![[ITSA Logo]](itsa_logo.gif){kind=logo}
I had never imagined that I would found the HKU Information Technology Student Ambassadors (ITSA) Program when I first decided to be a committee member of the Computer Society, HKUSU.
At that time, HKU was going to launch IT Education Program. Starting from 1998, each freshmen was sponsored an IBM ThinkPad. As part of the program, the university wanted to strengthen its IT support services.
IT support services could be divided into three levels, namely, the university level, the faculty and department level, and the student peer-supports level. We were asked by our Vice-Chancellor Prof. K. M. Cheng to provide the peer support services.
At first, Prof. Cheng did not find us. Instead he contacted the Students Union. However, after meeting the committee members there, he found that they were ignorant of computer technologies. So he turned to us the Computer Society.
Our chairman Tong Wun Kei Frankie accepted the invitation. He called me to go with him, too. After a brief meeting, we were put to attend the meetings of the HKU IT Support Service (ITSS) Group. It was March 1998.
![[ITSS Logo]](notebook.gif) |
Prof. Cheng chaired the HKU IT & Teaching Task Force, under which ITSS was a sub-committee. The committee was chaired by Dr. Criag Blurton, a senior IT consultant of the Center for Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT). Members of ITSS came from each faculty and major departments like the HKU Registry, Computer Centre, the Libraries, the English Centre, the Finance Office, the Centre for Media Resources, etc.
The ITSS meeting surveyed the current IT facilities in HKU, defined what would be needed in the foreseeable future, and shared ideas of how these could be provided. As time passed by, Frankie Tong ceased to attend the meeting gradually, so I became the only active student representative there.
I thought the idea of students helping students very good and full of development potential, so I promised them that the Computer Society would take up the initiative to provide peer support services. In the meeting, I also got to know many staff from different departments and faculties. This wide acquiantanceship later helped me a lot in founding the ITSA.
Towards the end of the semester, the ITSS was further divided into three sub-committees. One dealt with university level supports, another with faculty and department level supports. The last one was peer supports group, of which I was the Chairman.
We called our group the ITSSS, for IT Support Service Students Group. Members include HKU Deputy Registrar Mr. Henry Wai, the Chief Librarian Mrs Angela Yan, Vice-director of Computer Centre Dr. P. T. Ho, Mr. Benny Tai from the Faculty of Law, and a few interested students who were recruited by the Computer Society. Wong Chit Hong Gary and Chin Chi Kin Kenneth were among them. This group later evolved into the present-day ITSA.
One of the reasons why IBM was chosen by HKU among the many vendors was that IBM had the most comprehensive proposal of peer support services. Shortly after the Final Examination, IBM held its recruitment of HKUIBM Student Ambassadors (IBMSA). About 70 students attended a briefing session, of which 25 were interviewed, and 15 were chosen to be the student ambassadors.
![[From left to right: me, Mr. T. K. Kan, Dr. Craig Blurton, Mr. Hans Chow, Mr. Keith]](group.jpg)
The photo on the right was taken after the briefing session. From left to right, they are me myself, Mr. T. K. Kan from the Personal Development and Conselling Centre (PDCC), Dr. Craig Blurton of CAUT, Mr. Hans Chow and Mr. Keith, both from IBM.
Gary Wong, Kenneth Chin and I were among the IBMSA. We were trained by Mr. Hans Chow from IBM in their Headquarters in Taikoo Place, Quarry Bay during the summer holiday. Alex Wong was elected to be the leader of IBMSA.
Although there were no followup activities for the IBMSA, except to be present in the Opening Ceremony of the ThinkPad Distribution Program, IBMSA contributed a lot to the later formation of ITSA.
In order to put our idea into action better, I persuaded Gary Wong and Kenneth Chin to be my partners in the student support service program. By late August, the ITSSS prepared a proposal for a Pilot Help Desk during the days ThinkPads would be distributed. The proposal was quickly approved because it did not involve monetary payment. Everyone was volunteer.
Mrs Joanne Fong of HKU Registry and Mr. Joseph Wong of the Students Union helped us to book the counter we selected. Mr. Frank Won of CAUT helped us to distribute our advertisement with every ThinkPad students collected. The Help Desk was setup in the corridor on the third floor of Chong Yuet Ming Amenities Centre on 15th, 17th and 19th September 1998. The Computer Society held its computer course registration simultaneously there. The response was excellent.
The counter was open from 12:00noon to 2:00pm each day. We borrowed a ThinkPad, a projector with screen, photocopied a pile of FAQ, and assigned people there for every time slot to help schoolmates to solve their computer problems. In three days' time, we accumulated vital knowledge concerning common problems encountered.
Shortly afterwards, the last ITSS meeting was convened, with three subgroups put together again to evaluate our works so far. I called Kenneth Chin and Gary Wong to the meeting too. We were the only ones who could identify the real problems of the students, thus impressed others at the meeting.
