E MPLOY E E NE W SL E T T E R
A PRIL 2016
President Gilbert addresses Pathway and Online Degree students in Phoenix.
More than 500 Pathway and Online Degree students gather for conference Brigham Young University-Idaho’s Pathway program held its first ever Connections Conference for Pathway and Online Degree students in Phoenix on March 11. The conference aimed to help build centers of strength for its burgeoning online program. Following President Gilbert’s inaugural speech, Pathway Domestic Director Bryan Justesen and colleagues visited students in Phoenix—an area that has around 1,600 Pathway and Online Degree students—and held focus groups to see what they thought would help them have a more fulfilling BYU-Idaho experience. While in these focus groups, Justesen said a majority of the online students said they felt isolated once they left the Pathway program, and asked if they would be able to physically come together, so they could meet others who are in their major. Plans for the Connections Conference began soon after, as an event where students could network with each other, as well as be inspired by speakers and gain valuable insights into becoming better students. “It is primarily for them to have a BYUIdaho experience, especially for the Online Degree students who are on their own, and are not gathering anymore,” said Pathway Area Manager Mike Cordon. “To still feel connected to the university, I think is important, and they’ve told us that.”
More than 500 students, missionaries, and guests attended the conference where they were able to hear from two speakers— Richie Norton and President Gilbert—in
“It’s primarily for them to have a BYUIdaho experience, especially for the Online Degree students who are on their own, and are not gathering anymore. To still feel connected to the university, I think is important.” — MIKE CORDON,
PATHWAY AREA MANAGER
addition to mingling with each other throughout the gathering. “We got to see them very eager for some sense of community, some sense of connection with other people who are doing the same thing they are,” Justesen said. Richie Norton, a motivational speaker, best-selling author, and entrepreneur, spoke about starting to live today, and overcoming whatever is in the way of achieving their goals. President Gilbert spoke about the growth in the Online Degree program in Arizona, as well as how students can discover their passion, network effectively, and tell their story. The Pathway program looks at this conference as a kickstarter where these conferences will begin happening regularly throughout the year. In the future, the conferences will begin to focus more on building skills with career workshops and fairs. In addition, Pathway and Online Learning is looking to hold conferences in other areas of strength such as Mexico City. “I think we can build a real strong sense of community, a learning community,” Justesen said. “I think that will strengthen them, and I think it will also strengthen their families, and whenever we strengthen families, we strengthen the Church.” A P R I L 2 016
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Department of Home and Family adds new major Apparel Entrepreneurship, a new degree created through a collaboration between the Department of Home and Family and the Department of Business has been approved to begin issuing diplomas in Fall 2016. The new degree allows students to gather skills in fashion design and gain the knowledge of how to start and run a business. A need that was shown with many students who were trying combine such classes and disciplines on their own. “Nowadays you can’t use those skills unless you know business principles, because if you want to start an Etsy business or some other thing from home you need to know how to run a business, so you need both parts equally,” said Genet Orme, faculty member in the Department of Home and Family.
“Honestly, it couldn’t happen without that collaboration,” Darrel Higgins, department chair in the Home and Family department said. “I think there is just an attitude at the university of, ‘Let’s do
“Honestly, it couldn’t happen without that collaboration, I think there is just an attitude at the university of, ‘Let’s do whatever works for the students. Let’s help them.” —DARREL HIGGINS, DEPAR TMENT CHAIR IN THE DEPAR TMENT OF HOME AND FAMILY
The collaboration between multiple departments on campus made this degree possible. The Department of Art will offer certain classes for students and the Department of Design and Construction Management is offering their computers in the Austin Building.
whatever works for the students. Let’s help them.’ It’s not about the academic program and how great we are or pumping
ourselves up, but it’s about really making students marketable.” “That’s the beauty of this school,” Orme added. “I’ve been tremendously blown away with how they’ve helped across campus to make this happen.” The university has also been working with KLIM, an industry-leader that creates technical gear for power sports enthusiasts based in Rigby, to help students gain reallife experience. For this new degree, faculty members will work closely with KLIM to create a rare opportunity for students to see first-hand how a clothing company becomes successful and maintains that success. “Probably my favorite thing about this whole degree is KLIM, that they are willing to come in and help and be a part of this and that is huge. It’s the real deal,” Higgins said. The number of students who have signed up with the intention of entering the program has doubled in just a few short months, and Orme and Higgins both expect to see those numbers continue to increase in the next year as the degree becomes more well-known.
