How can I apply formatting to the text entered in the system?
Activity Insight now includes a WYSIWYG editor for some textboxes (Bold, Italics, Underline, Superscript and Subscript). If that is not available in the box you are looking to use, you can apply formatting to your text through the use of html tags as follows:
Which browsers are currently supported by Activity Insight?
AI currently supports Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome fully.
What are my options for reporting the status of my Contracts, Grants, Fellowships and/or Sponsored Research?
The options for the “Current Status” field on the Contracts, Grants, Fellowship and Sponsored Research screen are set by the Vice Provost of Academic Affairs for consistency across the University.
Definitions of Current Status:
- Awarded – Fully processed financial award
- Pending – Submitted proposal that is awaiting funding status from sponsor
- Not Funded – Notification received from Sponsor or principal investigator that proposal was not funded
- Purged – Proposal has been marked as Not Funded due to pending status of three years or more
- Withdrawn – Proposal has been marked as Not Funded and Withdrawn by action of the principal investigator
How do the date fields work within Activity Insight?
You will not be able to save changes to a record without one date field entered. Keep in mind: entering a Year is good, entering a Month and Year is better, entering a Month, Day, and Year is outstanding.
If the activity you are recording occurs on one day:
You only need to enter the data for “End Date or Single Day Activity”.
If the activity you are recording occurs over multiple years:
For example, you may have served as the President of an advisory board for three years. Many screens have the ability to enter a Start and End date. If the “End Date or Single Day Activity” is left blank, the report will read “January 1, 2015 – present” and appear on every report until an “End Date or Single Day Activity” has been entered.
Publications Screen:
Each time your publication status changes you must also update the date fields that apply to that status. If you update the publication status, you must update the applicable date range for accurate reporting.
- Expected Date of Submission If your publication has a Current Status of “In Progress”, enter a date in these fields.
- Date Submitted If your publication has a Current Status of “Submitted” or “Revising to Resubmit”, enter a date in these fields.
- Date Accepted If your publication has a Current Status of “Accepted”, enter a date in these fields.
- Date Published or Date to be Published if “In Press” If your publication has a Current Status of “In Press” or “Published, enter a date in these fields. This also includes Online Publications or E-Pubs.
Contracts, Grants, Fellowships and Sponsored Research Screen:
Each time your contract, grant, fellowship or sponsored research changes you must also change the Current Status. To start, all entries must have a Date Submitted for Funding, this is a required field.
- For a Current Status of “Pending” ONLY fill out the Date Submitted for Funding, no other date fields should be completed.
- For a Current Status of “Not Funded”, use the Date Not Funded fields.
- For a Current Status of “Awarded”, use the Date Funding Awarded, Start Date of Funding, and End Date of Funding.
If you have additional questions about the date fields, please contact our support team at AI-Support@psu.edu.
I ran an NIH or NSF Biographical Sketch report, and my report has repeated itself in the output…why?
The NIH and NSF Biographical Sketch Reports rely on the label for the Biosketch that is selected in the “Additional Filters” step of the report criteria to determine which Biosketch records to use. If this field is left blank, the report will generate a Biosketch for each applicable record the user has. Choose the label for the Biosketch report you would like to generate.
Who should I contact for help with Activity Insight?
Each participating unit has an AI liaison. You can find the list is available on the Oversight Committee page. For more general help with the system, contact the Activity Insight University Administrators by emailing AI-Support@psu.edu.
Which units at PSU are currently using AI?
You can get a complete list of current users on the Current Users page.
My course numbers and/or enrollment numbers in my Courses Taught list and my SRTE screens do not match. Why is this, and what should I do?
Discrepancies in course numbers happen from time to time because the courses have been set up incorrectly at the department level, thus insuring they do not match university records. Report discrepancies to the AI support staff person in your department so you can correct your record.
Discrepancies in enrollment data for the same class occur because the Courses Taught data comes from the Budget Office and represents the official number of students enrolled in the class after the drop/add period. The SRTE data comes from the Schreyer Institute and represents the actual number of students who completed the class. These two data sets are not cross-checked, and small numerical discrepancies are not a concern. Report large discrepancies to the AI support staff person in your department.
When does Activity Insight receive the SRTE data?
1. In the SRTE system, scores are summarized when:
a. There are less than 10 students AND 50% of the grades have been entered for the course.
b. There are 10 or more students AND 75% of the grades have been entered for the course.
c. When the end of the semester has been reached, and it’s time for final grade reporting, the last summarization is completed for all courses which have not already been completed.
All courses that have been offered an SRTE and have student responses will eventually be summarized, either after enough grades have been submitted or after the final grade reporting date. SRTE summarizations are not re-run, once completed, it’s reflective of the final scores.
2. The last summarization is performed about a month after final grade reporting (date set by the Registrar’s Office) has completed, with one run for all courses, and a separate run for the law school(s). The law school run happens approximately 10 days after that date.
3. Whatever point in time the summarization runs, those SRTE scores are immediately available to faculty within the SRTE system. (Thus, Activity Insight is receiving those scores the same time that faculty are able to view them as well – every evening, the summarizations that have been completed are uploaded into the system.)
4. NOTE: This is what can lead to enrollment count mismatch between SRTE counts, and what is reported from the budget office for official Courses Taught at times because there is a chance that at the end of the semester, students may have dropped the course. Also, as I mentioned during the session, Activity Insight receives ONLY the overall summary scores, not individual student responses or the content of student comments.
Some additional tidbits:
There are a few different scenarios where there may be no SRTE scores reported (and we have seen this question from faculty members):
1) The course was not offered an SRTE
2) No students responded to the survey
Some courses that have grades assigned still wait for the final grade reporting date, this can be because the course was not directly assigned grades. For instance, some science courses have a lab and recitation, only one of the 2 courses have grades assigned so the other will not be summarized until the final grade reporting date.
More information for the SRTE system can be found at: http://srte.psu.edu/