IT as a Student-Centric Organization
When IT leaders face challenges or make decisions, they need principles to guide them. Those principles should be rooted in the purpose of IT, and of any service organization for that matter.
Supporting personal devices
Student-centric IT service delivery treats students’ interests as the first driver for starting a new initiative or making a decision. One example is a dedicated Wi-Fi network for students’ personal devices, especially Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which may not work with the standard authentication mechanisms on university networks. A proactive IT department anticipates the proliferation of these devices and prepares a network configuration that lets students register them with their own accounts, with minimal complexity and little service desk involvement.
Self-service model
A self-service model for common student requests lets students get help on their own time and receive results quickly. They no longer wait for a service desk technician to pick up a request that probably needs to be triaged to another technician before it is fulfilled. Self-service also frees service desk staff to work on more complex troubleshooting. Tasks that can be automated include password changes and recovery, registering Wi-Fi devices to connect to the university network, sponsoring a visitor for a university user account, and submitting academic forms online.
Mobile-first
A student-centric culture looks at technology from the students’ perspective. That means offering services differently, such as on mobile devices, and supporting smartphones and tablets for every application students use. Access to university services from a phone encourages adoption, streamlines the user experience and makes it enjoyable.
A mobile-focused service offering is more than publishing a university app in the App Store. It also means rearranging service design and delivery procedures, including converting all student-facing webpages to responsive design so they fit each mobile platform and screen size. The hardest step for a mobile organization is preparing the service desk for the expectation of instant-response support, which has become common in the real-time social and professional interaction that mobile devices encourage.
Live chat
A live chat option on the university IT webpages and on mobile devices lets students get instant answers to frequent questions. It also requires retraining customer support teams and the service desk to cover chat sessions efficiently and professionally. Done well, live chat turns the IT service desk into a student-friendly support system. Students can connect with IT staff immediately, rather than wait for a chance to walk to the front desk or send a ticket, which can take much longer to gather information about the problem and reach a resolution.
Security and privacy measures must be in place. Students’ well-being includes the security and privacy of their data, and IT is typically the steward of that data and responsible for protecting it.
Empathy
Many IT departments are fortunate to have employees who were once students and joined the team in entry-level positions, and who perhaps grew into leadership roles. They understand students with empathy because they were students themselves not long ago.