Making Penn State's Course Management System (CMS), A New Global Environment for Learning (ANGEL) available to all faculty, staff, and students has been no small task. For users it has meant learning the interface and features of the new Web-based course software. For Information Technology Services staff it has meant first, assuring that the technology infrastructure is in place to support the CMS and second, creating an efficient way to work with faculty, staff, and students to resolve technical issues and answer questions as they learn to use the new tool.
A "one-stop-shopping" approach to supporting ANGEL users allows faculty, staff, and students to go to one centralized location for all their ANGEL questions. When a user submits a question through the "Report Problems, Submit Questions, Request Enhancements" form in ANGEL's online help section, the submission is automatically stored in a database, assigned a tracking number, and immediately forwarded to ANGEL support staff. All replies and follow-ups are archived by tracking number in the database, where they are evaluated for continuous quality control.
Eventually, by analyzing the data collected over a period of time, the support team can make note of trends and frequently mentioned problems that point to features that need to be corrected or enhanced. Thus, each individual who uses the form contributes to the eventual improvement of the overall system.
The underpinnings of the support system that handles ANGEL queries of all types, from "Why can't my student log on to ANGEL?" to those on particular ANGEL features, is the direct access support staff have to a secondary support team, which includes ANGEL administrators, programmers, instructional developers, and general administrative staff.
Support staff respond to questions submitted through the problem report form as quickly as possible during business hours. In the event that a problem does not lend itself to an e-mail response, staff will follow up with a phone call. In addition to using the form, users may also reach ANGEL support staff by calling 814-863-2494 or by stopping by the help desk in 215 Computer Building during the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Support for CMS users is also offered in the form of seminars for instructors and staff, as well as online documentation and a searchable database of ANGEL questions available to faculty, staff, and students. In addition to these help resources, ANGEL support personnel may register for seminars specially tailored for their needs, and join an online support community designed to foster problem solving and solution sharing among all staff who support CMS users at the University.
To learn more about the ANGEL support personnel training series, as well as general training seminars, log on to http://cac.psu.edu/training/, click the "Browse Seminars" link, and type "ANGEL" in the keyword search field on the right.