May 6, 2016

Checking transactions:

A user says that he sent a print job to print on the color printer but it did not come out and the printer is perfectly fine, what should you do?

  1. Check user transactions to see that what they are telling you is accurate
  2. Go to pharos>systems>transactions and type in their netID
  3. You can see all their transactions:
    1. Omega Wolfie Wallet Track 1 Bank= wolfie wallet was used for the print job
    2. Omega Track 1 Bank= print quota was used
    3. Deleted Print= print job was deleted
  4. Inform user of what happened to his or her print job

In this case, the user accidentally deleted his print job and did not need a free reprint service from us.

Updating clicker software:

  1. Send user to TLL because that is the only place that provides clicker software updates
  2. Open laptop at the front desk and sign onto WolfieNet-Secure with own personal netID and pw
  3. Connect clicker
  4. Open TurningPoint program which is on desktop
  5. Make sure device is listed and then update software

This is not for the new clickers that have the full keyboard. Those clickers should update automatically.

_________________________________________________________________

This is officially the last week of classes and thus the last official week of the internship. Reflecting on the assignments we had to do such as the discussion posts, this reflection journal, and the final presentation project were great learning experiences. The final presentation gave me an idea of how I would do while I teach a workshop and showed me the strengths and weaknesses I had as a speaker. Also, it enhanced my ability to communicate with my future official team. It was also useful to learn from the other groups about the different services that we offer here.

This internship was a great experience and I have learned so much about what it means to be a leader by shadowing workshops, TLL, and the front desk. I hope to see our intern class grow into possibly one of the greatest Senior Consultant classes in TLT.

April 29, 2016

This week was Roth Regatta. It was great to see my fellow teammates and co-workers working so hard on trying to get the boat across the pond. It was even more meaningful because I had contributed to the boat building process and knew how difficult and time-constraining it was. All the effort we put in pulled us through to the Semi-Finals!

 Our Rowers!

Also, this week some of the interns and I went out for some Japanese ramen near school before we went to help build the boat. This was our first official hang-out outside of class so it was a good bonding experience. Being a part of a work team does not necessarily mean that you have to be good friends. However, being able to know a little bit more about each other and sharing laughter and good memories can only enhance the unity and teamwork that we have.

April 22, 2016

FAQ

Professors

  • BlackBoard Issues
    • How do I add a student to my class?
    • Common questions:
      • Why isn’t my class showing up?
      • Direct blackboard questions to blackboard specialists
  • Projector Issues
    • Direct their call to AV services or give them the AV services phone number
    • Do not spend a long time diagnosing the problem, ask:
      • Did you plug everything in?
      • Are the cords tightly plugged in?
      • Are the cords right?

Students

  • Common questions:
    • What is my NetID/Pw
    • How do I log into BlackBoard?
    • How do I log into Solar
    • I registered for a class today but its not on BlackBoard
    • How do I go onto my Stony Brook e-mail account
    • How do I print?
    • Remote printer sites ran out of paper

Side Information

  • Paul usually comes in after 11
  • Poster printing services on campus:
    • Stony Brook Medicine Media Services
    • Institute for STEM Education
    • Poster Printing services are available at the Center for Science and Mathematics Education (CESAME)
    • UPS

Prezi Workshop Shadowing:

  • Instructor was very informative and talked at a comfortable and easy-to-follow pace
  • She was very calm throughout the whole presentation and made sure to cover the details of all the functions that a user might have while using Prezi
  • The presentation was enjoyable because it was straight to the point and easy to follow along as a user
  • I presented a small part of the workshop and talked about how to add media and symbols onto Prezi
    • I think I did a decent job and tried to present clearly and at an understandable pace
    • When I finished my part, the instructor covered some details that I did not go over. I should always prepare myself to expand on the little details that are obvious to me because they may not be obvious to someone else.
    • I should also make sure to cover all the functions i.e. how to enlarge/reduce image size, YouTube videos will not work if put on a portable flash drive and presented with out internet, images come with enhancing/editing opportunities

 

April 15, 2016

This was the week of our practice presentations. We received tips and tricks from Tara and Richard on giving the most effective presentation and documentation. Here was some advice that we received:

Presentation:

–       Make background more user friendly

–       Need to make an introduction and introduce ourselves in a friendly way

–       Change website title, not just “Faculty Center”

–       Share a success story for one of the instructors

–     There was news of recent name change. Make sure you add all updates.

