Embedding Social Media Support Services in Existing Support Service Model
26.01.2011 | Ajankohtaista, Osaamisen kehittäminen
Presentation for the conference: University Teaching as a Scholarship? 24 – 26 Jan, 2011, by Taina Rytkönen-Suontausta
Presentation (ppt)
Embedding Social Media Support Services in Existing Support Service Model
About Our Unit and Project
- Student and Learning Services (former Learning Centre) at the University of Eastern Finland is the university’s joint service facility whose objective is to support the development of university education. It promotes the combination of pedagogic and technological learning solutions into quality learning processes. The services of the Learning Centre are offered locally at the campuses of the University of Eastern Finland and through remote access with similar standards of activity.
- Our unit is coordinating an EU funded project called Virtukampus.fi (Virtual Campus). In that project we have organized training for university teachers in the use of social media in teaching. Along the way we have planned a strategy for embedding social media support services in the existing support service model used for the development of teaching.
Some initial notes:
- The support services that we provide are customer-oriented and the customer’s request can relate to almost anything from universal to detailed. Therefore, the competence base of the ICT support service staff has to be very extensive.
- It’s vital to listen to the customer and also to encourage the customer to find a solution to the request on his or her own, as the customer knows the facts best.
What new does social media bring to the Support Service Model?
- The gamut of social media apps is growing rapidly.
- The customer can get a hold of any social media app, which might not be familiar to the support person.
- The customer doesn’t know the terminology of ICT or social media, and this makes it even more difficult to share understanding of a request than before.
- New issues become essential, such as data security, privacy, copyrights, authentication …
- The support service staff has to follow current issues even more carefully than before.
- The support person has to be open-minded and sometimes even ask the customer to tell more about an app which seems useful to other customers as well.
Requests before and now
- I have problems with a (organisation’s) tool or service – could you help me?
- TOP 3 of requests, year 2010: Moodle (2691), ACP, web conferencing software (316), office software (146)
Requests now and in the future
- How could I make the most of social media?
- I’ve heard this tool is good – how does it work?
- I need to activate my students for group work via web / My research group has certain aims and plans / etc. – how should I realise my plans and ideas?
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- The cores of the dialogue are appropriateness and surplus value: together we’ll find a solution which is best for the customer’s need.
- The dialogue can last from some minutes to several weeks.
- Already at this phase, it’s essential to consider issues relating to copyrights, data security, privacy and authentication.
- At the end of the dialogue the customer chooses the most suitable alternative of the given ones.
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- In this model, the “plan of action” could merely be a chain of e-mail messages about the timetable and minimum requirements, for example.
- It’s nevertheless important to document every action in some level.
- When further clarification is needed by the customer or support person, this new information should be documented as well.
- When the customer is working on a wider project, it would be advisable to attend ICT and/or social media trainings during which the customer can make more specified plans for the project.
- The support person finishes the request and enters it into the database, and finally uploads on the web the material possibly produced during the request (e.g. instructions, best practises).
What does the support service staff has to know about social media in order to be able to help the customer?
- Eagerly uses and tests all the social media apps which might be useful for customers.
- Recognises the basic rules when introducing any social media app.
- Recognises the benefits and risks of using social media, opens up these viewpoints to the customer, and helps the customer in applying the information to the project.
- Recognises the basic rules relating to copyrights, data security, privacy, authentication and backup copying, and gives the information to the customer as well.
- Advises the customer in using social media appropriately, e.g. pedagogically.
- Supports the customer in the practical usage of social media apps.
Why do we make a list of social media apps?
- Our support service staff cannot become an expert on every social media app available (of which there are hundreds).
- The organisation has not acquired all the apps the customers nevertheless need and use (e.g. blog service).
- Because the organisation cannot offer all the apps the customers need, we test free apps, present the ones we think are good to the customers, and also provide the related user support.
- For example, when a teacher starts using a social media app, he or she cannot be sure whether support for the app is available at our support service unit.
- We don’t want to let our customers down, not even in matters relating to social media apps.
How to know which social media apps are central, or even permanent?
- There really isn’t a way to tell this.
- Some apps, however, are maintained by large companies and this provides some assurance that they won’t vanish completely (e.g. Google apps).
- Nevertheless, even these apps can change or transform quickly.
- Information about a change or update in a social media app doesn’t necessarily reach all the users, because the responsibility for following the app’s development lies with the users themselves. Cf. changes and updates in the services of an organisation are notified of to the users by the unit maintaining the service concerned.
- In summary: Social media apps are in no way controlled or controllable by the unit providing an organization’s support services.
How have we done this in practice?
- We made a list of the social media apps we consider central from the viewpoint of our customers.
- We asked the staff at our support service unit to give their opinions on the list.
- We organised a training and discussion session, in which we learned to use the apps and discussed their features and properties.
- With the help of the introductions, trainings and discussions, we have compiled a social media app list, which we will also publish online.
- Our customers (=teachers and other staff members) can get to know the list and then decide whether to use an app supported at the university, or whether to use some other app and learn its usage.
- We make social media usage guidelines for the university.
- We get to know and teach others at the support service unit the list of the social media apps and social media usage guidelines, and make sure that we share a common understanding of these.
- One or two members of the support service unit staff will be given the task of following social media apps, and they will inform other members of the staff within the unit.
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