The Pilot Help Desk was run on a voluntary basis. However, it was not the right way to setup permanent peer support services. After the pilot program, Kenneth Chin, Gary Wong and I wrote a proposal for the expansion of the Help Desk. Mr. Kan of PDCC gave us invaluable advice during this period.
HKU was very concerned about the quality assurance of the service we were going to provide. They did not want to waste money. At first, our proposal did not meet their expectation, so we refined it substantially for three times. You can download the zipped final version (Version D) of our proposal (97KB). If you do not have a PostScript file viewer, download GSView.
The proposal discussed services, management, expansion, timetable, evaluation, etc of the program. It also covered trainings to be provided to the student ambassadors, incentives to both the student ambassadors and the Computer Society, budget and other resources required. The students' common problems identified in the Pilot Help Desk was also included as an appendix.
Our proposal reached the upper management of HKU through two presentations. The first one was made to Prof. K. M. Cheng, the earliest one who asked us to provide the peer support services. Under his arrangement, a senior IBM educationist from USA was also present. Both of them were very impressed by our presentation. The IBM educationist described our proposal as a good business deal. He promised to support us wherever he could. Later he directed Mrs Mary Law, IBM's staff directly responsible for peer supports, to sponsor Computer Society a Pentium II server.
The second presentation was made to Prof. Y. C. Cheng, pro-vice chancellor of the university. He arranged a representative from the University Graduates Association to be present too. Prof. Cheng liked our proposal very much, but he was also concerned about the quality of our services. He suggested us to form partnership and sign some form of contract with the university, yet we felt that this is not the right approach to provide peer-supports.
After the presentations, quiescence lasted for a few months. Nobody knew what was going on. Then suddenly in January 1999, we were told that HKU approved our proposal and we can carry on with our works. But, by that time, another problem appeared.
The tenure for the committee members of the Computer Society HKUSU starts from January each year and ends in January the year after. By that time, a new committee was forming. Any further activity of the society must bear prior approval from the new incumbents. However, they were ill-informed of the program because of its long period of inactivity and our miscommunication with the university. Their year-plan was finalised without knowledge of this program, and they did not have extra manpower to deal with such increased workload.
Nobody wanted to see pre-mature death of this innovative program. So we worked together to try to come up with a solution satisfactory to all parties involved. The new Chairman was Chong Lok Bun Stephen. We spent one week to persuade him and his colleagues to continue with the program. Numerous meetings were held between the Computer Society and different parties too.
Among many alternatives considered, Kenneth Chin, Gary Wong and I chose to become a sub-committee of the Computer Society HKUSU. The IT peer supports program was renamed to IT Student Ambassadors Program (ITSA). We had the autonomy to deal with all matters within the ITSA but we must act in accordance with the Computer Society in areas of external relations. Stephen Chong agreed to assist us wherever appropriate and possible, and in exchange, the Computer Society will receive a Pentium II server donated by IBM plus a room from the university, as documented in our original proposal. The server will host the ITSA homepage, newsgroup, etc. while the room will, in turn, securely host the server.
Our permanent help desk would open on 1st March. We only had about one and a half month preparation time. Dr. Craig Blurton secured hourly payments for the student ambassadors from the Finance Office. Mrs Ophelia Ha from the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) and her secretary Mrs Yu granted us a permanent location in the K. K. Leung Concourse. Safety Office approved of our plan to setup a help desk there.
With the help of Computer Society, we sent invitation e-mail to all freshmen, asking them to join this program. We got more than 100 replies. Kenneth Chin and I selected about 10. Together with some IBMSA, with helpers in the Pilot Help Desk last September, we held trainings during the Chinese New Year Holiday.
First, a training on team building was provided by Mr. Kan of the PDCC to the sophomore students of ITSA. Then with the help of Mrs Angela Yan of Library, we arranged all ITSA a training on Searching Library Materials. Next, we arranged a training on HKU Campus Network with Dr. M. C. Pong of the Computer Centre. Lastly, Mr. Kan also conducted another training to all ITSA on attitudes of running help desk.
We borrowed tables, chairs and telephone from the Estates Office, projector and screen from the Classroom Services Unit, desktop computer and hub from the Computer Centre, microphone and speakers from the Students Union.... The Computer Centre installed ACENet and telephone connections for us at the Help Desk too.
Due to increased workload, we decided to have some kind of division of labour among ourselves. Kenneth Chin specialised on management issues like assigning student ambassadors to different timeslots and keeping duty list. Gary Wong would deal with development of new services as well as publicity. I would be responsible for service quality assurance, arranging trainings and taking care of the problem log sheets.
