West Hills College Helpdesk

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West Hills CollegeHelpdesk

• Resolving multiple student services issues with a
  single solution

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West Hills CommunityCollege District

• 2 colleges
• 1 center
• 3,500 square miles
• 4,770 students
• 65 receiving financial aid
• High levels of unemployment
• Low levels of higher education attainment

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Experiencing growing pains

• Online courses first offered in 1998
• Peer support among pioneering faculty
• Faculty provided sole support for students
• No web registration
• No online student support services
• No institutionalization of online learning
• Unable to meet demand for online courses

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Implementing Improvements

• Hired Educational Technology Specialist
• Formalized training of online faculty
• Technical support for faculty and staff
• Online student orientation to online courses
• Expanded online program offerings
• Initiated integration of online learning

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Implementing Improvements

• Contracted with third party technology support
  company
• 24/7 helpdesk services
• Quickly identified that this was a poor fit with
  our student needs
• Password reset considered Tier 2 priority
• Greater than 24 hour turn-around

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Institutional Changes

• Implementation of web registration
• Web based catalog
• Web based course schedule
• Growing demand for online courses

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Helpdesk Envisioned

• Friendly and student focused
• Technology answers
• Student support for success
• Easy one stop for inquiries
• Responsive to changing needs

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Helpdesk Solution

• Position realized through cooperative Title V
  grant with California State University Fresno
• Full-time professional employee supplemented by
  Learning Resources staff
• Traditional business hours

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Helpdesk

• Hit the ground running!
• 50 online courses
• 10 web-enhanced courses
• 800 students
• 36 faculty
• Rapid development of FAQ responses
• Developed easy to use tracking system
• Identification of problem areas

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Helpdesk Today

• Password resets for all systems
• Student information system
• Blackboard
• Email
• How do I register?
• How do I access my student email?
• Institutional information
• Staff and faculty support
• Thank you!

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Findings

• Students need easy access to answers
• Technology is not generally the hurdle
• Strong preference for personal touch
• Password resets are most common need
• Faculty and staff need user support for all
  implemented technology
• Most time consuming issues fall outside the
  defined scope of the helpdesk
• If not the helpdesk then who?
• Help them anyway!

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West Hills Community College District

• Jill Stearns
• Director of Financial Aid
• jillstearns_at_westhillscollege.com