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Department of Mechanical Engineering expands welding program The Welding Engineering Technology Degree came to fruition in Fall 2015. Since its commencement it has had an immense amount of growth since it’s inauguration into the welding program. It is one of three welding focused degrees available at the university and is a direct response to industry needs.
33 contestants from seven schools in the region. The event had students undertake a number of rigorous tests, over a five-hour period, including: a comprehensive written test, math test, and practical welding test. Winners were awarded prizes donated by Lincoln Electric, Miller, and local business Premier Powder Coating LLC.
“We had 25 of our students act as judges for the competition,” Orme said. “They created the criteria, and handled the planning and procedures of the day.”
“The drive to add this degree has come from the industry. There’s a distinct lack of professionals who understand the high level science behind welding processes,” said Kevin Orme, faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The competition not only provided high school students with an opportunity to practice their skill, but also gave them a chance to familiarize themselves with potential career paths. A number of BYUIdaho welding students were also heavily involved in the competition as judges and facilitators of the day’s events.
“Being involved in the planning and execution of the competition benefitted me because it gave me a little bit of a real world application. It was an opportunity to exercise the theory that we have learned in class,” said Regg Angel, a Welding Engineering Technology major.
BYU-Idaho is one of only six universities in the nation that offer the degree. Its focus is not only to teach students how to weld, but rather to train welding engineers, capable of developing and enhancing welding systems and processes. It consists of a welding science core with an engineering concentration.
The competition acted as a great opportunity for students in the Weld 229 course to get hands-on experience in their chosen vocation.
The welding program is not only seeking to develop greater opportunities and foundations for students enrolled at BYUIdaho, but is also providing exposure to local high school students to lucrative and fulfilling engineering based career paths. Each year the welding program invites dozens of high school students from several different schools to compete in a welding competition. This year’s competition took place in the Mark Austin Building on March 9, and consisted of
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“Our resources are better trained and have received a greater depth of experience in order to make this transition easier for our faculty .” — CARY JOHNSON, LMS COORDINATOR
University nears I-Learn 3.0 transition completion BYU-Idaho progresses toward its full conversion to I-Learn 3.0, as the university provides faculty with a variety of tools to help during this transition. In an effort to assist and inform faculty regarding the move to Brightspace, academic leaders recently held an academic discussion in conjunction with the I-Learn 3.0 transition team and IT. Learning Management System Coordinator Cary Johnson compared the transition to moving into a new home. “The move itself always has its challenges, but there are valid reasons we decided on the new home,” Johnson said. “We still have a lot of the same things, it’s just organized differently.” “Things are different with the new system,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of connecting pieces that we didn’t have to make in Brainhoney, which adds complexity.” Johnson said the more complex structure also adds power, functionality, and organization to the LMS. The transition team encourages faculty to develop a new mindset when working with I-Learn 3.0. “When faculty have started thinking about Brightspace differently than Brainhoney, they begin to understand it better,” said Kelly Burgener, associate academic vice president of instruction.
I-Learn 3.0
The university has been easing into the transition by staggering the conversion to I-Learn 3.0. As of April 1, 15 campus departments and 180 online courses have converted over to the new system. Another 15 departments and 80 online courses are slated for conversion in Spring Semester 2016. By Fall Semester 2016, all courses, online and campus, will be taught in I-Learn 3.0. “Our resources are better trained and have received a greater depth of experience in order to make this transition easier for our faculty,” Johnson said. “We’ve found the individual help to be more effective than the group consultations, so now we will come to your offices to help with the conversion. In a one-to-one setting, we can customize the information we share to help you get what you need most.” Faculty can call extension 1535 to schedule individual one-on-one consultations with the transition team. In addition to one-on-one trainings, the university has a number of online resources in the “Training Resources” tab at www.byui.edu/ilearn3/faculty. The university encourages faculty to use these resources as it continues with this transition.
Planning for Technology Transition
I-Learn 2.0
Monday June 13, 2016
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Last day to create new teaching courses with the course management tool. Course sections beyond Spring Semester will no longer be listed in the course management tool after June 13.
Friday September 9, 2016 I-Learn 2.0 (BrainHoney) will be retired. All courses will be offered in I-Learn 3.0 in the Fall Semester 2016.
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Box Content Management System
Please note these critical dates as the university completes its transition to I-Learn 3.0 and Equella
Monday April 18, 2016 New uploads to Box disabled
Wednesday July 27, 2016
Box.com will be retired. Box links in your courses after this date will be inactive and students will encounter broken links. It is advised that content in Box be moved to Equella.
