Your Documentation Matters

By Cindy Suter, Registrar, Norwich University

Documenting procedures is essential to accurately process student records and, more importantly, to ensure we meet regulatory requirements. For example, my institution offers two parts of terms within one semester; we often refer to and rewrite the documentation for clarity when a student withdraws from the first part of term but not the second, to then not show up for the second part of term. We find there are outliers to the written procedure, making it challenging to follow. An audit finding or National Student Clearinghouse reporting error can result from a single misstep.

I can already hear you asking: “When are we supposed to find the time?” And, if you don’t have the artificial intelligence Scribe software, it could take an hour or more, depending on the complexity of the procedure. After several years of openly admitting to poor documentation, I’ve found that having the documentation on a screen while performing the task takes away the overwhelming feeling. While our office does not have Scribe software, we do take advantage of videos for those outside of the office and a lot of screenshots for internal procedures.

Reducing the Time Burden

If your institution hasn’t invested in some type of scribe software, you can use AI to reduce time by asking it to make the documentation easy to read. If you can get something down on paper, AI can help fill in the missing words.

Another useful tool is a consistent template. The AI tool of your choice likely can provide your office with a consistent template to help with onboarding or assist with fewer interpretation questions.

Organizing and Maintaining Documentation

1. Naming: The registrar’s office might have a procedure tied to a single task, but often one procedure has several touch points that need attention. Ellucian Banner is our Student Information System (SIS); most tasks we perform are tied to a specific form. Consider how your naming convention impacts finding the documentation. Our office had several repeat procedures because every time someone couldn’t find the documentation or decided to write something new, the first word was inconsistent.

   We transitioned the documentation name to the Banner form name. Banner uses form-specific acronyms that can add several steps to one procedure, so you must decide if there is one long procedure with call-outs within the procedure to address variability or create shorter, specific procedures. When functions are performed using the same Banner form, the form is named, with a description of which function is being performed. Standardizing how files are named has dramatically reduced the time spent searching for procedures.

1. Committing to the Project: When our office transitioned to this method, we created a new procedures folder and committed ourselves to a one-year review of all documentation that was then saved to a new procedures folder. The procedures that remained in the old folder that hadn’t been referenced in another year were deleted. While I’d like to say this was a part of the larger picture, I cannot. However, the documentation review served us well when we transitioned to Banner SaaS. The project required us to review most Banner forms and job submissions, which helped us to quickly identify procedures that required attention as a part of the upgrade.

1. Documentation Review: New hires are another opportunity to review documentation. During training, much of the work is verbalized to explain why we do what we do. When the new staff are asked to perform the work independently, we ask them to closely follow the procedure. Their review can surface gaps in clarity or reveal contradictions with the verbal training.

1. Stakeholder Documentation: For offices that decentralize tasks, using a voice and screen recording system saves a lot of typing time. To keep the videos as short as possible, each one is recorded by task. Sometimes, one overarching video to introduce new software, for example, is helpful to explain the full picture. The videos are organized by task and stored on a SharePoint site, so users have just-in-time access. A similar approach was used for students so they can access relevant guidance in the moment they need it.

It’s Worth It

If I am honest, our documentation culture did not transform overnight. It took a deliberate project, a willingness to delete what no longer served us, and the unexpected gift of a system upgrade that forced our hand. What I can tell you is that the other side of that effort is a team that spends less time searching and more time serving students. That is worth the hour it takes to write it down.