ITSA was inaugurated on 1st March 1999. At 12:45pm, HKU Deputy Registrar Mr. Henry Wai, CAUT Dr. Craig Blurton and his secretary Mrs Joanne Fong, CAUT Mr. Frank Won, IBM Mrs Mary Law and Mr. Wilfred Wong, Computer Centre Dr. M. C. Pong and Dr. P. T. Ho, Library Mrs Angela Yan, PDCC Mr. T. K. Kan, OSA Mrs Ophelia Ha and her secretary Mrs Yu all came to our Help Desk on G/F K. K. Leung Building. First, Kenneth Chin gave a speech on behalf of ITSA, then Stephen Chong gave another speech on behalf of the Computer Society.
It was an exciting day. The ceremony was brief yet everyone was full of joy and expectation: It took almost a whole year as the incubation period before ITSA was finally born. The celebration did not mark the end of the story. Instead, we all expect the beginning of a new era for ITSA!
Besides help desk, we also opened our homepage, newsgroup, e-mail enquiry, ICQ enquiry services. Within one week, we also started the telephone hotline service. One of the student ambassadors, Cheng Lok Lam, wrote the homepage, while I wrote one of the IT tutorials there.
Under the management of Kenneth Chin, each student ambassador works about 2 to 3 hours a week. And at any time, there are about 2 to 3 students sitting at the help desk. The help desk was open from 11:30am to 3:00pm from Monday to Friday except on holiday.
![[Gary Wong (left) and Ah Tat (right) at the ITSA Help Desk]](helpdesk.jpg) |
Every day, we pick up our computer, projector, screen, telephone and other equipment from the Classroom Services Unit. Then we quickly plug in everything. At about 11:40am, the help desk is ready to serve our schoolmates. Our clients usually come during lunch time and between lessons, so we put more manpower during these peak hours. At 3:00pm, we dismantle everything, pack them up and return them to the Classroom Services Unit.
We received questions from not only the undergraduates, but also graduates and staff. Most of the questions are still related to PPP connections in Windows 98 and proxy settings in Netscape or Internet Explorer. Questions on PowerPoint, Chinese character processing, virus attack, etc are also frequent. Occasionally, we were also asked some more advanced topics, like how to install PCMCIA support in RedHat Linux on the IBM ThinkPad. With each question, a problem log was written, signed by the student ambassador on duty, and kept for future reference. If a problem could not be solved immediately, at least we could have appropriate follow-up based on the information recorded in the log sheets.
We're committed to help. This is the slogan of ITSA. Yes, we strive our very best so that people come with problems in mind, and leave with satisfaction in heart.
Keeping the help desk running properly is no easy task. The technical, managerial and social problems often pop up in the most unexpected way, and that is also where the most interesting aspect of life lies, without which the world would be too boring.
Let me start with the computer we were using. It was borrowed from the Computer Centre. They let us choose either to own a 486 or to borrow a Pentium, and we chose the later. We got along with that computer well. Then one day, they offered us an upgrade to Pentium Pro, which turned out to be fond of hanging up! You know, as a help desk, we were expected to fix this problem ourselves. However, no matter how we configured it, it still hanged frequently without any apparent reasons! Finally, after much scrutiny, we concluded that the problem was due to a hardware conflict!
In view that not all ITSA were strong in solving computer problems especially those related to hardware, I arranged an additional training held by IBM on ThinkPad Essentials during the Easter holiday. The training covered ThinkPad configuration utility, resolution of resource conflicts and infra-red communication. After the training, most ITSA went out for lunch together, where we further exchanged our experience and increased mutual understanding.
At around the same time, Gary Wong also designed and printed our first batch of posters. Through the help of Computer Society, we borrowed many boards throughout the campus to display the posters. We started to have systematic promotion of our service then.
The help desk was closed on 23rd April. Since it was towards the end of the semester, the number of requests for help from schoolmates was a little bit less than what we expected. Nonetheless, these two months were vital as an archetype our ITSA help desk that would restart at the beginning our the next academic year.
You may download our zipped final report (87KB). If you do not have a PostScript file viewer, download GSView. Before our final examination, we elected Wong Lik Hang Alex to preside over the ITSA in the next academic year. Alex Wong was with us ever since the HKUIBM Student Ambassadors Program, and he was very familiar with the whole running of ITSA. He nominated two partners, Chu Ying Kin Jason and Kwong Ying Siu Juliana, who were two of the most responsible ITSAs.
After the summer holiday, they were going to write up another year plan for ITSA. I wish them every success in running the ITSA program and happy cooperation with the Computer Society HKUSU in the year 1999-2000. I would also like to thank all people who were involved in this program. Their help and support were all indispensable. Above all, I hope that through the inception of ITSA program, HKU students would benefit and grow mature in mastering Information Technology, integrating IT into their studies and their future careers.
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