Mocko Named Manager of Technology Support Center (TSC)

Wed, 08 May 2019 23:02:24 -0400

DoIT is pleased to announce that Andrea Mocko has been named manager of its Technology Support Center (TSC). Previously, she’d served as acting coordinator, specialist and even a student consultant during all four of her undergraduate years at UMBC. She is responsible for recruiting, hiring, training and supervising the 12-15 student consultants who make up the largely student-run staff serving at the TSC each semester. The TSC also serves as an informal on-site “storefront” to demo products as part of the Mac & Dell online stores, and also provides Scantron test scoring support.

In addition to daily responsibilities managing the TSC, Andrea has played a key role in revamping DoIT’s knowledge management approach to IT support. Specifically, she serves as the primary architect and curator of UMBC’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) knowledge base (umbc.edu/faq) that has dramatically reduced phone, email and Request Tracker (RT) tickets by helping users help themselves. Typically, UMBC’s FAQs generate about half a million page views each year (though not all from UMBC) after generating only 3k in 2011.

Among other benefits, this kind of self-support has allowed the TSC to keep staffing costs low. Despite the high turnover you'd expect to see in a primarily student run help desk (with 2 FT staff), the FAQs help TSC student consultants get up to speed quickly and work efficiently and effectively, In fact, our student labor & assistance budget has shrunk from about $100k (in 2011) to $83k each year since, while campus users have consistently rated DoIT’s overall IT support as 90 percent “good or excellent” ever since we started using RT 10 years ago, including up through UMBC’s 1 millionth ticket last semester.

Andrea’s expertise in user support has also been recognized by Educause, the professional development organization for higher ed IT. She was a member of the Educause IT Service Management Working group and also co-authored a white paper, “Demonstrating Value Through IT Service Management in Higher Education” (2016).
A life-long member of the UMBC community, Andrea recently earned her Master’s degree in Human Centered Computing (HCC) in UMBC’s Information Systems (IS) department, graduating in December 2018. Before then, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UMBC 2012. As a senior student consultant, she was also instrumental in the TSC’s move from the basement of the Engineering Building to the first floor of the Library, next to the Retriever Learning Center (RLC) in Summer of 2011. This year, she’s also a member of the 2018-19 Personal Leadership and Project Management (PLPM) cohort organized by Human Resources.