Why our help documentation might as

well be in Dutch!Peter Rayment, Cardiff University

Michel Visser, Eesysoft.

About Cardiff University

Learning Central Learning Central is made up of;

Core of Blackboard Version 9.1 (Classic)

Plus; Blackboard Mobile

Learning Objects Campus Pack Wimba Voice Tools

Questionmark Perception Turnitin Echo360 Panopto

Learning Central use

265,000 student enrolments on 5000 modules accessing an ever-increasing variety of functionality

On a busy Monday in October there are in the region of 19000 logins to the system.

Background to support issues

Upgraded Core Learning Central system

In summer 2010 we undertook a major software upgrade from Version 8 to 9.1 of Blackboard.

Although we attempted to review and prioritise support documentation the release of the new software resulted in a significant increase in support calls throughout the start of term.

Comparison of support calls

Below are comparison figures for help requests for 2009 and 2010. 

1st August 2009 to 1st December 2009 Total VLE calls recorded on INFRA = 502 Resolved by Service Desk Staff = 94 Resolved by VLE Team = 408

 

1st August 2010 to 1st December 2010 Total VLE calls recorded on INFRA = 997 Resolved by Service Desk Staff = 311 Resolved by VLE Team = 686

Context regarding support calls

Essentially during this four month period two members of staff cleared just under 700 support calls.

Questions arising from this;

1) Why did we get so many calls?

2) How many of these calls could we have prevented from being logged by having an easy self help system?

3) How can we improve the situation for our customers (and ourselves)?

Question?Why did we get so many calls?

This was in part due to increased functionality and complexity of the new system plus an increase in usage of the system

An underlying factor was that customers did not generally read help documents.

In part this was due to difficulty locating relevant information, compounded by the fact that our help files are located across a number of systems, making relevant and focused help difficult to find.

Titles of help items did not always make it clear what the content was.

Investigation into…Remaining Questions-

- How many of these calls could we have prevented from being logged by having an easy self help system?

- How can we improve the situation for our customers (and ourselves)?

Action-

At the end 2010 an investigation was undertaken into the situation with our Help Documentation, and options for improving the customers experience.

A 14 page report was produced, by Jin Tan who had recently joined our team.

Report overviewThe Learning Central Help Service does not provide a robust self-learning environment for users.

To provide this type of service,

We need to know what help guides we have, Where they are? What is missing and / or required?

Once we know the answers to the above we can discuss how our help system needs to be improved and how to improve it.

Report findingsAt the beginning of 2011 an audit and analysis was undertaken of our help materials, and the resulting report highlighted deficits and the fractured nature of our help documentation.

“The current problems of the Learning Central help resources are: Help resources are managed/created by different systems, and the

LC team does not have an integrated entry for users to access help resources,

Many old Help content pages needs to be updated to Bb v9.0, Some guides are not easy to read and need to be improved, To make the LC help resources a user self-learning resource, new

help guides need to be added.”

Our help files - Staff

Our help files - Student

Help files everywhere

Current Support

Jin Tan 2011

RecommendationsThis report made recommendations that our help documents needed to;

– Be easily accessible (Searchable)– Centralised– Timely (up to date) and relevant.– Provide the ability for users to provide feedback on help

materials

A further requirement was a need for improved communication about functionality changes or outages within the system i.e. a method of cascading this information in a targeted way to customers. These materials needed to be;

– Proactive,– Contextual.

Proposed support model

Jin Tan 2011

Problem….

Following the report we knew that we needed to do a complete update of the way we provide our help materials but were unsure of the best way to proceed.

It seemed like a problem without a solution.

So…

Leeds Blackboard Conference

Leeds Blackboard Conference

Plan to improve help.Contacted Eesysoft

Looked at possibilities of using system to resolve the problems we are having.

Software seemed to meet our requirements and particularly mirrored the results of our report.

Currently finalising contract.

There is much work to do still but now we are hoping that we will have a framework around which we can build our support system.

Learning Central use

265,000 student enrolments on 5000 modules accessing an ever-increasing variety of functionality

On a busy Monday in October there are in the region of 19000 logins to the system.

Question? What are they doing and how do we prioritise helping them to help themselves?

Plan process

Investigations into how the system is used, Students and Staff.

The existing help and support documentation will be used to start to populate the system .

Additional materials will be added based on need, with factors such as time of year, emergent issues and common support enquiries considered, along with consultation with Service Desk.

Once this first tranche of population is completed, population of further materials will be undertaken as part of the team’s business as usual work.

Proactive approach facilitated.

Proactive notifications of change in functionality etc. will be populated as part of the appropriate associated project work

Any notifications about service outages would be handled as part of the usual process.

Will have ability to provide Role and Situation based notifications to our users. In the past we were only able to act reactively.

Demonstration

Demonstration of Eesysoft Software by Michel Visser

http://www.eesysoft.com

Context sensitve help

Situation:

‘How to?’ questions of end-usersEesySoft’s Application Positioning System (APS) monitors where

users are working within an application (like GPS for your sat nav)

It provide reports on how frequently specific functionality within Blackboard is being used and by whom

Based on the context users can receive (pro-active) support information about e.g. know problems, changes, faq’s, unused functionality

Navigation system for Blackboard users

Demo overview

Application Manager SME‘S

Blackboard Users

Content Management

Application Mapping, Reporting &

User Feedback

Info PushInfo Pull & Feedback

EesySoft APS

Pro-active information

Situation:

Information about known problems, changes, FAQ’s & unused functionality

Context sensitve help

Situation:

‘How to?’ questions of end-users

Find the expert

ExpertTools

Plug-in free building blockInstalled in < 10 minutes

Hosting in UK

Questions?Should you have any questions please feel free to contact

Peter Rayment

Learning and Teaching Manager, INSRV.

Telephone – 029 208 70290

Email – raymentpj@cardiff.ac.uk

Michel Visser

Managing Director, Eesysoft

Telephone - +31 (0)20 6586204

Email michel.visser@eesysoft.com