However, given the few number of postings in the General Board, it does not appear as though it is being used to a great degree. In contrast, the SFC Feedback Forum appears to be well used and full of answers to questions that still float through the halls of Sage.
Unlike many of the feedback services offered, eePulse promises to provide real-time anonymous feed. Each student is polled (via email) every other Wednesday on both general and time sensitive issues. The email responses are received by the vendor and are posted as soon as they are compiled. All comments and quantitative results are posted except those that may "target" a particular individual. (Those comments are read and appropriate action is taken). All comments are read by the Johnson School Management Committee (which includes Dean Swieringa, Associate Deans Elliott, Dove, Shafer and Hostetler, Executive Director of Development Sharratt) and other appropriate management staff. In some cases, the administration will respond directly (via email) to the student. However, the recipient is anonymous to the administration. The vendor and third party administrator strips off all identifiers before sending results to the Johnson School.
The vendor, eePulse Inc., develops on-line survey services for Fortune 500 manufacturing, financial services, and high-technology companies. In addition, universities, healthcare organizations and start-ups also employ their services. While, only one eepulse has been collected, it appears to be asking the right questions and giving open access to students to view the results. Ideally, this rapid response will help the administration keep an eye on the pulse of the community.
The Johnson community has seen many manifestations of feedback forums over the past two years. The Student Web Interface contained one such forum for students to provide feedback and ask questions. With the dissolution of the web interface, the next generation CourseInfo service took over the responsibility of providing feedback services. Today, CourseInfo offers both Discussion Board and Virtual Chat capabilities. Students can log into CourseInfo and enter into on-line dynamic chats with other members of the community. Additionally, students can submit questions and comments to both a General Discussion Board as well as an SFC Feedback Board. Comments are then read and responded to by specific members of the student body or administration. However, given the few number of postings in the General Board, it does not appear as though it is being used to a great degree. In contrast, the SFC Feedback Forum appears to be well used and full of answers to questions that still float through the halls of Sage.
Unlike many of the feedback services offered, eePulse promises to provide real-time anonymous feed. Each student is polled (via email) every other Wednesday on both general and time sensitive issues. The email responses are received by the vendor and are posted as soon as they are compiled. All comments and quantitative results are posted except those that may "target" a particular individual. (Those comments are read and appropriate action is taken). All comments are read by the Johnson School Management Committee (which includes Dean Swieringa, Associate Deans Elliott, Dove, Shafer and Hostetler, Executive Director of Development Sharratt) and other appropriate management staff. In some cases, the administration will respond directly (via email) to the student. However, the recipient is anonymous to the administration. The vendor and third party administrator strips off all identifiers before sending results to the Johnson School.
The vendor, eePulse Inc., develops on-line survey services for Fortune 500 manufacturing, financial services, and high-technology companies. In addition, universities, healthcare organizations and start-ups also employ their services. While, only one eepulse has been collected, it appears to be asking the right questions and giving open access to students to view the results. Ideally, this rapid response will help the administration keep an eye on the pulse of the community.