TRAINING FACILITY PROBLEMS AT TECH UNIVERSITY

Talia is the coordinator of Tech University's computer training facility. The facility offers courses in computer applications software to Tech's regular students and faculty, and to employees of local organizations that send their workers to Tech's Continuing Education Division to upgrade their computer skills.

The computer training facility consists of two rooms: a training room where scheduled classes are conducted and an open lab where students can work on assignments outside class time. The entire training facility is open from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., Monday through Friday. Each room is equipped with 20 PCs. Talia operates a Windows 2012 server operating system so students can access software on the network server, store data files, and access email and the Internet. She also teaches some of the continuing education classes in the training room.

Tech University's computer faculty members teach in the training room when it is not in use for continuing education classes.

Talia recently conducted a user satisfaction survey to learn how Tech students, faculty, and continuing education students rated the entire training facility. She was pleased that users were very satisfied with the equipment because she tries to keep the systems properly maintained and gets PCs quickly repaired if a problem arises. The electronics shop at Tech maintains the hardware.

The users also expressed satisfaction with the operation of the network server and with the selection of software that is available to them. However, Talia was less pleased about some of the comments users wrote on their survey forms.

Here is a sample of some comments:

"I am an advanced user of the open lab. Some of the inexperienced students have discovered that I know quite a bit about the hardware and the network. They ask me a lot of questions. I don't mind answering them, but when I have a class assignment due, I can't take time out to help everyone who has a question. After a while, some of the questions get pretty repetitious."

"The open lab runs smoothly when the coordinator is in the room. But when she is next door teaching a class in the training room, there is no one to ask for help. I feel badly when students have to interrupt her training session to report a problem like a server crash or even to get a new ink cartridge put in the printer."

"The software manuals are in a locked cabinet. When I need one, I have to track down Talia to get the key. Why can't the documentation cabinet be left unlocked?"

"Last year, there was seldom a wait to get a computer in the open lab. This year, with more classes in the training room, the wait is longer. It would be nice if the lab were open more than 8 to 5. Some evening and weekend hours would be great."

Talia has decided to ask a small group of training facility users, consisting of students, faculty, and continuing education students, to meet to discuss the responses to her survey. If you were a member of the group, what advice would you give Talia that would address the concerns described about the operation of the training facility? What user support issues have users raised? What are some other ways Talia could address these issues? Are some alternatives more expensive than others?