DEGREE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

HELPDESK AND SERVICE PROVISIONING

(CPT 231)
JULY 2014
ASSIGNMENT 1

Submission Date: 28 August 2014

For this assignment it is important to consider the following:

You should demonstrate a sound understanding of the relevant theories, concepts, tools and
techniques.
You MUST consider a proper balance of theories and practicality perspectives.
You MUST reference to sources used. This may be from books, journals, newspapers or
websites. All sources must be referenced properly.
You should present clear, logical and coherent arguments.
Presentation (as in business) is important. Please word process your work if possible. If your
work is hand written, please make sure it is legible.
You must attach a copy of the question paper to your submission.
You should adhere to general guide lines of Management report writing.
The report MUST explain how you would formulate a customer satisfaction survey, include an
analysis of customer satisfaction survey, and finally provide recommendation for service
improvement

Question:

Write a REPORT to the Chief Executive of an organization based on a customer satisfaction

survey for a product or service related to any area using Information Technology.

Marking criteria:
Marks will be allocated based on:

Note: Table provides respective marks allocated for ten focus areas

There is NO word limit for this assignment.

Good luck

Maldives National University

Faculty of Science

28th August 2014

Customer
Satisfaction
Survey
MNU self-service
Helpdesk and Service Provisioning (CPT 231)

Full Name: Asadhu Shujaau

Student ID: 000033475

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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................ 2
2. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Purpose .......................................................................................................................................... 3
3. Organization Background ................................................................................................................... 4
3.1 Mission and Vision ....................................................................................................................... 4
3.2 Faculties, Centres and Campuses .................................................................................................. 5
4. Objectives ........................................................................................................................................... 6
5. Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 7
6. Data Collection ................................................................................................................................... 8
7. Questionnaire Framework ................................................................................................................... 9
8. Analysis ............................................................................................................................................ 11
9. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 19
10. Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 20
References ............................................................................................................................................. 21
Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 22
Appendix 01 ...................................................................................................................................... 22

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1. Executive Summary
The main purpose of this report is to find out about the possible improvements that can be
brought to the current self-service website of Maldives National University. Through a survey
it was found that the current self-service system has many faults and opportunities for
improvement. Hiring a professional for improving the current system has been recommended
based on the findings.

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2. Introduction
Self-service is an online system used by the Maldives National Universitys students and staffs.
This system does a number of tasks including, course registration, providing students with
course materials, details about the course fees, etc. Although this system provides necessary
functions, there are problems in the system and opportunities for improvements.

2.1 Purpose

This report provides detailed information about a customer satisfaction survey carried out for
the online self-service system used in Maldives National University (MNU). The report will
look into a brief description of MNU. Followed by, the objectives for the survey are, along
with the methods used for data collection. A section for questionnaire framework is also
included which provides details about the questions included in the survey. The analysis of the
survey are provided along with the recommendations.

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3. Organization Background
Maldives National University, which was formerly known as Maldives College for Higher
Education, was established on 15th February 2011. MNU, the first university of Maldives,
offers variety of courses at affordable prices which are focused on different fields. Courses are
mainly focused on Information Technology, Health, Management and education. Programs are
available from Certificate levels to Bachelors in most cases and in some fields Masters
Programs are also being introduced and carried out.

3.1 Mission and Vision

Following is the mission and the vision of MNU.

Vision: The Maldives National University will perform and be acknowledged as the
outstanding academic institution of the nation and one of the finest in the region.
(Maldives National University, 2013)

Mission: The mission of the Maldives National University is to create, discover,

preserve and disseminate knowledge that are necessary to enhance the lives and
livelihoods of people and essential for the cultural, social and economic development
of the society so that this nation shall remain free and Islamic forever. (Maldives
National University, 2013)

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3.2 Faculties, Centres and Campuses

All the faculties and centres of the Maldives National University are located in different areas
of Male and there are three campuses located in three different islands of Maldives. Following
is the list of faculties, centres and campuses.

Foundation Studies

Centre for Maritime Studies

Centre for Open Learning

The Postgraduate Research Centre

Faculty of Education

Faculty of Arts

Faculty of Engineering Technology

Faculty of Health Sciences

Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Studies

Faculty of Islamic Studies

Faculty of Science

Faculty of Shariah and Law

MNU Business School

Kulhudhuffushi Campus

Thinadhoo Campus

Hithadhoo Campus

MNU also have an accommodation block in Male for the students.

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4. Objectives
Following are the objectives for carrying out the customer satisfaction survey for MNU selfservice.

Checking how satisfied the students are with the current system.

Identifying how often and for what purpose students access the system.

Finding out possible improvements for the current system.

Getting feedback about including online payment for paying the course fees.

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5. Methodology
An online survey was carried out by creating the questionnaire for the survey using Google
forms. Social networks, Facebook and Twitter, were used to get the input for the survey. No
surveys were carried out manually with the use of paper.

