Table of Contents

Weekly Faculty Status Emails

Jason Carroll Updated by Jason Carroll

Overview

Once a week, IDs send all active faculty partners a status update on their projects. The purpose is to ensure a consistent and shared understanding of development progress and to clearly communicate next steps.

Timing

Ideally, reports should be sent weekly (Monday or Friday). Once you pick a day, be as consistent as possible.

Expectations
  • Reports are to be sent weekly (Monday or Friday). Once you pick a day, be as consistent as possible.
  • Copy the content of each email to the Certificate (or top level) project card in Wrike and @mention the Product Owner and IDD. This provides easy accessibility for all stakeholders and an ongoing record of communications.
  • Address to your faculty partner. CC Chad, the Product Owner, the IDD of the project, and your IDD (if different than the managing IDD).
  • Be professional
    • The quality of your content and formatting reflects on eCornell and you. Faculty are entrusting their reputations and work with us. Our emails should inspire confidence.
    • Check formatting - bullets are aligned, spacing is appropriate, use of color or bold is appropriate and consistent.
    • Note late or rescheduled activities as needed, especially to illustrate the effects on the project timeline. Avoid caps and repetitions that could be irritating to the faculty. When there are repeated delays or unusual concerns, bring them to the attention of your IDD and Product partner outside of this faculty email. 
  • If there is an issue of concern (e.g., repeated missed deadlines or work quality that requires more work from the ID than anticipated), call your IDD’s attention to it via 1:1 meetings, email, or Slack.
Content

Status Reports Should

Status Reports Are Not

  • Inform faculty of their action items and related due dates
  • Inform faculty of long-term milestones, including when their project is expected to be complete
  • Provide stakeholders (IDD, VP Design and  Development, and Product Managers) with clear, concise, accurate, and consistent updates regarding the project’s development status
  • Vehicles for inaccurate estimates or best guesses
  • Vehicles for course-correcting faculty (see your IDD and Product partner for help with this)
  • A long, detailed accounting or vehicle for collaboration
    • Avoid long descriptions of completed work or what to do in next steps (very short bullet points are preferred). Instead, include links to asset trackers and other materials as needed to provide supporting details. Long discussions and specific guidance should occur via separate emails or meetings
    • Detailed, asset-specific comments or revision work should occur via collab docs or meetings

Status Reports Should Always Include

  • Faculty Next Steps (with due dates for each task)
  • eCornell Next Steps
  • Critical Tasks Completed Last Week
  • Key Milestone Dates
    • Indicate whether each milestone is on track or at risk
Process Tips
  • Set expectations: Explain to your faculty that you will send regular status updates before sending the first email. 
  • Use as a reminder: If you haven’t updated Wrike in a few days, completing this report is a good reminder to do so. Go through the full project and roll up bucket-level and project-level dates where needed. Ensure individual tasks are current and that final milestone dates are accurate.
  • Keep a record: Consider maintaining a single Google document that contains each week’s report. You can save time by copying one report to the next week, making edits, and then copying/pasting the content into the email body. If you choose to keep a single Google document:
    • Keep it at the root of the certificate folder as a single file.
    • Add notes to the Google document as you make progress through the week.

Email Template

Copy and paste this template into your email to use as the basis of your status update. Modify the content as appropriate to you, the project, and your faculty. However, always ensure the required elements are present and the overall message is clear, concise, and professional:

Hello <Faculty>

Here is your summary status of <Course/Certificate Name>. Please let me know if you see any need for additions or corrections.

Faculty Next Steps (with due dates for each task)

  • Item 1
  • Item 2
  • Item 3

eCornell Next Steps

  • Item 1
  • Item 2
  • Item 3

Critical Tasks Completed Last Week

  • Item 1
  • Item 2
  • Item 3

Key Milestone Dates

Course: <Number ABC123>

  • Faculty Review Date (Faculty reviews full course in Canvas):
  • Complete (Development work is complete):

Course: <Number ABC345>

  • Faculty Review Date (Faculty reviews full course in Canvas): <Date Range>
  • Complete (Development work is complete): <Date>

Example

Here is an example of updates in a bullet style. The bullets are easier for the faculty to read and digest than paragraphs of text:

Subject Line: Wines Certificate Weekly Status Summary

Hi Cheryl,

Here is a summary of our status on the Wine Certificate. Please let me know if you see any need for additions or corrections.

Faculty Next Steps

  • Germany/Austria
  • CSS to draft non-video assets (due 3/14/22)

eCornell Next Steps

  • Germany/Austria
    • Lj - to review new videos and make animation notes (due 3/5)
    • CSS/Lj to review animation notes at next status meeting 3/7

Critical Tasks Completed Last Week

  • Spain/Portugal (SHA688/SHA689)
    • SHA688 Course - Completed 2/5/22
    • SHA689 Course - Completed 2/16/22
  • Germany/Austria (SHA716/714)
    • Revised videos recorded (3/1) and processed

Key Milestone Dates

  • SHA713 - On Track
    • Faculty Review 5/8 - 5/14
    • Full Course Completion - 6/16/2022
  • SHA714 - On Track
    • Faculty Review 5/9 - 5/15
    • Full Course Completion - 6/27/2022

How did we do?

Sending Faculty Sign-Off Forms in Adobe Sign

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