Listening to Jim Klenner in a recent Peer Spotlight webinar left us admiring his enthusiasm and dedication to improving the various programs he and his colleagues manage every day.
Jim is the Associate Director and Biosafety Officer in Office of Research Integrity at Ball State University. Although Jim had only been using InfoReady for a little over a year, his hunger to learn more and more about InfoReady quickly moved him into a Super Administrator role in the system. Jim marks nearly all of InfoReady’s training sessions on his calendar to make sure he doesn’t miss an opportunity to learn about the latest features and glean tips from fellow InfoReady admins.
In this webinar, Jim took the virtual stage to share the fascinating ways he’s changed up forms and processes to make various programs in the research integrity office run more smoothly.
As you might guess, we were all smiles when Jim opened the webinar with, “One of the things I found with InfoReady is there really aren’t too many questions or ideas you can come up with that can’t be adapted.”
After helping a colleague update an Export Controls form, Jim decided to tackle converting a paper Conflict of Interest form into an online form with InfoReady. He shared and showed some tips and tricks he learned along the way.
Customize notifications to provide transparency of the process. Jim has customized InfoReady’s automatic notifications to let applicants know that “the Office of Research Integrity has received your submission, now we’re going to review it, and we’ll let you know what happens. Also, in that notification we give information on who to contact, who the RCR officer is in case they have questions.” Jim’s technique provides assurance the submission went through, understanding of the steps involved, and a real human as a point of contact that they can reach out to with questions.
Ensure accurate information and completeness of the document from the start. Jim has set the first routing step as an “initial quality check with an option to return to the applicant for revisions. If there is something missing or a box is not checked or they don’t give the right amount of funding, this can go back to be fixed (by the applicant), then return for the next step.”
Minimize email and requests of leadership while keeping them informed. “Applicants are required to input default reviewer in the form submission,” explains Jim, “so we know exactly who to send it to. Because the last thing you want to do is send a bunch of awkward emails to the wrong Dean or VP. We want to keep it easy on them and keep everybody happy.”
Make it easier on staff to handle questions. A clever trick Jim uses to help his team triage incoming emails is to add distinctive subject message to an email form. “You can put in a message subject for an email link in the Rich Text section, say ‘Questions on HSR Determination Form’ so staff can easily isolate those requests and respond immediately.”
To Jim’s delight, he discovered that when you eliminate paper, usage improves. “When we were doing paper copies for our Conflict of Interest form, people would need to download a PDF. The person fills it in, sends (scans) it to us, then it gets sent to the Chair, then it gets sent to the VP, then it gets sent back to us. Attachments and copies are not always looked at. We were averaging 1 or 2 a month.” Jim shares how using InfoReady has improved usage of the form and more disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. “In the last 9 months, we’ve received 182! It has been dramatic how taking away paper and providing a form someone can submit from the desktop can be so widely received and widely accepted. It’s really impressive to me what InfoReady can do.”
To hear and see Jim’s tips for using InfoReady with IRB and IACUC forms, watch the full webinar.
Whether it’s making forms easier to submit, routing documents for review, monitoring responses or improving the efficiency of a process, InfoReady is the best tool to manage higher education’s programs. Let us show you how InfoReady could work for you. Email us at info@inforeadycorp.com.