The Helpdesk Paradox

Over the past three years we (VCC) have seen a steady reduc­tion in the total num­ber of tick­et requests sub­mit­ted to our eLearn­ing Sup­port helpdesk* by fac­ul­ty. At the same time, we have seen growth in the over­all use of ed tech, main­ly our Moo­dle LMS and our Kaltura video plat­form.

So why have more users submitted fewer tickets?

I can think of a few rea­sons:

• Improved Famil­iar­i­ty: As fac­ul­ty become more accus­tomed to using Moo­dle and Kaltura, they encounter few­er issues that require helpdesk assis­tance. Per­haps users are becom­ing more self-suf­fi­cient over time.

• Avail­abil­i­ty of Self-Ser­vice Resources: Fac­ul­ty are find­ing answers to their ques­tions via our exten­sive knowl­edge base, online tuto­ri­als, chat­bots, or oth­er resources out­side of the helpdesk.

• Peer Sup­port: I’d like to think that a com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice is emerg­ing where fac­ul­ty are sup­port­ing each oth­er, shar­ing ideas, and solv­ing issues as they arise.

• Usage Trends: A less opti­mistic read­ing is that while the num­ber of fac­ul­ty users has increased, their over­all inter­ac­tion with the tech (or the com­plex­i­ty of tasks they per­form) may not have grown pro­por­tion­al­ly. Sim­pler usage pat­terns may lead to few­er tech­ni­cal issues.

The Benefit?

Less time devot­ed to resolv­ing issues means more time for devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive new resources and approach­es to sup­port our fac­ul­ty and stu­dents.

* Note that we have a sep­a­rate helpdesk for IT-spe­cif­ic prob­lems, and we are not a stu­dent-serv­ing helpdesk. Stats on stu­dent requests would be an inter­est­ing sub­ject for a future post.