Letter To My Dean: Office of Information Technology & The Otter

Dr. B________,

I'm writing to remark upon the comedy of errors that is the OIT at our college.

I've taught now at three or four colleges. But the OIT here is something really special for surrealism and expressionist faculty assistance. It's like Bill Gates met Kafka for coffee.

I should preface my remarks by saying that, in the end, probably most of my problems with the college's tech are self-created. I could not deny it. Many solutions are very simple, if you can just figure out what they are.

But, like the Zen master for whom the journey is the destination, the OIT seems to feel that I have nothing better to do than seek and attain enlightenment.

If a faculty member wishes to reset his password, as I did at the beginning of the semester, it is possible to do it with a lot of luck. He has to click on the right link, of course. But I was taken time after time to a webpage that informed me that my password was invalid (Yes, I know, that's why I wished to reset it) that contained no links to either a help page or to even a phone number to call. As it turns out, one has to enter the subdomain or something before one's username in order to change the password. This would have been easy to do, had any hint been given on the webpages. No such hint was available.

Similarly, I was told for a very long time that my username and password were not valid to log in to [the instructional system] Blackboard. As of today, I have still not been able to log in to Blackboard. There was no reason given: I'm just an invalid user. I called the help-number listed on that page, and was told that I was not in the system. This was not helpful, so the village idiot who took the call wrote up a ticket.

I received a notice that my ticket was resolved. I wanted to log in, out of curiosity, to see what the resolution was, but was told that my log-in was not valid. Alas. My problem is resolved, I am told, but I have no way of knowing what the resolution is, since I can't log in to either Blackboard or the resolution center.

So I tried to fill out another ticket. To do this, you must specify an affected end-user. Not knowing what this might mean, I clicked on the link, which did nothing. I entered my user name, which was invalid: perhaps one has to enter the subdomain, I'm not sure: I will surely try that before sending this email. Similarly, I was asked to enter my Location, and so I entered the name of the campus, which was apparently not wrong, but insufficient, as the system told me I needed more information. Which information? Ah. The computer merely smiles enigmatically. The system would not accept my ticket because it was not filled out properly. I have no idea what the right answers were for the blanks I was trying to fill in.

I would have gratefully solved my own problem: I'm used to doing this on computers. 

But the OIT does not like help pages. If you peruse the website looking for help pages on setting up college email from home, for instance, you will not find them. It's probably just because I'm overwrought. But I couldn't even find the OIT homepage. OIT's everywhere else I've taught are anxious to put a maximum of information out there so that users can fix their own problems. Not here, however: it seems as though the OIT is anxious NOT to indulge in transparency of its systems at any level, or to disclose any information about them.

I would tell you also about my calls to the "Help" desk. But Aristotle cautions us that when purging ourselves of pity and terror we should not overdo it.

I'm not one to question a really good fiefdom. But in this case I'll make an exception. In my view, the OIT needs a thorough and comprehensive overhaul of the services for which it is responsible. Help pages and Troubleshooting guides should be placed visibly in the college website, available without passwords: nothing could be more infuriating than being told that I could not reset my password because my password was invalid, but not being told what the hell to do about it besides "Reset Your Password."

Regards,

Dr. Otter

Comments

[Susan R]

Le mot juste, Prof. Otter.

[j]

Bad day, eh?