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Why and how UMBC support offices should use the UMBC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to help people help themselves. If you are a departmental Blackboard Ultra ambassador, DoIT appreciates if you can broaden your scope to anything related to Blackboard or online learning tools. If you don’t feel comfortable doing so, no problem. Just encourage faculty to use the tips above.
- If you’re a Departmental IT (DIT) support staff member and can’t troubleshoot department colleagues’ issues, please encourage them to use the tips above. Tip: if you submit a ticket on their behalf, please make sure they are the requestor (not you).
- If you don’t have a formal IT support help role, you can help by familiarizing yourself with DoIT’s FAQs or support documentation, or telling us how we can improve them. Also, encourage your colleagues and peers to follow the steps above. Finally, here’s a short presentation we’ve been sharing with campus leadership on broad ways DoIT will support academic and business continuity of operations.
- Add your own FAQs to the campus-wide FAQ Knowledgebase. It’s not hard, and if users see FAQs covering more than IT topics, they’re more likely to come back, which increases the value of a central knowledgebase. Still not convinced? Check out this FAQ why you should be.
- Here are a few tips to getting started:
- Identify common support requests;
- Use the “Show & Tell” Q&A format;
- Deep link to your FAQs on your UMBC website (here’s a DoIT example).
- Encourage support staff to use relevant FAQs as an acceptable, initial RT ticket resolution.
- Encourage the user to reply (and re-open) the ticket if the FAQ doesn’t help.
- Check out the FAQs about FAQs
- FYI: TechFest18 FAQ presentation
- FYI: Using FAQs to Help Users Help Themselves
- FYI: DoIT’s Annual User Support Metrics (including RT & FAQ usage).