MnSCU Desire2Learn Helpdesk
Providing D2L Support to all
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Background
MnSCU ITS requested a bid on the system wide D2L helpdesk –
Spring 2004
MSU Mankato ITS won the bid for this service – Summer 2004
Service Began in August 2004
What is D2L Support Services?
Online Knowledgebase
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Powered by RightNow Technologies
D2L Help Desk
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7 days/week, 7:30a-11:30p
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4 full time staff including a staff RightNow Administrator
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5 student employees (specific to D2L Help Desk, nights
and weekends)
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10 student employees (Mankato Help Desk—priority
shifts for D2L Help Desk)
How Does It Work?
Campus provides link to knowledgebase
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Desire2Learn Login
End-User can…
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Search/browse faq’s, “Google-like” search
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Submit questions to the Help Desk (toll free number)
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Supply feedback on faq’s
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View previous or in process incidents
Statistics (August 19th - March 7th)
25279 hits
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96094 pages viewed
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13203 searches
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2598 questions submitted
Total incidents: 2705
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From:
• 37 different institutions
• 1,946 individuals
Review of RightNow Stats
Show email reports
Survey Results
Survey recently completed – sent out and summary prepared by
Office of the Chancellor staff – see handhout
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Issues resolved
Quality of response
Response time
Helpfulness
Finding answers
Ease of using
Willingness to recommend
What follows are the 6 recommendations and our action steps
1. Focus on faculty support and improve their
satisfaction.
a. The Help Desk was initially designed to primarily assist students
and faculty with Level I incidents. Many/most campuses
provided some/most/all faculty training and support locally.
b. As the number of incidents, FAQs, and responses increased, we
have expanded the service to include more faculty specific
support.
c. The knowledge base is the primary vehicle for researching
questions. We encourage the faculty to continue using the
system, expanding the FAQs in the process.
2. Assess customer service skills of all help desk staff.
Improve interpersonal communication …
a. Additional training for D2L Help Desk student support personnel has
begun with an emphasis on customer service and professionalism.
b. D2L Help Desk students are now given instruction in customer service
skills alongside our MSU Help Desk students who provide Level I
support.
c. We have an ongoing program that provides for review of written
responses to incidents and follow-up with the student that made the
entry.
d. The system has a process for providing feedback to FAQs which is used
to update the FAQ and provide input to the administrator.
e. An incident closure message has been implemented which provides the
phone numbers of staff members and an email address to send in
comments about the service.
3. Budget permitting, consider adding live phone
support and/or live online support.
a. This service exists now.
b. All campuses have been made aware of the toll free number.
Most do not provide it to users since the primary vehicle for the
Help Desk is the Right Now knowledge base.
c. The phone number is sent to all clients when they submit an
incident through Right Now.
4. Measure response times for all three user groups to
achieve desired turn-around goals
a. Added Metrics module – immediate feedback and follow-up
b. Looking to separate data by campus for personalized support
5. Add better keywords to FAQ’s for more meaningful,
effective searches.
a. This is improving and will continue to improve as the FAQs
expand.
b. Keywords are being added when searches fail.
c. Right Now is working to improve the search capabilities using a
Google-like search algorithm.
6. Determine a means for faculty to zero in on facultyspecific FAQ’s …
a. This feature exists in the current system if “faculty” is picked for
status and a campus is entered. Use of keyword search is
improved with the latest releases.
b. We are looking to improve documentation for distribution to the
community by making use of documentation provided at
individual campuses that can be applied system wide. Some
campuses have excellent documentation, others are limited.
c. As customers become more familiar with the system, they often
find its usefulness improves without having any training
provided.
Additional Items
Added escalation note in each trouble ticket – Mgr number
Training for entire MSU team with D2L in January
Participated in MnSCU Site Admin forums in Alex and Mankato
All MSU help desk staff trained and supporting D2L helpdesk