For the third consecutive year, Information and Educational Technology's Technology Support Program (TSP) conducted its satisfaction survey, and the results are in. The TSP currently has 365 TSCs (departmental technical support staff affiliated with the TSP), representing over half of the campus departments participating in the program. This year, 174 TSCs participated in the survey providing mainly positive feedback along with several suggestions for improvement.

With nearly half of the program's membership responding, 95 percent said that they were reasonably to extremely satisfied with the program as a whole. In fact, about 65 percent of the comments given in regards to the program in general were expressions of appreciation for the TSP and its services. Components of the program that were specifically rated high this year included the TSP-share mailing list and the technical courses. This was not surprising since these services have traditionally been long-time favorites of the TSCs. The collegiate nature of the TSP also received a number of votes as a favorite characteristic of the program. In terms of dissatisfaction with the program, issues with courses, by a narrow margin of two votes at 24% beat out "none" at 22% as the biggest disappointment with TSP. This is an improvement over last year, when about 30% of the comments expressed concern over the courses. TSCs also expressed frustration at their lack of time to be involved in the program and disappointment with some of the content on tsp-share. A handful of people were disappointed in their ITRs (Information and Educational Technology representatives). We also received several comments about the difficulties associated with the distance between UCDMC and the main campus. In fact, the distance issue was a thread throughout the evaluation, but this situation cannot be changed. Another thread was the larger issue of TSCs' expectations regarding IET's timely and effective communications with the technical community.

When asked what changes they would like to see in the future, the perennial favorite -- courses -- once again led the field in responses with almost half of the comments. Overall, respondents would like to see more higher-level, advanced courses. Improved communication from IET units to the TSCs was the next big topic. Several people suggested specific methods (updates to tsp-info, for example), but most just commented they want IET to be better at communicating with the TSCs. Several people mentioned they would like more outreach from their ITR. Last year, ITRs initiated phone calls to their TSCs as a way to gauge their technical needs and concerns. This got mixed results; some people thought it was helpful, while others seemed a little bewildered.

The TSP plans to improve its services to continue to serve the technical community on campus. The program has set the following goals in response to the survey results:

• Strengthening communications between IET units and the campus technical community to ensure that relevant and timely information is more effectively forwarded to our mailing lists.

• Strengthening course availability and course offerings for the more popular, high-end technologies. The TSP will also invite vendors to offer brown bag sessions throughout the year to increase understanding of the latest technologies.

• Increase outreach to the TSCs through more campus visits and personal contact. The ITRs have already begun meeting with their assigned TSCs to hear their needs and keep them informed of various IET projects.

To see the survey results in full or to learn more about the TSP, see the program's Web site at http://tsp.ucdavis.edu/.