New branding guide website improves process for employees After more than a year of development, the new website for Brigham Young University-Idaho’s branding guide is complete, and features a more accessible, streamlined guide, as well as changes to the branding logo. The branding guide on the BYUIdaho website serves as a resource for all employees who wish to advertise or market on or off campus. It gives all necessary information from what type of brand a person needs to use, to price assessments, to steps of the approval process. All of this information is now featured in a clear and concise way. “Understanding the university brand is important because when people communicate they have a certain style and a certain way of doing things that represent them,” said Brand and Marketing Coordinator James Linton. “The university also has a certain style and way of doing things that represents the institution. But how well do people know how to do it?” One of the biggest changes is the new logo box, which has been created to replace the black bar the university previously used to signify that an advertisement was BYU-Idaho sanctioned. Both of these brands have been used to help viewers recognize quickly the message is from the university.
“It sets the tone of a professional, clean, scholarly, dignified message, and it resonates with the audience and the students,” Linton said.
“It sets the tone of a professional, clean, scholarly, dignified message, and it resonates with the audience and the students.” —JAMES LINTON, BR AND AND MARKE TING COORDINATOR
While working well for posters, the black bar had become cumbersome for designing billboards or other horizontal advertisements. The new logo box should allow designers more freedom in how and where they put it, and allow them to integrate it into an advertisement more easily.
In addition to the new logo box, changes were made to the website that now make it simpler and clear for everyone who uses it. “We have more content that is available as far as style guides and communication guides,” Linton said. “The logos are now easier to download, we’ve listed all the resources we have which will help them with publishing and tell them where to go and what to do. We’re just trying to be more helpful in different ways.” Web analytics have shown that since the website’s inception in January, users are able to follow the branding process much easier than before. On the previous website, users would typically only get to two or three pages in before calling for assistance. Now, most are able to get through the entire process, and only contact University Relations when it comes time for approval. “That kind of shows that it is a lot more streamlined than before, and they understand that they can do this and get started on it,” Linton said. “Hopefully it’s more of an intuitive and easy process than what was there before.” For more information on the new branding guide go to www.byui.edu/ branding.
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Workday simplifies university payroll Workday, the new human resources/ payroll system, has been online for more than three months now and offers the university continuous improvement and functionality. Liz Hokanson, BYU-Idaho’s change & communication manager, says the new system is a valuable tool for the university that will only get better as time goes on. Hokanson says, for the most part, the new system has been widely embraced by faculty and staff. Depending on an employee’s job description, his or her involvement with Workday varies. Steve Dennis, dean of the Department of Education and Human Development, said it’s much easier from a faculty perspective. Other positions may require more time to foster familiarity. “Like any new tool, there is a learning curve,” said Ron Vallejo, course support
coordinator. “Be patient. It’s a great system.” Workday has played a large role in how Vallejo works with his student employees. “We have used Workday to better utilize the student leadership model,” Vallejo said. “It empowers students and gives them more accountability.” New Workday features, paired with the student leadership model have drastically cut the time it takes to approve time cards for Vallejo. Vallejo calls it a “huge upgrade” compared to the old system, and Hokanson says improvement continues to be the goal for Workday. “Our first goal in the transition was to make sure people got paid,” Hokanson said, “now we want to help departments utilize the additional functionality of Workday.”
The BYU-Idaho Human Resources and Payroll Office is working to find ways it can enhance the usability of the system, and continues to be a resource for employees seeking help or training. “The next step for us is to learn more about the reporting functions and how to make data driven decisions,” Dennis said. BYU-Idaho has been supported through this transition by the new software’s organization. According to Hokanson, Workday, Inc. is committed to improvement and making sure its customer’s needs are met. “Workday allows us to adapt to the needs of an evolving university,” Vallejo said. “It allows us to grow and develop.” Workday replaced the legacy I-Series system, which the university used for more than 20 years.
For Sale A beautiful 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom home for sale in a great neighborhood within 7 blocks of BYUIdaho. This home was built in 2007 and the basement addition was completed in 2012. Hickory hardwood floors throughout main level, tile in bathrooms and laundry. Gas/AC. Extra large family room wired for home theater. Patio with gas attachment for fire pit and BBQ grill. Fully landscaped yard with perennial bushes and flowers and fruit trees, raspberries and strawberries. Asking price is $235,500. Call Kriss Pond at 208-496-9229.
News & Notes A monthly publication of University Relations A D V I S O R Brett Crandall W R I T E R S Brock Allen, Paul Morgan, Clint Urick P H O T O G R A P H E R S Michael Lewis, Katelyn Crompton, Tyler Rickenbach, Ryan Chase
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