Harnessing the power of emails

NZQA website users can now sign-up to receive email alerts of matters of interest to them.

Users can already receive email messages about general changes on the WhatÕs New page of the website, as well as the Review Summaries published each month.

The Review Summaries' alerts are especially valuable to users, says NZQA Web Coordinator Bryan Mulligan. "We register new Standards and Qualifications, and review existing ones every month. But often users aren't aware of the changes."

The email subscription service helps keep them in touch. "Individual users can subscribe to our Review Summaries alert service," says Bryan. ÒEach month they get an email which lists the changes to Standards and Qualifications published in the previous month.

These changes may have a significant effect on what they teach in their course, so keeping up-to-date with the changes is important.

But the use of email has moved beyond these two well-established alert messages.

"Schools receive a number of different circulars from NZQA throughout a year," Bryan notes. "However, we were never sure that they always got to all of the staff who needed to see them."

The solution? Allow individuals to subscribe in their own name to receive copies of the circulars by email. This means teachers can decide for themselves if a specific circular is relevant to them, and if not, just delete the email.

"We wanted to put information into users' hands and let them make the decision about what is important to them."

The AAA business unit of NZQA takes the same approach. It publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, which often has important information for private training providers (PTEs). "As with the circulars for schools," says Bryan, "the AAA Newsletter often needs to reach specific individuals, rather than just an organisations' info@ email address." Providing for individual subscriptions meets this need.

When asked about the dangers of sending spam, Bryan is quick to emphasise that all subscriptions are 'opt-in'. "We only send emails to users who have indicated they wish to receive them", he says.

And is it likely that the use of email by NZQA will increase in future? "I hope so", says Bryan. "We accept that email is the communication tool of choice for many users, and we need to adjust our capabilities to reflect this."

To subscribe to any of the email alert services see: www.nzqa.govt.nz/news/website-updates/subscribe.html