Helpdesk Issues

CMS Transitional Committee
Help Desk Recommendations
November 27, 2007

The committee recommends a three tier Help Desk Solution to ensure that faculty and students’ technical needs are addressed in a timely and secured manner. The three tier model allows for campus autonomy in terms of course and student management, as well as providing 24 x 7 technical support and services to all campuses and technology centers.

*Currently only UOM provides 24 x 7 technical services to students and faculty, as well as hosting for RODP.

Tier 1: Campus Help Desk

7am – 5pm: Monday - Friday

Passwords
Exams
Faculty D2L application support
Course Import
Course Entry/Management/Assignment
Student Entry
Campus Information
E-Pack
Registration
Uploading
Browsers/Pop-Ups/Java/Microsoft Office

*Tier 2: System-Wide Help Desk

- 5pm-7am

- Weekends

- Holidays

Note: Services requested to start Spring 2007 in order to assist with conversion technical issues.

Passwords
Student D2L application support
Faculty D2L application support
RODP/ROCE/Registration verification
Browsers issues SSL certificates/Pop-Ups/Java/caching issues
Network connectivity support
Third party application support (Microsoft office, Respondus, Wimba, etc.)
Virtual library, online database issues
ASK (searchable database software that allows for automated searches per campus)

Tier 3: D2L Premium (24x7x365 support)

D2L Administrators

Note: Premium is recommended because it provides 24x7365 support whereas D2L Basic only provides 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. services.

Availability: Immediate upon finalization of contract.

Server Issues
Campus Network/Administrator
Query Campus Access Point
Course corruption involving the underlying application software and/or database.
Backup restoration
Access (search) of web access logs and/or error logs in case of legal appeal
Assistance in batch archival of backups to local campus storage

Premium

Premium level of support where problems are logged into the SMS, triaged, troubleshot, escalated as appropriate and problems are resolved. Customers who have Premium level of support receive access to web resources (FAQs, knowledge base, forum, technical support email) and ongoing access to patches and service packs. 24x7x365 support is provided to our Premium customers. This 24x7x365 support is provided via telephone, web form submission, customer created problem tickets using the Desire2Learn SMS, and email. Premium Support customers may have one to a maximum of three administrators. No end user support is provided. There is a guaranteed faster time of responsiveness via a Service Level Agreement. Premium Support customers will also be provided with a toll free number to call if they desire support via the telephone.

Comments

From rickcruse - 11/28/06 9:28 PM

Food for Thought:

If I understand correctly, under the current system, only 2 TBR facilities provide 24X7 Help Desk support. The d2l initiative may help fund another tier of support for other facilities having lower support levels, possibily through various centralized support models.

Does this also provides an opportunity to leverage funds to expand support for all institutions. If a 'Tier II' level of support is developed to support users with d2l afterhours, could this same support staff also provide extended support for other applications in the TBR catalog? Although this group may not provide the personalized levels of support for applications as an individual institution, with proper training and documentation, the Tier II staff could provide "continuity of care". If a user has a problem and calls it in at 6:30 PM and the traditional Help Desk hours are 7-7, the problem could sit for 12+ hours awaiting resolution. Alternately, the Tier II staff could call the user back, gather additional information, serve as an off-hours contact for vendor isssues, etc. Additionally, this model could reduce confusion for the user. By providing a broader level of support, the users wouldn't have to know if the problem was d2l or if they might have a problem with their system. Either problem could be processed/resolved 24X7.

The incremental costs of expanding this support would be much less than providing this service without a business driver such as d2l. TBR recognizes the need to provide an enhanced support model to service this application. Could this give us an opportunity to leverage these dollars while expanding the benefits to our audience?

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Last Modified 11/29/06 1:57 PM