–       Possibly make a video with the faculty members.Bring in the personality of the staff in order to bring life into presentation.

–       Ask the director if she agrees with our written mission statement

–       Update staff list and remove nancy

–       Update the staff list- it’s possible that the website information is outdated

–       Symposium spelling correction

–       Use bullet points in mission statement

–       Define instructional design

–       How does anything we say relate to us as students?

–       Define difference between course evaluations and Classie

–       Incorporate student opinions

–       Master the material

–       Add S-BOLD: online learning tool

–       How do we as students directly benefit from the faculty center?

–       Get specific examples about how they taught/changed a specific instructors course

–       Grad students do a lot of the work in the faculty center- we should add that

Documentation

–       Make sure the faculty list is up to date

–       Add images- maybe of a course evaluation

All in all, the advice we received was so beneficial to us. My group and I had struggled to relay certain pieces of information in the most effective way possible. It is definitely hard when you are making your first presentation but when you seek out advice from those with expertise in the field the criticism and compliments you will receive will improve your outcome by a hundredfold. As a future senior consultant I should try to reach out to those above me who want to help me be a better player in the field. The main goal of my presentation is to show students the maximal benefits of the resource I am trying to introduce to them. I must keep that in mind as I attempt to create an effective platform.

April 8, 2016

This week I experienced my first impatient professor on the support line. He was fairly rude, demanding, and stubborn. In this type of scenario I must remember to do this:

  • Keep calm no matter what the user says
  • Be professional always- regardless of how unreasonable they are
  • Do not panic. Panicking will make matters worse and slow the process to finding the solution.

I also went over some quiz questions that I had taken prior to the Internship. I remember taking these questions as I was applying to becoming an intern and thinking how difficult they were. These questions were a lot easier now but still tricky and good for practicing future situations. They were a good training technique during quiet hours. One of the things I learned was that students and faculty can download their free antivirus software, Symantec EndPoint Protection, from SoftWeb once they log in with their NetID and NetID password. I also learned more about navigating around E-portfolio as I invested more time into my own digication profile.

How to add a Creative Commons License:

  1. Add module
  2. Social
  3. Creative Commons
  4. No, No, International
  5. Save
  6. Publish

April 1, 2016

I went over scheduling procedures for TEMP and PERM week. The policy can be found on Blackboard.

For consultant only workshops you need to print out the roster in order to take attendance.You also need to write the workshop name, instructor’s name, date, and time at the bottom of this roster sheet. This procedure is only for CONSULTANT only workshops.

For public workshops you will need to write an e-mail to the people who are attending to remind them. You will need to write date, time, and location of the workshop and ask them to tell us if they cannot make it to the workshop anymore.

When writing a no-show email you must add the name, date, and time of shift. When working in main you should go to Rose/Pam and tell them that you will send an e-mail now. Just notify them that the person isn’t here yet and that you will send them an e-mail. Wait around 7-10 minutes before you let them know.

 

March 24, 2016

This week I learned how to create labels in my Gmail and how to change my settings to better organize my inbox. I can automatically put certain senders under certain labels by modifying the settings. This is really helpful for all the e-mails I will be receiving for not just work but also for my personal professional/social use. It really helps to have my e-mails organized so that I can quickly access important messages in my inbox.

Delegating is an important part of being a senior consultant. It may be difficult at times when the person you are delegating to is someone who is not just a fellow coworker but also a friend. As a senior consultant I should always maintain a professional environment and delegate fairly and properly. Regardless of what my relationship is with someone outside of work, I should always be professional and aware of my role within working hours.

