Help Desk

EDUCAUSE Now is a new monthly audio podcast that covers news, resources, people, and events related to IT in higher education. The premier episode, launched last week, focuses on topics such as future learning, peer-to-peer file sharing and big broad band, the help desk in higher education IT, and more. Listen now or subscribe to the EDUCAUSE Now RSS feed.

Welcome to the premiere episode of EDUCAUSE Now!

EDUCAUSE Now is a monthly podcast, focusing on the intelligent use of information technology in higher education. Each episode features a variety of stories, interviews, and views that relate to IT in higher education. EDUCAUSE Now will also inform you about upcoming events, report on past events, and feature the movers and shakers in policy, teaching and learning, security, and a whole host of other important topics for our members. Let us know what you would like to hear at podcast@educause.edu.

This episode of EDUCAUSE Now features:

EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) has published the new study, Service on the Front Line: The IT Help Desk in Higher Education. This study explores the information technology (IT) help desk as a complex enterprise operating within a dynamic environment that includes the goals and culture of the central IT organization, the resources and services of the help desk, service level agreements between help desks and their clients, practices for evaluating and improving help desk services, and the perceived success of the help desk organization. Findings are related to the principles and practices of IT service management literature.

In this 35 minute recording from the 2006 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Session, we’ll hear from Kimberly Brookes and Susan Lees in a session entitled, “Self-Help Clinics: A Pragmatic Approach to Student Support.”  Brookes and Lees explain how Simmons College is teaching students to take charge of their own technology in guided self-help clinics on campus.