Help Desk and Presentations/Speeches

Due to service demands, we often expect our ResNet and student staff to perform miracles. This panel discussion will explore and compare solutions from three different institutions to training, retaining, and providing growth opportunities for student workers while meeting or exceeding service-level expectations.

Illinois State University used prime space in the student center to create a new avenue for students, faculty, and staff to receive technology help and also added fee-based services. See how the computer store, residential networking, and the help desk came together to meet rising support expectations on campus.

The help desk at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota relies heavily on student workers for the end-user support of our liberal arts undergraduate campus as well as off-campus graduate and professional programs. This presentation will share the steps we took toward improving the professionalism, performance, and perception of the help desk.

The CITES Help Desk has begun organizing student project teams as a creative approach to internal programming and training tasks while providing undergraduate employees with professional growth opportunities. This presentation will provide an overview of how we organized this endeavor and the perspectives of some student employees working on these project teams.

In 2007, ECAR conducted a study of help desk management tools and practices in higher education information technology. This session looks at the study's findings as they reflect the help desk's role in addressing the emergence of new IT environments and the changing expectations of the client base.

This session will cover how Massachusetts College of Art and Design implemented a new help desk ticketing system. Come hear what we learned and how we made it succeed.

The University of Texas at Austin has changed our service delivery model at the help desk. Our new focus is on training and education: for the student consultants who answer the phones, for our full-time staff, and for our customers.

When technology support comes from a number of different departments on campus, how does a user know where to find answers? This predicament brought together various departments to find a solution for frustrated users: a centralized online help desk. Locating the appropriate software and implementing it became a joint effort.

Students expect anytime, anywhere access to IT resources from multiple locations ranging from home to the classroom to the airport. Temple provides around-the-clock support through its service desk and its learning spaces such as the TECH Center. This model is highly adaptable and scalable to both small and large levels. Introductory Level

Presentation at the Sixth Annual ECAR Symposium, December 5-7, 2007, in Boca Raton, Florida. The 2007 ECAR help desk study, Service on the Front Line: The IT Help Desk in Higher Education, identified a number of practices as being associated with help desk success, viewed in terms of overall service quality, positive impacts on various service areas, and reliable meeting of help desk goals. This presentation explores those associations in search of landmarks the help desk can use in navigating toward excellence.

How to Cite This Work: Sheehan, Mark C. "The Upward Trail: Success Factors in Help Desk Management." Presentation at the ECAR Symposium, Boca Raton, FL, December 5-7, 2007, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.