User Experience: On-Campus External Reviewer Coordinator

External reviewers may be included in a workflow process when feedback is required from individuals outside of the campus. The expected flow of this process includes: 

• The campus Workflow Administrator adding an External Reviewer field to a previous step where a participant will suggest external reviewers. 
• Additionally, the Workflow Administrator will include an External Reviewer step later in the process; this step is owned by the External Reviewer Coordinator (the individual responsible for managing external reviewers and their input). 

This article outlines the tools and actions available to the Coordinator to help them manage gathering input from external reviewers, add additional reviewers as needed, and oversee the full review process for the External Reviewer step of a candidate's submission.

Key Considerations 

• Items submitted by external reviewers are not part of the permanent submission. This is similar to how the Workflow Module handles committee member responses. 
• Only materials submitted by the External Reviewer Coordinator become part of the official review record for the candidate's submission. 

Managing External Reviewers 

External Reviewer Coordinators manage reviewers in two primary areas:

1. Aggregated External Reviewers

2. External Reviewer Responses

The sections below describe the purpose, actions, and workflows available in each area. Only the External Reviewer Coordinator can access these areas when the candidate's submission is on the External Reviewer step. 

Aggregated External Reviewers

This area consolidates all reviewer suggestions made in the earlier workflow step. Each suggested reviewer is displayed in a card, and the coordinator can take the following actions:

• Approve: To approve a suggested reviewer, click the Approve button within their card. Approved reviewers will appear in the External Reviewer Responses area to gather a response from. Approved reviewers display with a green border and checkmark.

  

• Skip: To skip a suggested reviewer, click the Skip button within their card. Skipped reviewers are removed from the process and display with a black border and stop icon.

  

• Add a Reviewer: If additional reviewers are needed (for example, if none of the candidate’s suggestions are appropriate or more reviewers are required), the coordinator may manually add them. 

  The coordinator can add a reviewer by:

  1. Going to the Aggregated External Reviewers area.

  2. Selecting Add Reviewer (typically available after the last reviewer card). 

     

  3. Entering the contact information and details about the reviewer. (Fields with red asterisks are required, as configured by the campus Workflow Administrator). 

  4. Selecting Add & Approve. The new reviewer will then appear in the External Reviewer Responses area. 

     Tip: The system relies on the reviewer’s email address to send their review invitation. Ensure the email address entered is accurate.

• Undo Skip: The Undo Skip action restores a reviewer who was previously marked as skipped. This can be done by:
  1. Going to the Aggregated External Reviewers area. 
  2. Searching for the skipped reviewer (skipped reviewers usually appear at the top of the list).

  3. Expanding the reviewer's card and selecting Undo Skip.

     

     Once restored, the coordinator will then be able to Approve the reviewer to fully include them in the process or skip them again if necessary.

External Reviewer Responses

The External Reviewer Responses area displays all approved reviewers, the status of their review, and their submitted responses. This view minimizes scrolling and provides a central location for managing reviewers activity from two tabs:

1. By Reviewer
2. By Response

By Reviewer 

From this tab, the coordinator can:

• Track Reviewer Status Indicators. 
• Take Actions for External Reviewer Responses to manage them. 

This view follows the same layout used for committee type steps. 

Reviewer Status Indicators

• Accepted: The reviewer accepted the invitation and is working on their review. 
• Declined: The reviewer declined the invitation.
• Submitted: The reviewer submitted their evaluation and you can expand on their name to view the items they've submitted. 

Actions for External Reviewer Responses

By clicking on the three vertical dots within the circle icon next to a reviewer’s name, the coordinator can access an action menu that allows them to take the following actions:

1. Reviewer Contact & Submission Link:

   Selecting this action opens a drawer that includes:

   1. External Reviewer Details: The reviewer’s name and email address.

   2. Submission Access Details: A unique access link that gives the reviewer access to the submission. This link does not expire and may be used by the reviewer to access the candidate's submission at any time while the submission remains on the External Reviewer step.

      If Mailto is enabled in your browser, selecting Create Email will open a pre-populated email. If Mailto is not enabled, select the copy icon to copy any text or link and paste into the email that you'll be sending to the External Reviewer inviting them to take part of the candidate's submission. 

