The following guidelines apply to the Sungard Higher Education onsite personnel contracted to provide support to distance learning faculty on each of the three Montgomery College campuses. Sungard Higher Education staff also have responsibility for the IT Service Centers and for providing general support to all faculty members who use the service centers.

Support Model

Onsite Sungard personnel operate under a training and demonstration model. They provide training for faculty and demonstrate the necessary steps needed to accomplish technical tasks. They do not operate under a development model; meaning, they have not been given the responsibility to perform tasks for a faculty member (as would an assistant or administrative aide).

The goal of the training and demonstration model is for faculty members to be actively engaged in learning the skills necessary to complete technical tasks and, by doing so, to be able to take ownership of the maintenance of their online courses. 

In addition, this model supports:

• The current level of staffing (one technical support staff member at each campus)
• Certain Distance Learning competency demonstrations in which the faculty member is required to complete tasks individually
• The dual nature of the onsite personnel's responsibilities (distance faculty support, delivering formal workshops, creating training materials, general faculty support, IT Service Center monitoring)

 

Note: The exception to this model is the installation of an e-pack or publisher’s content for a course. This should only be done by a Sungard support member.

Distance Learning Support Services

Onsite Sungard personnel are available to support distance learning faculty by:

• Teaching workshops related to the use of WebCT
• Providing instruction for completing tasks related to the use of WebCT in a one-on-one environment, such as creating a quiz, selectively releasing a quiz, creating an assignment, creating a question database, etc.
• Answering a technical question by phone
• Installing an e-pack for a faculty member

In cases in which faculty require refresher training to complete routine tasks already covered in formal workshops/training, they may be referred to printed or online handouts. Routine tasks include such things as:

• Logging in
• Adding a file or content link to a Learning Module
• Hiding and unhiding a course menu item
• Turning off a browser pop-up blocker
• Creating a Discussion Board topic or category
• Saving a word document as a webpage
• Uploading documents to the File Manager

Contact Information for onsite Support

Each campus has an on-site faculty support staff person to assist distance learning faculty members. However, the faculty support staff also have the additional responsibilities of staffing the IT Service Centers, providing face-to-face training on WebCT, and working with faculty in their offices. Since they are, of necessity, away from their offices at times, it’s recommended that faculty set up specific appointment times in which to meet with them. Faculty may also leave voice mail messages requesting assistance. If they receive no callback within three hours, they may call a technical support staff member at a different campus or contact the 24/7 WebCT Helpdesk at (888) 691-5059.