Kyle Posted September 30, 2014 Posted September 30, 2014 I was wondering what everyone else does as ours is only open to staff and we are thinking of opening it up to students. Thoughts or advice appreciated.
howartp Posted September 30, 2014 Posted September 30, 2014 We don't have helpdesk software/interface, but we've recently opened up our IT email to students and parents. No ill side effects yet. Peter
Guest Guest Posted September 30, 2014 Posted September 30, 2014 We've recently opened it up for pupils, its working well
howartp Posted September 30, 2014 Posted September 30, 2014 One sixth former who I believe transferred to us this summer came and warned me that I was running IE as the System user and therefore open to exploits. I'm not, he put two and two together wrongly, but at least he told us instead of trying to exploit it. Peter
SovietRussia Posted September 30, 2014 Posted September 30, 2014 It might be worth a look, I can just imagine the spam on it!
caffrey Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 It would pretty much just consist of "I've forgot my password"
Davit2005 Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Just for Staff here and everywhere I've been. Anyone that is running a helpdesk open to Students, what sort of things get reported????
pcstru Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Our helpdesk is open to all (even parents). Student requests are a mix of : Dog ate my username/password Borrow Laptop/Netbook Buy Printer Credits Connect Device to guest network Dog deleted my Files Can't login (Dog typed my password) Need paper for printer Beg for more printer credits (dog ate them) Laptop loan agreement documents (collect/lodge) Borrow headphones Request login details for mum/dad (dog ate letter we sent) 4
eyetea Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 We're just email based here - however open to all. Best student request I've seen (from an older pupil) was asking which program they had to use to go on the internet as they forgot!
synaesthesia Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Just staff here, can't see a particular use for it to students (but open to the idea). Can imagine the most popular would be printing credits (Sorry, no, you've been printing the same thing over and over again "But miss told me to!") and password resets (Sorry, no idea who you are; password resets go to your teacher please)
unixman_again Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Both, although we get very few tickets from students. No "I forgot my password" tickets as you need to login before you can raise a ticket.
DevilsAdvocate Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Ours is only advertised to staff but could theoretically be used by pupils if they had the link to it. They just email our support address. What do those who allow parents access tend to use it for? password resets?
GrumbleDook Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 I always used to have it open to all. In the early 00s it was an invaluable way of tracking which students were time wasting, keeping a record of which internet accounts had been auto-locked and how frequently (3rd strike and they had to get permission from their tutor for it to be re-enabled and if they didn't come back in 5 days we would take it to the tutor / head of year anyway!), additional things that students ended training or advice on when they started the school, etc ... I would go with it. Also look at things like Digital Leader Network - Collaborative blogging between schools for seeing how students can make a difference with IT.
LincolnE Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Ours is open only to staff, but we've had the occasional student try and send an email. The best one we've had is a student send in a message during the half-term holidays, on Easter Sunday saying they couldn't log into our VLE. They then followed this up on Easter Monday stating "i still have not gotten a response after 24 hours..." I know us IT peeps are often known for working at silly hours, but you would have thought a bank holiday weekend would be a good sign that your issue isn't going to be fixed.
Roberto Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 We're a college and students are therefore able to enjoy a bit more freedom and responsibility than you get in a school perhaps, and our helpdesk has always been open to students for as long as I can remember (and I've been here since '98...). We get a range of calls from the mundane (password, printer credit refunds, etc) upwards to some fairly in depth stuff ("how can the student council manage an email campaign to the student body?", "Can the Black History Month project play a video they've made on the electronic noticeboards?", etc) I can see why it might not be for everyone but I can't imagine this place working too well without us being open to students!
plexer Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Thought about this in the past under the guise that there are more pupils using more of the kit than just staff so issues with certain machines hopefully would get reported sooner rather than "well such and such computer hasn't worked for weeks/months/years" etc.... Now I work in the "real world" I don't have to worry about that anymore. Ben
Sylv3r Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 We have had our helpdesk in place for around 7 or 8 years and students, parents and staff have used it from the start. We don't get many student requests during the day, but we do get some helpful ones letting us know when something isn't working, toner is running out on a printer etc. We get a lot of parent submissions generally around report time when they receive a text to say the reports are live and they forget their Learning Gateway logon details. I don't see any reason not to allow students access and if it does get abused it should be relatively straight forward to trace which account it has come from.
MatthewL Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 I don't see why it cannot happen, gets them ready for real world experience, plus if the kid reports the issues it is likely to be better than a teachers version of the actual issue! Give the kids some respect, some of them are switched on and its in the interest to trust them.
unixman_again Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Just as I was leaving, a ticket came in from a student saying she had run out of disk space. It also said that as she was doing graphic design, she is entitled to extra space. Perhaps we forgot to bump her quota? All very polite and it will be treated in the same way.
jdoldridge Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 I don't see why it cannot happen, gets them ready for real world experience, plus if the kid reports the issues it is likely to be better than a teachers version of the actual issue! Give the kids some respect, some of them are switched on and its in the interest to trust them. We don't allow student access to our help desk anymore due to amount of stupid requests that came through. By the way Matt, your company's help desk seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth! (Well your website)
GrumbleDook Posted October 2, 2014 Posted October 2, 2014 We don't allow student access to our help desk anymore due to amount of stupid requests that came through. By the way Matt, your company's help desk seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth! (Well your website) If users make stupid requests then you educate them, you don't stop them from making requests. If it ends up being vexatious, then you work with folk like tutors to deal with individuals. Once you have 'trained' the really difficult ones it gets so much easier. Things that help are Service Lists, FAQs, know-how guides (written by the children is a really good idea for this) and even basic video guides. All designed to make things run smoother, reduce the number of calls you get, increase customer satisfaction and keep everyone happy.
sippo Posted October 2, 2014 Posted October 2, 2014 We use Zendesk, so I'm guessing anyone with a bit of 'knowledge' could raise a call.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now