Interfolio — About Forms and Sections

About Forms and Sections

This article will go over the different types of forms in Faculty Activity Reporting (FAR, Faculty180); Profile, Activities, Activity Input, and Faculty Classification Input.

Check out this article on how to Configure Activity Data Input Forms for more information.

Types of forms in FAR

Profile

Current information related to a faculty member such as the name, contact information, position titles, previous work experience, education, and more.

Activities

Activities are reported by the faculty member per term/year. Activity Input Forms govern what sections are shown to the faculty members and help faculty prepare for their annual review. It is possible to modify the form per unit (the College of Fine Arts or the School of Medicine) or for use cases (input forms that collects data for review cycles vs. input forms that collect data for reporting purposes).

Activity Input

A software administrator can initiate a Period of Activity Input based on a per use case, such as preparing for annual review, regular term activity updates, updates to activities for accreditation, and more.
A link is then populated on the faculty member’s Action Items on their Dashboard. The link takes the faculty member to the Activity Input Form that is term/year and template specific. There is also the option for faculty to Submit the form. This action does two things:
1. A snapshot of the form is taken and stored for the faculty member.
2. An Administrative Report is updated so that software administrators can track faculty engagement during this input cycle.

Faculty Classification Input

A selection of Faculty Classifications that can be pushed as an Action Item. Faculty can respond by providing the data requested and submitting the form. The data is stored in the database when the submission occurs.

Profile/Activity Form Components

Overview

Profile/Activity forms contain sections and sections contain fields and activity classifications to collect additional metadata. Fields are used to collect specific data points for the intended purpose of the section. For example, in Membership the fields could be Organizational Name, Organizational Location, and more.
Sections within a Form

Default Sections

Have limited configuration options as they are standard fields that cannot be added, modified, or removed from this section. They are easily distinguishable in the form and within the section.

Section Settings are editable for section behavior, but cannot be changed based on where the section is used.
Activity Classifications can be added or modified based on units.

Non-Default Sections

Allow for more configuration options as they are fields that can be added, modified, or removed from the section. They are easily distinguishable in the form and within the section.

Section Settings are editable for section behavior, but cannot be changed based on where the section is used.
Activity Classifications can be added or modified based on units.

Hierarchy Level 1

There is one form that exists at the highest level in the hierarchy that regulates the sections that are shown or not shown from the Profile and Activities sections on the navigation menu. The information below summarizes the characteristics of the Level 1 form for the Profile and Activities section.

Both

The form is managed by a Level 1 Administrator.
Sections can be set to show or not to show on a form.
This form will be the repository of all sections created at Level 1.
- The same is true for lower-level unit forms and sections created at the lower level. That form will be the repository for sections created at that unit and below.
Any section that is set to show on these forms is shown to faculty regardless of the faculty's unit affiliation. This means that a section at Level 1 (University) will be shown to faculty at a lower level (department).
A form will need to be created at the lower level unit to allow for modifications.
Modifications to the forms, for the user experience, will not be visible to the Level 1 Administrator.
The administrator will emulate a user at the unit level where the change was made in order to see the impact of the change.
A user has to be either primarily or secondarily assigned to the unit to have access to the form.

Profile Form

There can only be one Profile Form per unit, regardless of level

Activities Form

There can be multiple Activity Forms per unit.

Only one regulates the sections shown to faculty when clicking on the Activities section on the navigation menu.
Other forms can be created for specific use cases (for example, the annual review). These additional forms are only shown to faculty using the Initiated Faculty Input feature (Administration > Administration > Initiate Faculty Input)

Modifying forms for lower units

Profile Form

The modification process is similar to a parent/child relationship in which the child unit will inherit the parent unit Profile Form.

There is no option to have different child forms
The sections on the inherited form cannot be set to Not Shown nor can the section be modified at the field level. This means fields cannot be added or removed
A lower level unit can make additional sections available to their faculty by changing Not Shown sections to be Shown or by adding a new section that will only be available to the lower level unit.

Activities Form

The modification process is similar to a parent/child relationship that is dependent on how the lower level form is created. Options for adding a new form include:

Option	Details
Modify	The parent form governs the child form with some exceptions. The sections on the inherited form cannot be set to Not Shown nor can the section be modified at the field level, meaning fields cannot be added or removed. A lower-level unit can add new sections. These sections will only be shown to the lower-level unit’s faculty. The only form that can be shown via Activities on the navigation menu is the Activity Input Form. Administrators can modify the Activity Input Form for a particular unit. It will inherit any sections shown on higher-level unit form and administrators can add additional sections to display. Note that the Activity Input Form which determines which sections faculty will see when clicking on the Activities link on the menu must be cloned from the Level 1 form using the Modify option.
Add	The parent form does not impose governance on the lower-level form. This creates a risk for shared sections on that form. If the section is modified at the lower level, the modification will apply to the version of the section on every form. Sections can be added or removed from the form (Set to Shown or Not Shown) Activity Classifications can be added or removed. When an admin “adds a new” activity input form the section instructions and help text will not copy from a previous activity input form. This means that if the admin would like to use the same instructions on all new activity input forms then the admin will need to copy/paste the instructions to all activity input forms from the original. When an admin “adds a new” activity input form the section settings will not copy from a previous activity input form. The pro of this is that a section that is shown on multiple activity input form can have different settings selected for add/edit/delete/clone/view all. The con is that if an institution wants the same settings applied to one section across all activity input forms, the admin will have to select the settings on the section on every activity input form where the section is shown.

