Ole Miss Today An integrated, campus-wide announcement system

What do you need to say?  Get your tickets for the next show.  Class is cancelled for today.  Your grades are ready for viewing.  The system will be down for maintenance.  Training opportunities are coming up.  My advisees need to meet with me.  Come to the volleyball game tonight.  Staff Council wants your input.  Streets are closed due to construction.

Ole Miss Today framework  Message formatting  Temporary Web page built easily  Attachments (pdf, ics)  Scheduled delivery  Adjustable message lifetime  Announcements delivered in one message  Messages are available outside the Inbox  Message acknowledgment, if necessary

The big picture  Ole Miss Today - one per day with summaries of your specific announcements  OMT: Express - immediate announcements (limited use)  myOleMiss - view your announcements upon login  Bulletin Board - announcements can be recommended to appear on UM homepage  Text messages - pilot program with only instructors at first

Authorizations  General OMT announcements and attachments administrators, deans, chairs, and appointees (the usual suspects)  OMT Express announcements limited use for immediate messages  HTML upload training required – not particularly easy even for experienced webmasters  Acknowledgment requests IT testing, then case-by-case basis (useful for RSVPs?)  Text messages very restricted – piloting with instructors Note: If you are not authorized to use a function, you will not see it on your screen.

Message Types 10/19/10

Targetable groups  Gender, zip code, campus  Student classification, program of study  Department affiliation  EEO categories, employed students, etc.  Roles in myOleMiss  Your students, your advisees  Your department's students  Employee/instructor now or future  Building mayors  Recursive department/organization selection

Not exactly a news feed... But there are plenty of similarities.

Instructions Log into myOleMiss and locate the application: Employee or Faculty or Administrator >> Tools & Resources >> Ole Miss Today Administration Note: If you plan on being a frequent user, consider adding it to your Portal Favorites.

Instructions Decide the type of group to address, then… 1. Select format 2. Enter message or upload file 3. Choose recipients 4. Set options 5. Review message 6. Submit message

Starting page

Step 1 – Select format

Step 2 – Enter message

Step 3 – Choose recipients

Step 4 – Set options Depending on your authorizations and earlier selections, you may see different options available. Validity dates define the lifespan of the message. Is it Bulletin Board-worthy? Confidential messages only send an alert via , while the full message is given in myOleMiss. Message priority helps determine how high within the message type area it will appear.

Step 5 – Review message Full details or attachments not yet in final location, so review of those isn't possible. Use the “Preview Recipient List” link to determine if you've targeted the correct people.

Step 6 – Submit message Once you've submitted the message, you can check it immediately in the myOleMiss version of OMT. If you see a problem, you can delete it and try again.

Helpful Hints Understand how the parts fit together.

Helpful Hints Subject and Summary are the two most important details since they are all that appear in the OMT announcement list. Subject should be the 'title' of the announcement. Try avoid dates and times in the subject. Summary should contain dates and times as well as a brief overview of the announcement.

Helpful Hints Don't refer to the “Full details” link in the summary since that link doesn't appear everywhere the summary is.

Helpful Hints Because of other listings, you can't predict the order of announcements, even if you set the priority to “high.” Avoid referencing one announcement from another. It gets confusing, even if you are trying to correct earlier information. Proofread your message, especially if you want it to appear on the Bulletin Board.

But wait! There's more...  View, delete, and update messages in your accounts.  Monitor others who also use your accounts.  Submit 'Featured Photo' for daily OMT .

Suggestions so far… Provide a "Don't show again" option for individual messages within the consolidated message. Provide a way to "share" a single message that is listed in the consolidated message. Include more on-screen help and error checking to help message submitters choose the correct target audience. Limit the number of consecutive days a message can be displayed. Provide a text-only method for instructors and advisors to quickly send e- mail and SMS messages without the extra OMT steps. Include a table of contents in consolidated messages. Provide a way to search through historical messages. 10/19/10

Ole Miss Today  … tomorrow, the world! For an overview and a copy of this presentation, go to For assistance or authorization, contact the IT Helpdesk at or Send suggestions for improvement to