General questions to ask students when dealing with their IT problem.

[bristolweb]

Hi all,

 

Been a lurker on this board for a while now but now it's time to ask a question... and say hello.

 

I'm an IT technician in an HE institution and I'd like to empower my non IT colleagues when dealing with IT queries. Let me explain... We have a good and well staffed Helpdesk (several in fact) but staff in the library, where I'm primarily based, often deal with a range of IT issues, printing, wifi, logging in etc. and try to help library users before referring them to me or the helpdesk. Some staff are not phased by IT queries and will happily take a look, try a quick fix (if possible) and then refer the issue on... Other are not so and it's these staff I'd like to help. Being a small library with lots of computers etc. the issue is not going to go away.

 

As I said I want to empower my colleagues, not with technical info, but in ways to ask questions and deal with students/users effectively without getting stressed about it.

 

So if anyone has any ideas/info or links to resources I'd love to hear them.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[Miscbrah]

Wilkommen!

 

Well, I'm not sure what to advise other than asking them to check the basics out in regular fashion (is the mouse/network cable/keyboard plugged in? Is the monitor on? You know the drill.) It's good you've got staff who will have a go at all, but I'm not sure how much I can pass on as some users here just *will* have a go at diagnosing a problem, and some (no matter what we've seemed to try) submit blank emails with "It's not working" as the title and expect us to work off that. And that's been common across all schools I've worked in.

 

Don't let that discourage you though and if you do get some success then fair enough.

[Steve21]

So if anyone has any ideas/info or links to resources I'd love to hear them.

 

Silly things like "I can't logon" always find best ones are things like is it "no logon server" "password wrong" "account locked" etc, as else you get one version fix that and then it still doesn't work etc Almost like a flowchart, if it's no logon server check cable, if it's password wrong type it right, if it's account locked refer to Mr IT

 

Steve