      Important: Only share the unique access link with its corresponding reviewer. The link will record responses specifically for that reviewer.

2. Reviewer Access Code Support: 

   To help External Reviewers access a candidate's submission, the coordinator can generate a one-time access code for any reviewer who is having trouble generating their own when clicking on this action item.

   Selecting this action opens a pop-up window. From there, the Coordinator can click the Generate Code button. Once the code is generated, the Coordinator can share it with the External Reviewer outside of Faculty Success.

   Important: Codes are valid for 5 minutes and generating a new code invalidates the code previously send to the reviewer.

3. Revoke Access:

   This action removes a previously approved reviewer from the process.

   Revoking access:

   1. Immediately disables the reviewer's unique access link.
   2. Permanently deletes any work in progress or saved materials associated with the reviewer's evaluation of the candidate's submission.
   3. Moves the reviewer back to Aggregated External Reviewers area with a Skipped status.
   4. This action cannot be undone.

   Note: To restore a reviewer after revoking their access, follow the Undo Skip process described in the Aggregated External Reviewers section of this article.

By Response 

This tab provides the coordinator with an overview of the gathered responses.

How to Delete a Reviewer’s Response

The Coordinator may delete a reviewer's response if they deem it malicious, unnecessary, submitted by the wrong person, or associated with the wrong candidate.

Deleting a response is permanent and cannot be undone, so it is important to download a copy for campus records before proceeding. Once deleted, the reviewer will be moved to the Aggregated External Reviewers area and marked as Skipped. 

To proceed with deleting a reviewer's response, follow these steps: 

1. Go to the By Reviewer tab within the External Reviewer Responses area.
2. Click on the three vertical dots by the reviewer's name. 
3. Select Delete Response. 

How to Reopen a Reviewer’s Response

If a reviewer needs to correct or update their response, the coordinator can reopen their response to allow them to make necessary revisions and resubmit. 

To proceed with reopening a response, the coordinator must: 

1. Go to the By Reviewer tab within the External Reviewer Responses area.
2. Click on the three vertical dots by the reviewer's name. 
3. Select Reopen Response.

Fields for External Reviewer Coordinators

If the workflow process includes fields that the External Reviewer Coordinator must complete, they will appear after the External Reviewer Responses area. The fields and their required status are configured by the Workflow Administrator.

If you are unsure what information is expected to submit, consult with your campus administrative team.

Saving and Submitting Materials as the Coordinator 

1. Save Draft: Coordinators may save their progress at any time by:
   1. Selecting Actions from the upper-right corner.
   2. Choosing Save Draft.
2. Submit: When the coordinator is ready to submit the submission to the next step, they can do so by:
   1. Selecting Actions from the upper-right corner.
   2. Choosing Submit to advance the submission to the next step. 

As a reminder, items submitted by external reviewers are not part of the permanent submission, which is consistent with how the Workflow Module handles committee member responses. Only materials submitted by the External Reviewer Coordinator will become part of the official record for the candidate's submission.

Optional: Downloading a Submission for Offline Review

If your campus has enabled this feature, coordinators can download the contents of a candidate's submission for offline viewing by following the steps outlined in this article, Downloading an Individual Submission. 

If the coordinator is unable to download the contents of a submission, it may be because this setting is turned off for their campus Workflow Module. If this is the case, the coordinator must collaborate with their Faculty Success Administrator. If the request is approved, the Administrator must then submit a General Work Request to enable the feature. 

Send Back to Previous Step

If the coordinator identifies incomplete, incorrect, or unclear information in the prior step, they may return the submission to the previous step.

To send back:

1. Go to Actions from the upper-right corner. 
   
2. Select Send Back to Previous Step.
   
3. Enter a message explaining what needs to be updated.

An email notification is sent to the prior-step participant with your message and a direct link to resume their work.

Important Considerations for this action: 

• The coordinator cannot modify the due date when sending a submission back to the previous step. 
• If auto-advance is enabled for the prior step and its due date has passed, the system will immediately move the submission forward again. In these cases, the coordinator should collaborate with their campus Workflow Administrator so the Administrator can manually process the send-back on their behalf.