February 2009
This month Leeds Metropolitan University becomes the 16th university participating in the NorMAN Out of Hours IT Helpline service.

December 2008 24/7 Cover for Computer users at Christmas
Students and staff from 15 UK Universities will be able to access Out of Hours IT support throughout the Christmas holidays, including Christmas Day.

For the first time since the NorMAN Out of Hours IT Helpline – a shared service operated by Northumbria University’s IT Services department – was launched in 2006, it will remain available for the entire holiday period.

The NorMAN Out of Hours IT Helpline, which initially served the five NorMAN (North Eastern Metropolitan Area Network) universities, now provides support for students and staff from 15 UK Universities located across the country from Scotland, the North East, the Midlands, London, the South East and the South West of England.

As each university closes for the break they switch through to Northumbria’s Out of Hours helpline – which normally operates from 5pm through the night weekdays and 24 hours at weekends during term time - so that students and staff have someone to call for help with IT queries throughout the holiday.

Exeter University joins the service
March 3rd 2008 Exeter University joined the out of hours service bringing the total number of participants to 8 so far.

Bristol University joins service
February 4th 2008 Bristol University became the second university outside of the NorMAN region to join the out of hours service.

Market Research Survey Findings
During November and December 2007, around 4,400 students participated in an online survey looking at usage of IT along with awareness and experience of the out of hours service. This was a repeat of the survey conducted in the first year of the service by Wood Holmes Group.  These were the key findings:

• Awareness of the Out of Hours IT Helpline
• Overall, awareness of the out of hours IT helpline service has increased.  In Wave 2, 58% of respondents are aware of the extended service, compared to 48% of respondents in Wave

• Usage of the Out of Hours IT Helpline
• 14% of respondents aware of the out of hours IT helpline service have used the service, a level that is consistent with the findings from Wave 1.  
• In keeping with the findings from Wave 1, usage of the out of hours IT helpline service is typically infrequent, with approximately half of respondents who have used the service having contacted it once and approximately one third of users having used the service two to three times.
• Satisfaction with the out of hours IT helpline service continues to be high amongst users in Wave 2.  In line with levels of satisfaction evident in Wave 1, 43% of users are very satisfied with 83% of users satisfied with the service overall. 

• Attitudes and Perceptions Held Towards the Out of Hours IT Helpline Service
• Being able to contact the IT help service in the evening and at weekends continues to be viewed as important.  Two in five respondents perceive it as ‘important’ and approximately one in five perceive it to be ‘very important’.

Out of Hours Helpline now open till 2 a.m.
From 7th January 2008 the Out of Hours IT Helpline service is open for 2 hours beyond midnight providing IT support for students 18 hours a day, seven days a week.

University of West of England joins the service
The shared Out of Hours IT Helpline service was extended outside the NorMAN region for the first time in September 2007 with the University of West of England joining the service.  West of England callers logged 299 queries with Out of Hours Helpline in the first month of operation.

Out of Hours Service Continues for a further year
Following the success of the first year of operation, the NorMAN Out of Hours IT Helpline service is to continue.  A full year of operation at all five NorMAN region universities will allow collation of data over a complete academic year.  This year’s operation is funded by JISC, the NorMAN consortium and contributions from individual universities.

Market Research Survey Findings
During February and March 2007, over 3,500 students participated in an online survey looking at usage of IT along with awareness and experience of the out of hours service. A final report on the findings is still under preparation but key headline results including:

• Just under half of the sample were aware of the out of hours pilot
• 12% of those aware of the out of hours pilot have used the service - 6% of the total sample
• - 92% of those who have used the service were satisfied or very satisfied with the service provided.
• Approximately 3 in 5 students think that it is important that they are able to contact their University's IT helpline service out of hours.

Full results of the survey will be published shortly.