New Functionality, Improvements Available in Vita

The Office of Distance Education and eLearning (ODEE) performed necessary maintenance on the Vita faculty information system from Dec 4-8. Along with updating the Elements software that powers the data harvesting portion of Vita, the developers also tackled some major service enhancements in order to improve the experience for faculty and staff using the system. 

What can users expect to see now in Vita? 

• Elements Update – this necessary update to a more recent version of Elements provides general system improvements and gives our users more control over preferred records that appear on the dossier. 
• Dossier Improvements – The dossier display will now refresh more quickly, and users will notice that citation formatting and style is more consistent. An optional filter has been added to the dossier that is designed to limit the display of selected categories to a specified date range.   
• Incomplete Items List – Before displaying the dossier, users will now see a helpful report that highlights publications that do not have a preferred record set. If users choose to continue to their dossier without setting preferred records, these listed items will not appear. 
• Supporting Data Interface – Some functionality that was available in Elements has moved to Vita to ensure the accuracy of entered data. Users can enter percent contribution, description of effort, citation counts and more for their claimed records in the Supporting Data section of Vita.  
• Landing Page Redesign – A refreshed look and feel will help users better understand how to use Vita for managing their scholarly activities and achievements. 

Explore these improvements at vita.osu.edu or learn more in the Resource Center. 

While last week’s maintenance was successful, the development team isn’t done making improvements to Vita, and these continual improvement efforts are guided by user feedback. Up next, ODEE will be working to improve the accuracy of teaching information. ODEE will also be collaborating with University Libraries to make it easier for faculty and staff to obtain an OrcID, which will in turn make claiming records in Elements even easier. Further down the Vita roadmap are items like public profiles, search functionality, customizable CVs and annual reports.