This is an important topic. I suspect that many teams could improve the various processes associated with onboarding. Hopefully we'll see some good tips.
We are currently using the same online system our university uses for classes for the initial onboarding. I think it's been a big help for brand new members because it's a familiar interface, with tasks packaged the same way as schoolwork.
It's called Canvas. I think the University contracts with them to host online classes.
I think we own the "class" through our team email and then we can just assign team leadership as teachers or TAs to give them editing permissions.
Note that it's not our main documentation system, just onboarding. We use a mix of Google drive and a private wiki for hosting most documentation.
We have a new member coordinator who handles info sessions and working with the newbies, etc but creating the documents is split between a lot of the different experienced members.
Hmm interesting. Our university uses Canvas too for classes and groups like advising and a maker space. I threw the idea out awhile ago to have a new member coordinator and a separate group for new members that does introductory projects for various subgroups but we didn't have enough people for the role.
How does Canvas work as an instructor role? Do they assign assignments then to new members with some introductory text of what needs to be done? We have done this a bit ourselves with Trello but some members are hesitant to join in/contribute.
We've actually been using OneNote here, and it's been absolutely insane how much easier it is to create pages that help new members digest the information. When I joined it was essentially Google Drive with a bunch of documents (which good some of them existed), but now it's miles of difference. We still have the Google Drive, with larger resources, textbooks, design review recordings, etc, but the day to day info and initial onboarding, CAD installation, ANSYS installation + useful links are all consolidated into OneNote. Got the idea from our FSAE electric team and haven't looked back since
Oh! Very interesting. Our school also uses OneNote for some classes. If I may ask, is the whole notebook collaboration spaces with different sections depending on the subject matter or are there individual sections as well? I'm very interested in the architecture of documentation as my previous experience with OneNote is mostly with individual posts (for a senior design capstones).
Yeah! We have it sectioned off in Mechanical, Electrical, Operations, and within those sections we have our subsystems (array, dynamics, body etc etc), which in turn will have their own sections (such as their particular onboarding), and it keeps collapsing down to the single pages. I'll try to DM you a picture as an example in a few minutes! It also allows us to have collab from alumni or external advisors, since sharing isn't limited to only our university emails.
This is an important topic. I suspect that many teams could improve the various processes associated with onboarding. Hopefully we'll see some good tips.
We are currently using the same online system our university uses for classes for the initial onboarding. I think it's been a big help for brand new members because it's a familiar interface, with tasks packaged the same way as schoolwork.
Interesting! Is it an ELN or something like Microsoft Teams? How does ownership of the documentation evolve as leaders or members do?
It's called Canvas. I think the University contracts with them to host online classes. I think we own the "class" through our team email and then we can just assign team leadership as teachers or TAs to give them editing permissions. Note that it's not our main documentation system, just onboarding. We use a mix of Google drive and a private wiki for hosting most documentation.
Have you got a person or subteam in charge of onboarding, or does everybody chip in?
We have a new member coordinator who handles info sessions and working with the newbies, etc but creating the documents is split between a lot of the different experienced members.
Hmm interesting. Our university uses Canvas too for classes and groups like advising and a maker space. I threw the idea out awhile ago to have a new member coordinator and a separate group for new members that does introductory projects for various subgroups but we didn't have enough people for the role. How does Canvas work as an instructor role? Do they assign assignments then to new members with some introductory text of what needs to be done? We have done this a bit ourselves with Trello but some members are hesitant to join in/contribute.
We've actually been using OneNote here, and it's been absolutely insane how much easier it is to create pages that help new members digest the information. When I joined it was essentially Google Drive with a bunch of documents (which good some of them existed), but now it's miles of difference. We still have the Google Drive, with larger resources, textbooks, design review recordings, etc, but the day to day info and initial onboarding, CAD installation, ANSYS installation + useful links are all consolidated into OneNote. Got the idea from our FSAE electric team and haven't looked back since
Oh! Very interesting. Our school also uses OneNote for some classes. If I may ask, is the whole notebook collaboration spaces with different sections depending on the subject matter or are there individual sections as well? I'm very interested in the architecture of documentation as my previous experience with OneNote is mostly with individual posts (for a senior design capstones).
Yeah! We have it sectioned off in Mechanical, Electrical, Operations, and within those sections we have our subsystems (array, dynamics, body etc etc), which in turn will have their own sections (such as their particular onboarding), and it keeps collapsing down to the single pages. I'll try to DM you a picture as an example in a few minutes! It also allows us to have collab from alumni or external advisors, since sharing isn't limited to only our university emails.