New user registration is a hit with staff and students

Digimap’s new registration system was released on the 28th of January, we hope you’ll agree that it is a huge improvement over the  previous version.

Users no longer have to wait up to 48 hours for registrations to be approved, they simply have to click a link in an email sent to them after filling in the registration form.

It already has its fans leading one site rep to say “I love the new registration system!” and another told us “Congratulations on instant registration for students. This is going to be very popular.”

The new instant access system is much more inline with user expectations from online services.  Removing the need to wait overnight (or longer over weekends) to gain access has been very popular and has resulted in a significant increase in registrations during February.  Over 6000 registrations were processed through the new system at all times of day and night!

We now need your help to make sure that the support material at your institution is up-to-date and that your students know that they can have access to the service the same day.

There is a full description of how to register using the new system in the help pages which guides you through the process:

http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/webhelp/digimapsupport/about.htm#access/registration.htm

If you are responsible for any local support pages, lecture notes, practical guides and any other course material please make sure these get updated. We actively encourage the incorporation of the images and text from the help page in any material produced. Please can you circulate this information as widely as possible to ensure that all users have up to date guidance.

One final plea is that you highlight the importance of entering the correct email address when registering.  This should be an email address that is used regularly and it should be spelt correctly!

 

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New Digimap registration system – preview

As blogged about last month, we have been working on a new Digimap registration system which will be released next Tuesday (27th January) The current registration system has been in place for over ten years. It has served us well, but it is now rather dated especially because users have to wait for their registration to be manually approved and processed overnight. The new registration system allows users to get instant access to Digimap. This will be a significant improvement and help those students that leave their Digimap coursework a bit late! At least now they will be able to get access quickly and easily (unfortunately we can’t guarantee they’ll get the work submitted on time though!) Detailed help pages will be available from Wednesday, once the release has been completed and Digimap is available to users. To help prepare site reps and support staff for the change, here is an overview of the registration process.   Registering with Digimap Registration will now be an automated two-step process. Users will supply their details to register and then they must activate access to collections by agreeing to the individual licences. After logging into Digimap to start, users will be presented with the registration form to enter their name, email address, department, status and where they heard about Digimap. Registration form After hitting the submit button, users will be sent an email with a link to verify their account.  Once they have successfully verified, they will be directed back to the Digimap homepage, where they then complete the next step of activating collection access. registration_verify_600 registration_verify_confirmation_600 Agreeing to licence for Digimap collections (activating access) After verifying their email address, users will need to agree to the licences for each of the specific Digimap collections that they wish to use, this is done through the licence agreements page. registration_licence_agreement2_600 Users will only be able to agree to licences for the collections that their institution subscribes to.  Once the user has agreed to the licence(s) and hit the confirm button, they will have access to those Digimap collections. If the process is completed in one go, it takes no more than a few minutes.  Much quicker than the current system! Existing users Existing users will not notice any change unless they have not been active in a collection for more than 12 months.  Access to a collection expires after 12 months of inactivity.  If that’s the case, they will be prompted to accept the licence when they try to access an application in that collection.  Generally though, if someone has not accessed a particular collection for more than 12 months, we don’t expect they will activate access and therefore will not notice any change with the new system.  Access to active collections will carry on as normal. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the EDINA Helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk

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Service Availability 26 – 28th Jan – new registration system release

New users will not be able to register for Digimap from 4pm on 26th Jan and all Digimap services will be unavailable all day on 27th Jan. Normal service will resume by 9am on 28th Jan. This is to allow us to release a new Registration System.

New registrations for Digimap (using the current system) will be closed from 4pm Monday 26th January.

Digimap will then be unavailable all day on Tuesday 27th January, while we release the new system.

The service will be available again from Wednesday 28th 9am.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Due to the significant changes required to release the new system, we must close access to Digimap during this time.

We urge you to create any maps or download data that you may need during the period of service unavailability in advance.

The new registration system will allow users to register and instantly access Digimap Collections. New registrations will no longer have to be manually approved by the EDINA Helpdesk and then processed overnight. This will speed up access for new users significantly.

Existing registered and active users will not notice any change.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact EDINA on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302.

More details about how the new system looks and works will be posted on the Digimap blog in the New Year.

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Registering for Digimap: Please check your email address

Email IconOctober is the busiest time for welcoming new users to Digimap and we have already approved over 7500 registrations. As you know it is important to enter a valid email address when registering; this is how we send you a link to your data downloads and how we inform you of any changes or disruptions to the service.

We ask you to give us your academic email address where possible, we know for some this isn’t most commonly used address so please check that you have entered it correctly.  Quite often the email address entered seems correct but is missing a particular element, for example:

  • We get: j.bloggs@university.ac.uk
  • We need: j.bloggs@student.university.ac.uk

Please make sure that you don’t miss out any parts of the address, you can try sending yourself an email to see if it is right… and it is always worth another check for typos.

Thank you.

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