ITSM is a significant component of our role as not just a senior consultant but also a consultant. It is significant for mediating issues to the proper specialists and also for record keeping. When creating an ITSM ticket for someone who has called the Support Line I must always take down as much information as I can and obtain their NetID, name, phone number, and e-mail address. This is a crucial part of finding a solution quickly and smoothly.

 

March 19, 2016

With Spring Break coming to an end, so marks the end of our original shadowing schedules. It is good to gain as much knowledge as possible by learning about different leadership styles/experiences. I feel like as the semester goes by more and more I am becoming more comfortable with support line tasks although I am only gaining access to just a glimpse of what is to come. I have been working on my Lynda workshops also this week during work. Spring break is the quietest I have ever seen the library and the SINC sites. I opened Main SINC site for the first time and it was a good experience because it was different from remote site procedures. Spring Break was a good and quiet time to work because all the shifts were in multiple hour blocks with barely any students coming and going. It is a good time to catch up on required Lynda Workshops.

March 10, 2016

One essential lesson I received this week was about the significance of the cookies and cache on our computers. When our cookies and cache get too full, the internet/programs can get glitchy. For instance, a student tried to submit an assignment on Blackboard but when they tried to press “submit” an error message would pop up. In situations like these, it is very possible that the issue is due to a full cookies and cache. You could ask the user what web browser they are using and ask them to try to switch onto a different web browser or clear their cookies and cache.

I also asked my first attendance quiz on SBconnect with my mentor’s approval and guidance. My question was “What is standard protocol for when you are running late to your shift?”. I asked this question because there had been an earlier situation in which one of the consultants in the morning made the mistake of calling the front desk instead of our supervisors about running late. I realized that the attendance quiz is a platform to attend to possible confusion about a specific policy or procedure and kill two birds with one stone.

This week was especially exciting because I experienced my first few support line phone calls. However, there was an unfortunate incident where I accidentally hung up on my first phone call as I pressed the wrong button to keep the user on hold. Thankfully, the user called back right away and I was able to apologize to her and continue on with resolving her issue. Her issue was that her professor had confirmed with her that her clicker was registered but her clicker poll answers were not being submitted. Through the help of my mentor, I was able to resolve her issue. Students make the mistake of submitting a clicker answer as a “message” instead of a “poll answer” and end up not get credit for their answers. This is especially easy to make mistake of with the new clickers that are being used for this year.

Another phone call I received was with regards to obtaining Blackboard access as an alumni. The policy for post-graduation e-mail and BlackBoard access is that you must request access within 200 days of graduation. E-portfolio access however is not denied past the 200 day mark. Users can request E-portfolio access by contacting them directly.

It was a great experience learning what it is like to interact with users through the phone rather than face-to-face as a regular consultant. It was a lot more demanding also because it required more specific areas of knowledge. Spring break is next week and I am excited to see what my new mentors will teach me and what new experiences will come next. Also, I am thankful for the guidance I received thus far because all my mentors are genuinely interested in helping me and improving my skills.  There are some great leaders in TLT!

13181

 

March 4, 2016

Guest Access and Printing

When someone requests for guest access printing, the first thing I must ask them is “Are you sponsored by one of our faculty?” If they are not, I must tell them that guest access has been stopped for our computer sites but I could try to put in an ITSM ticket for them. This is a new policy implemented to enhance safety and security within our school system.

Senior Consultant Interview Session Responsibilities

Senior consultants are responsible for evaluating the applicants and judging their potential. They must look for candidates that exhibit leadership skills is a team player and is eager to learn. Also, senior consultants are responsible for sharing their experiences and skills gained from being a consultant to the potential candidates.

Accounts

Users who need to create a UNIX (Sparky) or Lotus Notes account must come to the Main Library Sinc Site. They will be directed to the accounts terminal and one of the senior consultants can guide them through a simple process. The accounts terminal can also be used to change SOLAR passwords.