How students work with ITS to improve our service

IT Student Assistants (ITSAs) employed within Innovation and Technology Solutions (ITS) are vital to our operations, helping us deliver our services and improve the customer experience.

An ITSA is a part-time employee who works within ITS while studying at the University of Essex. Their hours are flexible to fit around their studies. Our ITSAs have a wealth of knowledge, work very hard and provide us with an invaluable insight into the student experience.

Their roles are very similar to their full-time colleagues, except where this would be inappropriate, for example. For example, ITSAs don’t have admin rights for systems where they could amend assignment details and deadlines.

For students, the ITSA role provides a source of income, valuable experience for their CV and flexibility around their studies - our big focus is that studies come first.

Meet some of our ITSAs and find out what they do, and how their roles benefit them as well as ITS:

Dan Travers, third year Law student

I joined the IT Helpdesk in October 2019 and since then I've answered about 7,500 IT Helpdesk tickets, which works out at roughly 97 a week. My personal best in one week was answering 284! As you can see, we work hard, and we try to keep up with our full-time counterparts, while working part time.

Other than picking up tickets, we also man the phones and live chat where students and staff can come to us for a more immediate solution.

The best thing about being an ITSA is that when exam time comes around and deadlines our job is incredibly flexible. I can go to my manager and request more time off because I’ve got a deadline or exam coming up and I’ve always been accommodated.

It has also given me some structure. During my first year Essex, it was really hard for me to know what to do in between lectures and classes, because there was a lot of free time.

Charlotte Chapman, final year Computer Science student

I'm one of the new ITSAs on the IT Helpdesk. As I'm new, I'm still in the process of learning how everything works.

I’m mainly covering live chat at the moment – the IT Helpdesk is usually the first port of call when a user has a problem and, with live chat, we're able to give immediate help. A lot of the time, it's a simple problem, like a remote PC needs turning on and we're able to reboot it for them.

Working as an ITSA allows me to have flexibility around my studies. I'm in my final year and being able to mix and match my hours is essential as I'm finishing my final year project and revising for my exams.

I work mainly in Python and Java and having this job is a great stepping stone for future work as a software developer.

Sarah Stubbs, foundation year Electronic Engineering student

I'm very new to the Helpdesk – even newer than Charlotte - but I'm learning and in training at the moment.

I'm really excited about this job, mainly because it will help me throughout my degree and I think they'll go hand in hand. The job will give me a great baseline of general knowledge across IT and I'm excited to learn more. I'm coming for Dan’s personal best in tickets!

George Morrison, first year Business Management student

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months working closely with my colleagues and this was really important as a new student. I wasn't familiar with a lot of the sites used by the University, but spending time with them has allowed me to get to grips a lot quicker. They’re really helpful with things I didn't understand and it was brilliant. I mostly spend my time on live chat speaking to people to help them solve their issues.

Chris Rhodes, third year Computer Science student

I work in the AVS (Audio Visual Services) department where I've got a long list of stuff that I've been doing. We've been building the new DAVE (Demountable Audio Visual Equipment) units and getting more lecterns out. We’ve been involved with room rebuilds for blended learning, setting all the new cameras and projectors up, and installing all the screens.

We control and update all the Zoom room and Windows patches, and do all the standard pre-teaching room checks and testing.

When there were power cuts on campus, I did a lot of running around turning computers on (which gave me a great step count on my pedometer)!

Nathan Tilbury, third year Computer Science student

My main role is to help the LETS desktop deployment team with the configuration, deployment and repair of staff PCs in offices all over campus. I'm also on hand to help with the setting up and configuring of PCs for large events such as the exam boards, exams registration and clearing.

The pandemic has changed my role quite substantially as we're now focusing on delivering working from home equipment to people's addresses. As well as that I've been focusing on the delivery and the configuration of the academic equipment packages - tablets, mobile phones, laptops, computers - as well as standard computers for working from home.

I mainly focus on arranging the collection and delivery of equipment, and I've been key in creating the processes and instructions for this.

So what has this role given me? My key interests are computer networks and security, and this has given me a great insight into how the University implements these aspects of their systems. I also have the belief that you can never have too much experience and this role has definitely given me a lot of experience, which I hope to use in my future career.

Kamilija Garbauskaite, third year Film student

I've been working as a Media Centre ITSA for more than two years now. My main responsibility is facilities office management where I ensure that the equipment checked out and checked in by students is in its best condition, sanitised, fully operational and safe to use.

I also help students with queries such as how to use cameras or software for their classes, as well as taking care of incoming email enquiries either answering by myself or assigning the right colleague.

Before each academic term, I regularly do inventories and help lecturers make sure they have all the equipment they need for practical face-to-face teaching, and that their classes and equipment are prioritised.

There are individual tasks that I do from time to time additional to my role, for example, I've learned and carried out a 360-degree Psychology department tour with my manager and it's been a great experience.

This role has a lot of benefits: it's been a great first-hand experience with equipment and video production. It's really going to look great on my CV and it's going to help me to find a job quicker after I graduate. Additionally, it's been a stable source of income so as a foreign student, since the beginning of COVID, I've been able to fully support myself due to this role and even make savings for my future, which has been absolutely amazing.

Abdullah Mansoor, MBA student

I’m the newest ITSA on the team! I have a bachelor's degree in Computer Sciences, so I have a background in IT.

I have five years of full-time experience in Sales and Business Development so essentially customer facing roles. Working in IT Training is just something that I'm really, really looking forward to doing.

I've had elaborate conversations with my manager and they've been very helpful and supportive in terms of understanding how we need to create more accessibility within Moodle. This is pivotal because e-learning has been one of the most important pillars of how we’ve transformed this year.  I'm really excited and looking forward to doing this.