ICT Services is responsible for IT support of Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oamk). IT support will help you with IT problems related to your studies.
If you encounter a problem, e.g. you cannot reach a service, it could be because of scheduled maintenance work. (NB. The regular maintenance window is every Friday from 7 AM to 8 AM.) It could also be a technical problem, that the ICT services’ staff is already working on. In these cases, there should be an announcement about the incident in Tuudo (a mobile application for students). It could also be a common problem you can solve yourself with the help of the articles on this it.oamk.fi site: You can browse the instructions on the Bulletins & guidelines page, there is a search available as well as a ‘keyword cloud’. You can also browse the link list on the page for students. If you cannot find a solution, please contact us. Also, it is important you do that because otherwise the ICT services’ staff might never know the problem exists. You can also visit the ICT services’ service desk on campus. If your problem is severe and needs a fast solution, you should call. See the phone number and opening hours on the front page.
Sending a Support Ticket
Support requests sent to helpdesk (ict@oulu.fi) are directed to request queues. The support persons take the tickets from there and then solve the problems. You should not send help requests to a support person’s personal e-mail address, because there is no guarantee you can reach the person because he/she might be on holiday or in a training etc. Use your Oamk email when you send the service request: Actually you should always use it in your emails regarding your studies. You should use an another email only if your request is about a problem regarding your email.
ICT Services is responsible of IT support on all Oamk’s campuses (as well as the campuses of the University of Oulu), so locating the problem immediately will speed up the solution: In addition to the actual problem, you should also mention your campus and what is your role (e.g. if you are open university student, an exchange student or a degree student). The more relevant details you can tell about the problem, the better: what is the device and software you are using, what did you do just before the problem occurred, what kind of error message you got and so on. An exact description of the problem will simply help to solve it sooner.
Compare these examples:
“AC does not work” vs.
“I work as a part-time teacher at the Linnanmaa campus. When I try to share a PowerPoint file (<a link to the file in OneDrive>) in AC, I get this error message: ’Error while converting file’ and all I get is a set of empty, white slides. I’m using my own laptop: It has Windows 10 and my browser is Chrome (newest version) and I have the Adobe Connect add-in installed.
BR, Erkki Esimerkki (esimerkki@oamk.fi)”
In the first example, it is not possible to solve the problem without asking for (and getting) more information. If your request is detailed, the support person might be able to solve your problem without asking for more information.
The most important part of any e-mail is the subject: Always use a descriptive subject line in your support request!
For example: compare the subjects “Help!” And “I can not log in to Moodle”. The latter option is preferable because it tells the message subject clearly and the message is easy to find later.
NB. Keep your password to yourself. The ICT Services’ personnel will never ask for your password. If you get an e-mail that claims you need to verify your account by sending your password (by e-mail or through a link to a website form), delete the e-mail; it’s a scam. Besides, you have promised to keep your password to yourself when you got your Oamk account.