Elements Faculty Activity System: Overview Workshop and Drop-In Q&A

Term: Spring 2025

Date: January 22nd, 2025

Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Location: Online Only

Instructors: Ginny Pannabecker, Rachel Miles, Emily Mazure, & Ben Greenawald

Presented By: University Libraries (LIB), Faculty Affairs (FA), Elements Implementation Team

Description:

Virginia Tech Elements, a faculty activity repository, is used for a variety of purposes, including data for department, college, or broader institutional analytics and reports, the Virginia Tech Experts public profiles system, and as the primary data source for electronic faculty activity reports (eFARs) by some areas. 

In this hands-on session, Rachel Miles, Ginny Pannabecker, and Ben Greenawald will provide both an overview workshop and the time will also be available as drop-in office hours. 

Office Hours Q&A: 

Drop in and ask a question during the first 10 minutes of the session while people join the meeting. Or drop in anytime during the session and type a question into the chat. One of the presenters will be focused on answering questions in the chat, while the others provide an overview workshop. If the question needs more than a brief response in chat, one of the presenters can meet with individual participants in a breakout room to provide more focused support.

Overview Workshop: 

Starting at 10 minutes after the session start time, one of the instructors will provide an introduction to Elements, any new interface features and functions afforded by the latest upgrade, and how to generate reports populated with Elements data (like a Faculty Activity Report) through the University Data Commons (UDC). Topics during the session will include: an overview of system functionality, how to optimize automatic updates of scholarly works, how to import scholarly works, and how to manually add and edit all types of activity information. We'll also cover: how to deposit scholarly works into VTechWorks to provide open access to your works and how to manage information in the Virginia Tech Experts public profile system that draws activity data from Elements. The session will  include time for discussion and opportunities to address questions or issues.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Ginny Pannabecker at vpannabe@vt.edu at least 10 business days prior to the event. (If it's less than 10 business days prior to the event, please still feel free to reach out and I will do my best to offer whatever accommodations I can within a shorter time frame, or we can discuss alternative workshop offerings on days further in the future.)