S1.3.3

=Technical support staff are provided with support resources (including training, guidelines and examples) for assisting students. =

Evidence
Support staff are provided with templates, examples, training and support in using the range of resources available to assist students.

McPherson & Nunes (2009) describe the integral role that tutors play in e-learning support. As agents responsible for the delivery of e-learning tutors must be equipped with an appropriate set of technical skills and be available to assist students in specific courses. However, tutors themselves often lack these same skills and need support in order to deliver to students.

Resources
Milne & White (2005) collect together twenty-three sets of e-learning quality guidelines from an array of geographical regions. Such guidelines, or something like them, should be part of the support offered to staff by their organizations. Staff need guidelines, and examples of good practice.

The JISC Digital Libraries in the classroom report found that a project such as DLiC needs to form part of a wider departmental, and possibly institutional, strategy in order to be successful. Future activities to embed the work of the project into the departments involved will further provide indicators of infrastructural requirements.

The DLiC projects have demonstrated the need for technical support within a department if a project is to be properly embedded and seamless for students to use. In many cases, this means that support staff should be fully integrated. However, sustaining such support within a department requires institutional support.