Wiser Online Training

When Wiser was first introduced to UMass Boston, there was a full-time person whose job it was to train staff and faculty on how to use the multi-purpose student administration system. When that person retired, instructional Technology Specialist Katherine Ananis whittled the three-hour, in-person training down to two hours, but the inefficiency of the model became clearer once COVID-19 hit. Ananis was tasked with doing individual sessions via Zoom rather than group training sessions, and she remained the gatekeeper of all information in the 43-page handbook. This was the genesis for moving things online, decreasing the labor needed for the training as well as increasing trainees’ agency.  

A shift to online meant creating a WordPress blog to house each of the 15 modules, after first editing and updating all text in the handbook. Student worker Frayni Calderon was charged with creating the blog, and he also helped update an outdated PeopleSoft video that did not feature Wiser’s newest interface. Ananis created the script, which Calderon then inputted into the system so that AI technology could narrate the video. “This is a step-by-step tutorial where it is easier to see the steps you need to take, and we are showing them in real time what they need to do,” says Calderon. The duo is now working on creating videos for each individual module.  

Staff can now complete the training at a time convenient to them and return to the training materials as often as needed. “We really want to get people comfortable going online and really looking at the modules and following the steps on their own,” Ananis says. “We are hoping that most people will be able to look at the online training and no longer require personal assistance.”