September, 2020 CIO Update
As we continue the Fall semester in our state of “new normal,” I thought I would share how the IT Support Center has adapted to operating in our current environment as well as highlight a now 10 year-old service.
The IT Support Center In A Pandemic
In a normal environment, the IT Support Center (ITSC) provides customer support in-person at two customer service centers located in the basement of Cabell Library and the third floor of the VMI Building as well as remotely via our 24/7 call center. When VCU moved to remote learning in response to COVID-19, we closed our in-person operations and moved to a call center only operation to continue to serve the VCU community. The ITSC was already set up for this mode of operation after developing this model in response to the international bike race hosted by the city of Richmond in 2015. The processes, procedures and documentation were already in place and just needed to be updated. We borrowed a few additional laptops and all of our full-time and part-time staff continued to provide support for students, faculty, and staff from our houses, apartments, and just about anywhere we could get an internet signal.
For the period of January through March of this year, walk-up customers represented 17.2% of the 13,892 contacts between the call center and walk-up counters. While that appears to be a small percentage of the service we provide, it is significant for those customers who need to check out equipment, help with their computer or installing a software package, and require tests to be scanned. Yet, in March, COVID-19 became a reality and this important aspect of our service was suspended until…well, we didn’t know. But in April through July, the ITSC team handled 13,694 calls for help which do not include email and self-submitted tickets. They were busy but we knew in-person support would return at some point.
The word came in July that we would once again need to provide in-person services when students returned in August. The ITSC team decided that due to the low volume of traffic for our VMI office, we would partner with the Campus Card Services (CCS) team who had remained in operation since VCU moved to remote learning and work in March to best serve the VCU Health community. Equipment checkouts and test scanning submissions could be handled by the CCS team. This was critical due to the hiring freeze and allowed the ITSC team to focus on re-opening the Cabell location in August.
The overriding concern for re-opening the Cabell location was to provide the service our customers were used to but also ensure the protection of the team members and customers in doing so. After researching methods for reducing the risk associated with COVID-19 and determining the occupancy limits for the ITSC walk-up counter location, a plan was set in place. The team determined that customers would need to schedule appointments via the online appointment service for support. Then a queue with proper floor guide distancing signage on the floor was set up in the hallway outside the ITSC area. A secure test scanning dropbox was placed in the hallway area as well to reduce the need to enter ITSC for this service. Test results would be returned digitally for faculty customers. For those needing to check out equipment and other in-person service needs, plexiglass was installed for the customer service counters and floor guides were put in place to ensure proper distancing.
Additional sanitation supplies were ordered, new guidelines and training were developed and distributed to the team, and a rotation schedule was set up to minimize exposing the team to COVID-19. With these measures put in place and training to ensure all precautions were being taken, the ITSC team was able to re-open the Cabell Library office for equipment checkout, test scanning services, and the provision of other in-person support for the community. It looks different than it did at the start of the calendar year. While walk-up requests for service are only accounting for 4.7% of our requests, we are again fulfilling our mission to provide a fully operational support program for VCU as we move through this pandemic together.
VCU Mobile is 10 years old
VCU Mobile was presented to the VCU Board of Visitors in August of 2010. It was noted in that meeting that VCU Mobile was published and available …and more importantly, that we were ahead of UVA, who didn’t publish their own mobile site until September 1 of that year.
We originally launched on the Blackboard Central mobile platform, but have utilized other platforms and technologies as the space has evolved. Today’s VCU Mobile is version #29 and utilizes the Modo Labs platform. Currently we have 52 of our 70 licensed screens in production. There are a total of 82 screens published to test. VCU Mobile has become critical to delivering information to the VCU Community, and the below data showing growth from last year to this year demonstrates that:
- VCU Mobile Installs: 32,849 [ 27,936 ]- 18% increase
- Active accounts: 14,818 [ 9,827 ] – 51% increase
- Active account personas
- Students: 10,862 (73%) [ 7,498 (76%) ] – 45% increase
- Faculty & Staff: 1,276 (9%) [ 972 (10%) ] – 31% increase
- Parents & Families: 695 (5%) [ 69 (1%) ] – 907% increase — this was a new category
- Other (Guest, Orientation, VCU Experience): 14% [ 13% ] – 8% increase
- Page Views: 22,599 per day for 1st 3 days of classes [ AY20 1st 3 days: 15,701 per day] – 44% increase
Thanks to all of my colleagues in Technology Services and to those in other IT organizations across VCU for what has been a great start to a new academic year especially considering the challenges.
Alex