UMW Speaking Center Upgrades its Scheduling System

By ALEXIS ERB 

Staff Writer

In the fall of 2017, the UMW Speaking Center implemented a new scheduling system designed to help and encourage students to make appointments for their academics. The new scheduler, a support system called Campus, was designed by the Education Advisory Board. One feature of Campus is that it has built in tools that make it possible for faculty to attend to their advisees.

UMW students are slowly finding out about the new scheduler for the Speaking Center. One student in particular, senior Emma Cahoon, was shocked to learn about the change.

“I didn’t even hear about a new system until recently,” said Cahoon.

Other students were not surprised to hear about the new technological update.

“I was not surprised because colleges are always innovating, and since the Speaking Center is  a resource that’s beneficial to many students it makes sense that they would find ways to improve the scheduling process,” said sophomore Miranda Batte-Futrell.

After using Campus for the first time, some students automatically recognized and praised its useful features.

“I didn’t think there was anything inherently wrong with the scheduling process prior to the change, but the new changes have in a way personalized the process,” said Batte-Futrell. “I feel like this would enable those working at the speaking center to better help students knowing some background information regarding the reason for the appointment before it happens.”

Dr. Anand Rao, the head of the Speaking Center, volunteered the Speaking Center to be the first student service to test drive the new scheduler. “If the new scheduler is successful in the Speaking Center, then it could possibly be adopted by other academic centers across campus such as Peer Tutoring, Writing Center, Library, and the Digital Knowledge Center,” said Rao.

“The old scheduler would, at times, drop appointments or cause conflicting appointments,” said Rao. “We have not had any similar problems with the new scheduler, and since this scheduler is part of an enterprise system that is used by the university it should not only be more reliable, it also has full tech support.”

Rao also gave future insight into the Speaking Center’s plans to take full advantage of the tools that the new schedule has to offer.

“The scheduler has a kiosk option that will allow students checking into their appointment to simply scan their EagleOne card. Campus is also tied to the Guide app that was also developed by EAB- and we started using the app this year. EAB is working on making it possible for students to make appointments in the Speaking Center directly from the Guide mobile app.”