Functions on Campus will now use an eForm, replacing the old manual application process for campus events including barbecues and Forestry Fire Pit bookings.

Yolandi Vermaak, the project co-ordinator, told Woroni that the eForm will bring a ‘shorter turnaround time for the processing and approval of an application,’ as well as a ‘smoother user experience…[with] one digital application process which is dynamic, meaning, fields are displayed/not displayed depending on your responses.’

Launched on 1 December, the eForm includes an interactive mud map, allowing the user to add detailed annotations about the use of a venue, and a venue booking capability for barbecues and the Forestry Fire Pit. It also includes the capacity to either upload a pre-written Risk Assessment Management Plan (RAMP) or fill in a RAMP in the form based on previous questions.

The Functions on Campus team processes around 500 paper-based applications per year. Vermaak hopes the ‘streamlining of the application process’ will see ‘an increase in the number of function applications being processed.’

Cameron Allan, the 2017 ANUSA Social Officer and 2017 Clubs Council Chair, told Woroni earlier this year that he ‘is confident that moving the form online is a positive step…as long as there is clear feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement on the form.’

Stakeholders including ANU Students’ Association, ANU Marketing, the Functions on Campus team, ANU Sport, and ANU Student Media were consulted throughout October and November in a feedback process that included User Experience Testing (UXT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

The eForm was developed in collaboration with the Intelldox Digital Transfromation Centre (IDTC). The IDTC was established in early 2015 and has since released 11 different eForms across ANU services based on 51 different paper-based processes.

A continuous improvement register was also developed based on this feedback, in consultation with the Functions on Campus team, for the IDTC to release later versions of the eForm.

Amanda Snashall, the Director of the IDTC, said they were ‘extremely interested in ideas for improvement to the way we run projects, engage the University population and design our current/future forms’. The IDTC are currently working on digitally transforming processes for Higher Degree Research (HDR)Thesis and Examinations, HDR Admissions, Travel Automated Approval, Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching (SELT), and Parking Infringement Extensions and Withdrawals.

For more information on the Functions on Campus eForm, including a training video, head to https://services.anu.edu.au/planning-governance/project-management/functions-on-campus.