Online Support + Web 2.0 = Access + Availability

Award Winner: 
2010 Sloan-C Effective Practice Award
Author Information
Author(s): 
Clark Shah-Nelson
Author(s): 
Grady U. Miller
Institution(s) or Organization(s) Where EP Occurred: 
SUNY Delhi
Effective Practice Abstract/Summary
Abstract/Summary of Effective Practice: 

THE NEED:

Online instructors and learners need easy access to technical support, but a simple email address and/or phone number to tech support have proven to be inefficient, even when coupled with a set of FAQs. Our users need up-to-date system information (downtime, maintenance, current issues, etc.) as well as an easy way to search through the knowledgebase of tutorials, to contact live support via instant message, phone, or in person, or submit a ticket after hours. 

THE EFFECTIVE PRACTICE:

Our effective practice is:

provide a one-stop help portal for all faculty and students to easily get the help they need or initiate contact at any time

While some users may be quite self-sufficient and use self-help resources, others require direct contact using a variety of methods and technologies to address their needs. While many departments may have an email address and/or phone number to reach help, how can end users get help after hours? The innovative online help portal (http://tinyurl.com/doehelp) designed by SUNY Delhi Online Education provides a one-stop shop for online instructors and learners to get important information about learning management systems, search for their own answers, drop-in to live walk-in support, make contact to live help via instant messaging or a free phone call, or submit a help ticket. Using mostly freely available Web 2.0 tools and some PHP programming, the portal brings together RSS, Twitter, a documentation wiki, DimDim (for screensharing), GoogleVoice and GoogleCalendar to provide users an easy way to efficiently get help and up-to-date information about systems and available technicians. The help portal is distributed to other institutions in a Creative Commons-licensed package that which they can use as a template to build their own portal. This practice has inspired such comments as "The help here is already about a 1000 times better than the school I transferred from. It's awesome." We continue to get excellent comments and evaluations from our students and faculty.

Description of the Effective Practice
Description of the Effective Practice: 

PROVIDE ACCESS: Link it everywhere

In order to provide the most accessible help and support, the first part of our practice is to provide a "help" link in every course and every part of the Learning Management System (LMS). Using this link, any student or faculty member with a question or issue can click on the link to initiate the help process.

INFORM THEM: NOTIFICATIONS: One place to look for important updates

Once they have connected to the portal, they first see important system notification messages (via Twitter feed) which directly affect others in the LMS. They also see any system downtime notifications from the LMS provider (via RSS feed.) This way, they know if there are any particular issues already reported similar to their own. The Twitter feed also makes it very easy for multiple technicians to post or report issues from all types of devices. 

GIVE USERS CHOICE: How to make contact

Next, users may choose from searching the knowledgebase (a wiki) for tutorials, FAQs and self-help documentation (24/7), getting live help (app. 70 hours per week), or submitting a ticket after working hours (24/7). By providing a simple key word search through documentation tutorials, users may find their own answers at any time of the day or night. But failing that, the portal makes it easy for them to see if a technician is online and strike up an instant messaging chat (using AIM and a Wimzi widget). This makes it easy to share links between the technician and end user, as well as initiate a DimDim session for screensharing so that either person can show what is on his or her screen. Users can also make a free phone call (using a Google Voice widget), and those who wish to drop by in person can view a live Google Calendar page which is updated daily to show whether a technician is on duty or not. Finally, if it is after hours, the user can submit a ticket form, which gathers much needed information about the issue, automatically gathers browser and system information from the user's computer, and allows the uploading of screen shots and cc:ing to the instructor or others who may be affected. The form is simultaneously sent to all possible help channels for most expedient and efficient handling. 

ROUTE CALLS FOR MULTIPLE TECHNICIANS: Efficiencies

One issue we have encountered is when an end user calls or emails one person who is out of the office, ill, or on vacation. The help portal solves this issue, because all of the contact methods - instant messaging, Google Voice, and the ticket form, are created to be shared and they distribute the information to multiple parties. With instant messaging, the message always goes to whomever is on duty at the time. The Google Voice interface makes it possible to ring several phones simultaneously, so that the first, most available technician can answer the call. If voice mail is left, it also sends an audio MP3 file of the VM via email to all technicians and transcribes it into text. The help form is automatically distributed to all necessary individuals so that, in the event one is out of the office, the matter will still be known to others immediately.

