Training Student Workers at UH ITS Help Desk: An Instructional Design Study

Abstract

The purpose of this instructional design project was to improve the orientation training and assessment of new student workers at the University of Hawaii (UH) Information Technology Services (ITS) Help Desk (HD). This was done by adding additional, guided instruction with practice, feedback, and formative assessment to pre-existing internal documentation (wiki). This project aimed to ensure new student hires understand policies and procedures of the help desk and understand how to read and use the wiki to reduce the number of errors in troubleshooting and workplace performance. The project also provided staff with data on student hires' understanding of policies and procedures. Student workers completed five online instructional modules in their own time during their scheduled work hours. The training was developed using Laulima and Google Forms. The purpose of using Laulima was to introduce new hires to a platform UH ITS services and Google Forms was used to survey and test students anonymously. Since the training had been substantially revised, the training was mandatory for all help desk students. Nineteen students successfully provided data for all the project components out of 33 total students. All data collected through Google Forms were summarized, analyzed, and concluded. The results showed that students displayed an increased understanding of the material and students responded positively to the instruction.