Each year since 2004, faculty and academic specialists have been asked to fill out a survey detailing their outreach and engagement activities with communities beyond the university. The online survey is known as the Outreach and Engagement Measurement Instrument.
When the OEMI underwent a redesign two years ago, Carl Bussema was a major contributor to the project. As an information technologist in University Outreach and Engagement, he develops and designs web applications for the UOE websites. Much of Bussema’s work is in maintaining the OEMI and answering questions that respondents have about the survey.
“The OEMI is important because it’s the only central repository of outreach and engagement activity for the university,” Bussema said. “Reports that we generate from this will show the scope of all the engagement work and all the activity that’s done by our faculty and academic specialists here at MSU.”
The OEMI was designed so that respondents could save their work partway through and complete to survey later because some questions involve looking up pieces of information that respondents may not immediately be able to find or recall, Bussema said.
The website also has contact information at the top and bottom of every page so that individuals may ask questions or for help. Most of these inquiries will be sent to Bussema.
The OEMI is open until March 31 for reporting outreach and engagement activities for 2010. Reports will be sent to the provost and the president of the university.
“We would like for all faculty and academic specialists to fill it out, even if they haven’t done any outreach and engagement,” Bussema said. “Simply coming in and taking the time to acknowledge that they haven’t helps us get better data.”
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