New discussion platform Viva Engage is now available for staff and students
The community is encouraged to use the discussion platform for having informal chats, sharing ads and informing other employees and students of topics of their choice.
A communication platform for the whole community
In May, we announced that the mass email lists in use at the university will be allowed only for communication related to work and studies. The uniform emailing policy entered into force on 2 June, and mass email lists that reach all students and staff of an academy will be closed today, on 16 June. Read the news article on the Students’ Uniarts website.
We want to continue to provide the entire community with the opportunity to freely discuss and advertise topics and activities of their choice. For this purpose, staff and students are welcome to use Viva Engage, which will be piloted during the 2025–2026 academic year. You can access Viva Engage by clicking the icon at the top of the left pane on Teams. You can also go to Viva Engage via this link.
You can also download the Viva Engage app on your phone from your phone’s app store.
From now on, if you want to reach all students and/or employees at Uniarts Helsinki or your home academy, post your announcement on the Viva Engage forum. You can think of the platform as a sort of online noticeboard of the university, and you can customise it by choosing which communities you want to join. You can also customise your email or device notification settings for the platform.
Viva Engage has topic-specific communities that can be used for things like promoting events, engaging in discussions on societal topics and posting rental ads. The platform also has a community for Academy of Fine Arts technicians to share information on everyday activities, such as exceptions to the use of workshop facilities.
Communities on the discussion platform
All Uniarts Helsinki students and employees have been added to the All Company community automatically. If you want to join other communities, you can make the choice yourself to keep yourself updated on group-specific discussions and announcements.
Names of the communities:
- Students and staff
- Pets and nature
- Societal topics
- Art and collaboration
- Kuva tech
- Marketplace
Opt-in to topics you want to receive messages about – also to your email inbox
On the discussion platform, you can decide for yourself which channel’s messages you want to follow. In addition, you can define which messages you will receive notifications on your email or device.
How to subscribe to notifications to your email from the channel of your choice
- Access Viva Engage via Teams. Do not use a browser.
- Join the channels you want
- Click on the three-dot menu next to your name on the left and select Settings
- Go to Notifications
- Go to “Edit email preferences for communities you follow”
- Select channels.
Viva Engage may send daily email digests to all employees and students automatically. You can turn them off in the settings.
How to edit your notification settings
- Access Viva Engage via Teams. Do not use a browser.
- Click on the three-dot menu next to your name on the left and select Settings
- Go to Notifications
- Turn off unwanted notifications, for example the daily or weekly digest
Uniarts Helsinki’s platforms for internal communication
The main platform for internal communication aimed at staff is the Artsi intranet, while for communication aimed at students, the main platform is the Students’ Uniarts website. By following these platforms, staff and students keep themselves updated on news related to studies, work and university activities and decision-making.
Study-related communication takes place on the Students’ Uniarts website and via emails and the Moodle platform. News published on the Students’ Uniarts website can also be accessed via the Tuudo app, and they are compiled into a student newsletter that is sent out every two weeks. The staff will be sent a separate newsletter, with news compiled from content published on the intranet Artsi.
Information on study-related artistic activities, such as performances, concerts and exhibitions is communicated via the event calendar and newsletters, just like before. Viva Engage has its own community for setting up artistic working groups and planning cross-artistic collaborations, named “Art and collaboration”, but when needed, announcements can also be shared on the Students’ Uniarts website and on student email lists.
In the future, you can post messages and announcements that are not connected to work or studies on the Viva Engage platform. It reaches all members of the community. You can think of the platform as a sort of online noticeboard of the university.
Uniarts Helsinki group in Teams will be removed in June
The previously used Uniarts Helsinki group in Teams will be removed by the end of June 2025 now that Viva Engage replaces the forum as a discussion platform. The Uniarts Helsinki group was piloted as a discussion platform for a couple of years, but there were challenges in its findability and usability. We will now see how Viva Engage, which is tailored for discussions, fares as its replacement.