TRACK PROGRESS: Ticketing

When coupled with a helpdesk ticketing system, the help portal provides more efficient means to help the end user. The portal itself helps the end user find answers or make contact. From there, a ticketing system can help track who has sent answers or made progress on the ticket, time spent, and so on. 

Supporting Information for this Effective Practice
Evidence of Effectiveness: 

The help portal has been an on-going iterative process for over 18 months, but we only recently began gathering more data and direct evaluations. We have continuously updated and edited various aspects of the portal based on user articulated needs and input. Our key evidence of effectiveness comes from user comments, evaluation surveys, and usage:

 

USER COMMENTS
 

  •  "Thanks for the help, Live Help is a great option."
  • "The help here is already about 1000 times better than the college i transferred from. It's awesome. Thank you again."

 

EVALUATIONS

We began gathering data from formal evaluations in May 2010, so we do not yet have a lot of data. However, so far, the results have shown that over 76% of respondents were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" by the ease of use and functionality of the help portal, and over 80% reported the same for accessibility. Live support and submitting a ticket via the form continue to be the most popular and highly rated aspects. 

 

USAGE

The percentage of users who use the portal to report issues via instant messaging, call us with GoogleVoice, or submit tickets after hours continues to grow each month. We don't have any data on the number of users who are helping themselves using the self-help resources. 

 

How does this practice relate to pillars?: 

 This practice improves upon the pillars as follows:

ACCESS

The help portal and practices surrounding its use increase the access to quality, timely, cost effective and efficient help and support for online learners and faculty members. It is far more efficient and informative than more stagnant help resources or traditional methods of contact. All end users can now access help through many various means, methods and technologies. 

 

LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS

When end users experience difficulties of any kind in their learning environment, they need efficient, expedient help and support. Having this type of support available increases the learning effectiveness, because it makes efficient use of the end user's time. The learner also arguable can focus more effectively on the content and coursework when a well-functioning, easy-to-use, multi-faceting help portal is in place if they need it.

 

FACULTY SATISFACTION

Based on our feedback from faculty users, we have continued to change the portal to meet their needs. The portal has helped ensure that faculty members can instantly find out information about the system, find help or make contact. This has streamlined their ability to get efficient support and increased their satisfaction with our support services.

 

STUDENT SATISFACTION

We have gotten great reviews from students indicating that they appreciate the ability to get help so easily. They seem to really like the ability to get instant help via live chat, as well as to send a ticket for help after hours. 

 

SCALE 

The help portal and practices surrounding its use have greatly increased our ability to scale our services. For example, since the portal is set up to maximize the ability for multiple technicians to handle the calls, we can now easily add more technicians and expand our service hours. Because the portal is more efficient than a simple email address or phone number, we can also handle more volume of calls and increase our enrollment capacity. Since very little of the help portal costs anything to run (aside from the enterprise wiki), we have increased on all pillar levels, while keeping costs down.

Equipment necessary to implement Effective Practice: 

The primary technology needed for this practice is a web server running PHP, and then several user accounts on various Web 2.0 sites, such as AIM, GoogleVoice, Google Calendar, Twitter, DimDim. Additionally, it is handy to have an instance of Atlassian Confluence wiki (to have the most robust interface to the knowledgebase tutorials).

The help portal template is packaged into a few ZIP files at http://tinyurl.com/helpportal

Estimate the probable costs associated with this practice: 

There are practically no costs for implementing this portal if a web server is available (with PHP). All of the Web 2.0 sites used can be set up for free. The Atlassian Confluence wiki (optional) is an enterprise commercial wiki which does have associated costs. 

References, supporting documents: 

The Portal: http://tinyurl.com/doehelp

The Creative Commons-licensed template: http://tinyurl.com/helpportal

A presentation: http://tinyurl.com/helpportalprezi 

Useful Links: 
SUNY CIT Conference Presentation:
The Creative Commons-licensed template:
The Portal:
Other Comments: 

 Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments:

 

Clark Shah-Nelson

nelsoncs@delhi.edu

607-323-1363

Contact(s) for this Effective Practice
Effective Practice Contact: 
Clark Shah-Nelson
Email this contact: 
nelsoncs@delhi.edu
Effective Practice Contact 2: 
Grady U. Miller
Email contact 2: 
millergu@delhi.edu
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