How to Help TLC Provide TLC

Please send all TLC help requests to teach@wit.edu

• • Use teach@wit.edu to generate a tracking ticket to make sure your request/problem gets the attention it deserves by being triaged and assigned to the team member best able to help.
  • We appreciate your patience as our response time may be delayed due to the high start of term volumes and short staffing.
  • Please allow 30 days for requests to use new academic technology tools or integrate them into Brightspace
  • Please allow 24-48 hours for Registrar’s Office updates to flow through Banner and into Brightspace

Course Merge and Course Copy Requests Deadline is August 30^th

• • Please email teach@wit.edu by August 30^th so we have time to complete the course work and faculty can complete their course readiness ahead of the start of classes – courses open to students on September 1^st.
  • Merges: Please include all course sections that should be merged (course name, section, CRN#, term)
  • Copies: please include the course the content is coming from (course name, section, CRN#, term) and the course the content is being copied into (course name, section, CRN#, term).
  • Faculty can copy courses they’ve taught before themselves, here are instructions along with a post-course copy checklist: https://sites.wit.edu/tlc/brightspace-course-content/
  • Note: CRN numbers are critical information for speedy service

Tips for Getting the Best TLC from TLC…What You Can Do

We strive to provide excellent service. One side of the interaction that we can’t control is the customer’s presentation of a problem and the state of the system they are using. The most frequent cause for delays in fixing problems is the lack of information provided by the user so the staff responding can begin to identify and troubleshoot. Too often we get a request for help that tells us “I’m having a problem with [fill in the service], please fix it” or “My [fill in the product/service] isn’t working. I’m getting an error, please fix it.” These requests take longer to address because we have to start at a very basic troubleshooting level as we reach out to the user for more information. Sometimes users reach out to an individual who doesn’t use or know the product instead of using recognized channels to access help.

So what can users do to improve the support they receive? Lots.

• Use our preferred process for engaging our team, email teach@wit.edu. Using this address generates a tracking ticket to make sure your request/problem gets the attention it deserves. We request that you use this system rather than directly emailing individual staff because with the ticketing system we can more easily adjust workflow when a specific team member has a time-consuming project, is out sick, or is on vacation. We triage tickets to assign work to the team member best able to address your problem and to level the workload among staff. We also monitor tickets to make sure requests/problems are addressed in a timely manner. We don’t have access to individual team member’s email accounts to monitor progress. If you ask for help while the one person you contacted is out we can’t determine where they are in the process of resolving a problem if you work outside the ticketing system.

If you have an urgent question, you can also call 617-989-4500 and select option 4 for TLC. Your call will be routed to an available staff member. You can also select 1 for Brightspace questions and your call will be routed to our 24/7 support line. Keep in mind that if you need more than a few minutes of time, it’s best to call early.

If you know you will need a long consultation, please make an appointment using our Booking page to allow staff to better schedule their work and better meet your needs.

If you need an off-hours appointment, please open a ticket by emailing teach@wit.edu and indicating the times that you are available. We will try to find a staff member who can accommodate your need.

• Provide details. “I’m trying to create a quiz in Brightspace and I can’t add multiple select questions to my midterm exam in ECON-1234-04. When I try to create a multiple select quiz question, the system gives me a multiple choice question page.” This statement of the problem allows our staff to quickly confirm the problem and determine if it is happening only in the course in question, only for the quiz in question, if it can be replicated, or if it might be browser-related. If we can quickly establish that the problem exists and if it’s a system bug, we can immediately reach out to the vendor for assistance. If you’re experiencing a problem in Brightspace, please tell us the course number including the section, what tool you are using, and if possible provide a link to the page in question. If you are inquiring about another tool, please provide as much detail as possible to direct us to the document, link, or item that’s giving you trouble.

If you are asking a question and want to provide additional context, please call out the question clearly so that we can assign it correctly. Tickets that are too hard to decipher tend to take longer to get assigned and consequently longer to resolve.

• If you’ve tried some troubleshooting on your own, please tell us what you’ve tried. Since many of our systems are cloud-based and accessed using a browser, if you’ve already tried a different browser and cleared the browser cache or tried incognito mode, you’ve saved us some time and you’ll be less frustrated if we don’t ask you to do those things.
• Provide details of any error messages. If you are getting an error message, please either copy and paste the message or send a screenshot. Sometimes the message is more meaningful to us and points to the problem, other times we will pass the information on to the vendor support team to pinpoint the problem.
• Respond promptly to requests for additional information. Often we see delays of a week or more in getting needed information to proceed with further troubleshooting. These calls take much longer to resolve than tickets for users that respond promptly.
• Keep your system up-to-date. Operating system (Mac, Windows, or Linux) updates and software (browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari) updates account for a significant number of problems. Letting your system update regularly keeps your files safe and will prevent a number of problems. Most of the tools we use are cloud-based and vendors write their code to accommodate recent updates from the operating systems and browser vendors. Using a system that is not updated may cause errors or may prevent an application from working on your system. Ideally, reboot your system at least once per week and allow updates to run. Check your browser(s) regularly and make sure they are up-to-date.
• Please try our suggestions. If we send documentation or a link to a video showing how to do something, please make an effort to try. We send this information because we believe that users can carry out some tasks and that requiring our assistance only slows you down. While we will make appointments to walk you through using a tool when necessary, we’ll try having you walk through documentation or a video of the steps first. Your willingness to try (and hopefully succeed) can help us help more users, and you’ll learn to perform basic tasks, speeding you through your work.
• Don’t use old email messages to open new tickets. When we resolve a ticket and close it, please do not respond to the message from one ticket unless it’s to request we reopen it. The ticketing system ties communications back to the original ticket. Please open a new email to teach@wit.edu. Opening a new ticket allows us to assign the correct staff to the ticket or reassign to a different team if necessary. Responding to an old ticket to open a new one, causes confusion and results in delays.

Hopefully, these tips will help you help us provide better service.