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>----Original Message-----
> R Stanier
Because this may help others I am sending to the list.
>How have the staff in the consortium reacted to a primarily online support
service?
Reasonably positively, I think that is partly as we have attempted to manage
expectations and not allow users to expect 24 hour 7 day a week telephone
support. If staff are expecting to be able to pick up a phone and get an
immediate answer or response and you fail to deliver then they will be
disappointed. If you tell them it will take ten working days to set their
course up on the VLE and you deliver in six, you're a miracle worker. We
endeavour to deliver in an agreed timeframe.
Our Levels of Service page http://www.westerncc.ac.uk/los.html should
provide staff with the concept of what they can expect. We don't have the
resources to fulfil all the potential requests from staff across five
colleges and have a helpline or helpdesk, we would be happy to do so, but
someone has to fund it...
However we also try provide as many answers as we can online through our How
do I? and FAQ sections and include printable PDF versions to people can have
a hard copy next to their computer.
Not everything is done online, we do run a range of training sessions and
attempt to make them curriculum based as well. One aspect of our support
which has worked well, has been drop-in sessions, where we turn up with a
few computers with the NLN materials on, documentation, forms and wait for
the crowds and answer questions. Some staff will never sign up for a
training session, but have a few questions which a drop-in session is ideal
for.
The other aspect is when providing staff with information on their userid or
course setup we try to put in as much information as possible eg:
Dear <insert name of member of staff>
Thank you for applying for a User ID for the Virtual Campus.
Your ID is <insert userid>
For help on logging into the Virtual Campus please see our 'How do I
guide?' at http://www.westerncc.ac.uk/help20.html
For help and advice please refer to the WCC How do I? pages at:
http://www.westerncc.ac.uk/howdoi.html
To run a course on the campus, please read the following page
http://www.westerncc.ac.uk/runacourse.html and fill in the online form at:
http://www.westerncc.ac.uk/Forms/newcourse.html.
You can find more information on the WCC and the Virtual Campus, as well as
support documentation at http://www.westerncc.ac.uk
Please go to http://www.westerncc.ac.uk/events for details on current
training events.
If you have any questions, please post them to the Staff Cafe on the Virtual
Campus or e-mail the WCC Campus Manager.
Kind regards
James Clay
WCC Director
Of course some staff will still phone direct (and considering I am in the
office) I will be polite and answer their query, however we do try and let
them know that we don't provide telephone support and that all future
queries should be done by e-mail or through the VLE.
James Clay
Director Western Colleges Consortium
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
www.westerncc.ac.uk
-----Original Message-----
R Stanier
I'm interested in your emphasis on online support. We have numerous campuses
spread across the south east and so distributed staff models of support are
expensive. How have the staff in the consortium reacted to a primarily
online support service? We offer lots of online support but take up is poor
which is probably because we have these seconded staff available for each
campus. However, the funding for this model runs out at the end of this year
and so we're having to face planning new models that have no funding behind
them which might come as a shock to our teaching staff!!
Best wishes,
Stan
<snip>
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