FAQs

You access the system through this website (see Activity Insight Login in the left sidebar). Use your Mercer ID and password to login and you will be taken to a landing screen, where you'll need to "Click here to enter":

MUSM Clinical Affiliate Faculty (CAF) have a separte login that isn't tied to a Mercer ID number. If you're CAF, you can login via the web here.

If you experience difficulties logging in, it may be that you don'tt have an account with Activity Insight. We are still in the implementing Activity Insight for the Medical School. We intend to create accounts for fulltime CAF once the system is live for all full-time Mercer paid faculty.

There are a couple of things that might be going on:

1) The system is down for maintenance. If this is the case, check Alerts for System Outages in Activity Insight Resources in the left sidebar. Digital Measures always announces when the system will be down well in advance.

2) You aren't logging in through the right portal. If you time out, the system will kick you to an external login not managed by Mercer IT. If you enter your Mercer credentials here, you won't be able to login. Always use the link through OIE.

Contact the Activity Insight Administrator, Ellen Byron.

If you're a new faculty member, we may not have created an account for you yet. Please be patient.

If you're an adjunct faculty member, we probably don't have you in the system yet. Adjuncts will be added once the system is fully implemented for all Colleges and Schools in the University.

You should see a screen that is divided into separate sections: General Information, Teaching, Research/Scholarship, and Service. Some units will have sections on Librarianship and Tenure, Promotion, and Review.

Select the screen on which you want to add a record. If you're interacting with the system for your annual review process, be sure to consult the guide for your review (see Guides and Training Materials). You don't need to add records to all screens in the system.

You have opened the Summary Screen. Once you create records, a list of those records will appear on the summary screen.

In the upper right hand corner of the summary screen, you will see this image:

You must click + Add New Item to open the record screen.

The short answer is no. 

Review the guide developed for your annual review process (see Guides and Training Materials). Only those fields listed in that document must be completed to create a meaningful record. However, you're strongly encouraged to add as much information as possible. Think of Activity Insight like a digital filing cabinet. Information and files stored in this system will be available to you for any kind of documentation you need to create.

On the Summary Screen, you can select the item you want to copy and click the duplicate button.

This will open a duplicate record that you can modify. For instance, if you attend the same conference every year, simply duplicate last year's record and change the date and location.

Trash it.

On the summary screen, check the box next to the item you want to delete and click the trash button.

There are two save options:

Clicking Save will take you back to the summary screen. Clicking Save + Add Another will open another record screen. If you have multiple records to add (e.g., two different seminars you attended), choosing Save + Add Another will save you some time.

Two possibilities:

1) You didn't complete the date field. The system requires a date for almost every single record. No date. No save.

2) You didn't complete the required fields. Several screens have questions that must be answered. All required fields have an asterisk in front.

PasteBoard is a utility that allows you to copy large amounts of text into the system.

When you click on PasteBoard a light yellow box will open. You can copy up to 20,000 characters into the box, and it will travel with you throughout the system. Then it's matter of dragging and dropping text from the PasteBoard into relevant fields. Toggling between Word and Activity Insight takes more time than using PasteBoard.

We import records from HR, Campus Nexus, your College or School, and IT. Errors in the information loaded to the following screens should be reported to the Activity Insight Administrator, Ellen Byron.

Personal Contact Information - these records come from HR and IT. You can add your preferred name, office number, and endowed position, if any.

Permanent Data - this screen captures you history at the University. If you have a complicated history (numerous start and end dates), there may be errors in your permanent data. 

Yearly Data - this screen captures your department and current rank.

Degrees - degree information comes from Compliance Assist or from your college/school.

Workload - not all units have workload information loaded. Workload is provided by your college or school.

Academic Advising - these records come from Campus Nexus. If your advising data are incorrect, they should be fixed in Nexus first and then contact Ellen Byron about changing it in Activity Insight.

Scheduled Teaching - these data come from Campus Nexus. Note that courses offered for variable credit will appear as multiple records.

Published works can be imported to the system by creating a BibTex file or importing from a Third Party. Digital Measures provides information on their website about

Your colleague has linked you to a publication.

If a colleague has linked you to a publication, presentation, or grant, but did not update your name, do one of the following:

1) Contact your colleague and ask her/him to update your name.

2) Contact Ellen Byron and ask her to fix your name on linked publication/presentation/grant.

The ability to upload files has been added to many screens in the system. In some cases, you can upload a single file:

In others, you can upload many:

On screens that allow you to upload multiple files, you won't be able to see those files unless you open the upload box.

Click Run Reports in the left hand menu.

Names were loaded from HR, and for consitency across systems, we've used the names they provided. You have the ability to add your preferred name on the Personal Contact Information screen, but unfortunately, it won't display on other screens.

We have built the reports so that your preferred name will be displayed in the annual review documents.

[insert QEP links]

While you're in the system, you can send a message to the Administrator by clicking Help in the left sidebar.

If you're having trouble creating records, please reach out to Ellen Byron. She can show you tips and tricks that will make data entry more simple. And remember that the first year is always the hardest. Duplicating records, using PasteBoard, and importing publications will maximize your time in the system.

If don't know what screen you should choose to add a record, look for the instructional text at the top of the screen.

We commonly see errors on the following screens:

• Administrative Assignments – this is for assigned administrative roles, not committee assignments.
• Awards, Honors, and Honor Societies – don’t enter tenure and promotion here. Those records are captured on the permanent date screen, which loads directly from HR.
• Academic Certificates – these are certificates that were awarded with credit. Non-credit certificates should be logged on the Faculty Development Activities screen.
• Faculty Development Activities – this screen is for activities you attend, not lead. If you have an organizing or leadership role in an activity, it should be recorded on the appropriate service screen.
• Directed Student Learning – if you are an advisor to a student group, capture your role on the University Service screen.
• Teaching Innovation and Curriculum Development – don’t put your teaching related committee work on this screen. It should go on the University Service screen.
• Contracts, Grants and Fellowships – don’t enter your own fellowships on this screen.Enter faculty fellowships on the Faculty Development Activities screen. Enter graduate and post graduate fellowships on the Graduate and Post Graduate Fellowships and Training Appointments screen.
• Presentations – we sometimes see media interview added to this screen. Those belong on the Media Appearances and Interviews screen.

We see this occur on screens where most of the information has been loaded for you:

• Academic Advising – you must open the record and add your time and a description.
• Scheduled Teaching – you must open each course record and complete additional fields, like contact hours, course evaluations, etc.
• Publications – after importing, open the record complete peer review and QEP fields. Check the authors to ensure that the names are correct.

We often see that people have entered dates incorrectly:

• For one-day activities, enter the end date only.
• For on-going activities, enter the start date only.

Dates are also important when running reports. You must choose the right start and end date or the report won't pull the right activities.