Option

Details

Modify

The parent form governs the child form with some exceptions.
The sections on the inherited form cannot be set to Not Shown nor can the section be modified at the field level, meaning fields cannot be added or removed.
A lower-level unit can add new sections. These sections will only be shown to the lower-level unit’s faculty.
The only form that can be shown via Activities on the navigation menu is the Activity Input Form. Administrators can modify the Activity Input Form for a particular unit. It will inherit any sections shown on higher-level unit form and administrators can add additional sections to display.

Note that the Activity Input Form which determines which sections faculty will see when clicking on the Activities link on the menu must be cloned from the Level 1 form using the Modify option.

Add

The parent form does not impose governance on the lower-level form.
This creates a risk for shared sections on that form. If the section is modified at the lower level, the modification will apply to the version of the section on every form.
Sections can be added or removed from the form (Set to Shown or Not Shown)
Activity Classifications can be added or removed.

When an admin “adds a new” activity input form the section instructions and help text will not copy from a previous activity input form.

This means that if the admin would like to use the same instructions on all new activity input forms then the admin will need to copy/paste the instructions to all activity input forms from the original.

When an admin “adds a new” activity input form the section settings will not copy from a previous activity input form.

The pro of this is that a section that is shown on multiple activity input form can have different settings selected for add/edit/delete/clone/view all. The con is that if an institution wants the same settings applied to one section across all activity input forms, the admin will have to select the settings on the section on every activity input form where the section is shown.

Forms, Sections, and the Unit Hierarchy

If a section is set to display at a unit level, it will display for all units below it on all modified forms (both Profile and Activities). A best practice is to add sections at the top level making it accessible for the lower units (rather than making it at a lower unit). Refer to the diagram above in the following examples.

Example	Details
Section Visibility Rules	Sections listed as Show that are visible to all units, must be used by all units. For example, A and B. Sections set to Do Not Show at university level are available to be shown at lower unit levels. For example D is not shown at L1 University or L2 College, but is shown at L3 Department. On added Activities forms, sections do not respect the inherited show/do not show. This ONLY applies to forms created through the "add" process. This is to allow a different combination of sections to be pushed out for initiated periods of input.
Section Configuration Best Practices	Section management (creation / modification) is handled by the Level 1 administrator. Sections should be created at the university level and managed for lower level units. This allows for expansion of section use. For example, College A requests that Section A be created. College B does not want to use Section A. Three months later, College B decides that it does want to use Section A. If Section A had been created at the College A unit level, there would be no opportunity for College B to have access to Section A. Use Activity Classifications for unit-specific data points For example, L2 College A and L2 College C want additional unit specific fields within section C; both units use section C, but can have different Activity Classifications that are specific to their unit and only visible to faculty within their unit.
Data in Sections	Sections are made up of both fields and Activity Classifications. Fields are consistent across units while Activity Classifications can be unit-specific.
Exclude Units	Within Activity Classification specific units can be excluded. This can be done by checking units. It will automatically select all units below but an administrator can un-select as needed.
Options to Associate Activity Classifications to Sections	Rather than manually add an activity classification to a section, this can be done via the Activity Classification itself. This will still respect the excluded units set in Exclude These Units.
Reporting	In order to report across units, the same section must be used.Unit-specific reporting can be done by adding activity classifications to the section. The Activity Input Report allows reports on the same section/fields across the institution to be created. For example, report on section B across all units or report on section C for college A's additional Activity Classification across the college.
Section Field Type	When adding a field to a custom section, you are given the option to select a Field Type. Examples of Field Type options include: Text Fields Textbox Large Text Area Rich Text Editor The Textbox field is a compact input field for enterint brief, single-line text such as names, email addresses, or short responses. The Large Text Area field is an expanded input area for longer, multi-line text entries, suitable for detailed feedback, descriptions or comments. The Rich Text Editor is a feature-rich interface for composing text with formatting options like bold, italics, bullet points, and hyperlinks. This is ideal for creating structured content like articles, reports, or formatted messages. List Fields URL Dropdown Dropdown with Other Checkboxes Radio Buttons Add List To add a new list, follow the steps below: Select the desired Field Type under the List Fields section in the Field Type dropdown. A new dropdown should appear. Select Add List from the new dropdown. Fill out the information on the Edit Field List page that displays. Section B can be used to manually add individual list items. Section C is best for adding a larger number of items in bulk and can be done by providing a CSV with each list item in a separate row. Date Fields Date Date and Time Month and Year Month and Year with Ongoing Year Numeric Fields Numeric Numeric Total Phone Number Currency

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About Forms and Sections

Types of forms in FAR

Profile

Activities

Activity Input

Faculty Classification Input

Profile/Activity Form Components

Overview

Default Sections

Non-Default Sections

Hierarchy Level 1

Both

Profile Form

Activities Form

Modifying forms for lower units

Profile Form

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Forms, Sections, and the Unit Hierarchy

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