15min
Working within a local IT shop at our university, I have discovered tech competency is linked to a person’s willingness to learn something new. Long gone are the days where someone had to know a singular app for a job. In today’s ever changing workplace, small IT shops have the potential to affect big change by building a bridge to tech competency with how-to videos. In pursuing this path, small IT shops can build a personable and approachable brand for their team, improve efficiency in day-to-day processes, and potentially create a culture shift in tech competency at their organization.
In this presentation I will illustrate some of the historical challenges we experienced that led us to pursue self help video content. This includes being downsized from a team of 8 down to 3, and then finding alternative ways to support our users during a pandemic. Tools like YouTube can also be a way to go beyond your university and network with IT shops at different universities.
We discovered creating how-to content helped give our team more exposure and familiarity to the people we support. When connecting with people at our help desk we will often hear “oh you’re the guys from the videos” from new and continuing students.
Creating how-to video content also improved efficiency in our team’s day-to-day requests. Users have been able to help themselves through the ‘simple’ fixes when responding to their ticket with a related video link.
When we started this endeavor we often heard ‘they will never help themselves…’, but I believe if you empower people with the right resources, you might be surprised. Evolving tech competency at an institution is a cultural shift, and will benefit how faculty/staff work with one another, and improve the overall student experience through their law school careers.