On Facebook, the link for questionnaire was posted on different groups related to Maldives
National University in order to reach more students. Also, the link was passed to different
students by using Facebook chat.

On Twitter, the questionnaire link was shared with the help of current MNU Business School
Twitter account. This method helped reach more number of students.

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6. Data Collection
The survey was focused for the current students of the Maldives National University. Target
was to get response from at least 50 students combined from different faculties. While sharing
the questionnaire link, details were given to the students about the survey. As data was
collected, they were stored on a spreadsheet file for analysis. A whole week was spent to gain
the input from the university students for the survey. By the end of the week, a total of 56
replies were received which is above the targeted level.

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7. Questionnaire Framework
Pyramid structure was used for designing the questionnaire. Starting with the closed ended
questions and going toward the open ended questions. Follow up questions were used for
yes/no questions in order to gain more feedback from the students. Questionnaire included a
total of 14 questions. There were 9 closed ended questions, and 5 open ended questions which
includes 2 probing questions. The questionnaire can be found on the Appendix section of
this report under Appendix 1.

The following paragraphs discuss which questions were included in the questionnaire and why
they were included.
The 1st question on the questionnaire asks about the device/s used to access self-service
website. This question is followed by another question asking for the browser they use to access
the website. These questions are important because web applications get affected by the
hardware used by the devices. Plus, websites sometimes act differently when accessed by
different browsers. A website that loads correctly on Google Chrome might not load correctly
on another browser.
The 3rd questions asks the user if the pages of the website loads correctly or not. This questions
is followed by another question asking for a description of the webpage that does not load
correctly.
5th question asks about how often they use self-service. The next question asks for the reason/s
for visiting the website. This is to identify for what purposes the website is mainly used. 7th
questions asked to see if students face any difficulty downloading materials from the website.
8th question asks the users to rate 5 different areas of the website. The areas are, navigation,
look or design of the website, whether the necessary help is provided or not, simplicity and
overall website. This question aims at understanding how satisfied the students are with the
current self-service system.

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Question 9 focuses on finding out the difficulties faced in the registration process. This question
is aimed to understand the possible improvements that can be brought to registration area.
Students are asked about whether online payment service should be included or not on the 10th
question. It is followed by another question asking for their. Students may or may not want the
online payment service to be included. Hence, different students will have different reason,
gaining that information was considered important.

One of the most confusing pages on self-service website is the course homepage. Due to this,
the 12th question is specific to this page. It asks the students for ways to improve the page. By
gaining this information, page can be customized to most simple and efficient way possible.

Apart from adding new features and modifying the current features, the current system might
have somewhat unimportant features for the students interface. 13th questions asks the users
for possible unnecessary features currently present in the system.

Finally, the questionnaire is concluded by asking users to provide any additional suggestions
if they have any.

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8. Analysis
A total of 56 students took part in the survey. From the total participants 42 uses laptops along
with or without other devices to enter website. 26 uses desktop computers and 26 are using
their smartphones, while only a single student was recorded to use another device which was
IPad.

45

80%

40

70%

35

60%

30

50%

25

40%

20

30%

15
10

20%

10%

Cumulative %

Number of Students

Devices used to access self-service

0%
Desktop Computer

Laptop

Smartphone

Other

Devices
Respondents

Cumulative %

Most of the students who did the survey use Google Chrome to access self-service. Second
mostly used browser is Mozilla Firefox.

Browser used for accessing self-service

45

40

No. of Students

35

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Mozilla Firefox

Google Chrome

Safari

Opera

Other

Browsers

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Through close analysis it was found out that, the students who had problems loading the pages
were mostly Mozilla Firefox users.

Does all pages load correctly?

14%

86%

Yes, they load correctly

No, they do not load correctly

8 users claimed that some page/s does not load correctly while 48 users said the pages load
correctly. Out of 8 users who claimed that pages had faults, 6 have said that Course
Homepage does not load correctly. This is true, using Mozilla Firefox and going to selfservice course homepage show that some elements of the page are not where it belongs. It looks
crashed. The other 2 users said finance page and registration page had problems.

Survey showed that most students does not have a particular amount of times they access the
website. The graph can be seen on the next page.

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No. of students

Access rate to self-service

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Once a week

Once every two weeks

Once a month

Other

Time

The bars on the graph represent the number of students. Most students who said Other have
said that it differs and that it sometimes depends on exams, assignments etc. While others have
said that they only visit once every 6 months just to check grades, financial balances and to
register for courses. Below is the common reasons why students access self-service.

Reasons for accessing self-service

13%
48%

73%

59%

Checking course fee

Downloading course materials

Checking course results

Other

The chart shows that most students use self-service to just check their result. This might be due
to the fact the there is another system students use to get course materials which is GEM.
Other category includes students who login to register and check registration.

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Out of the 33 students who said they download course materials, only 2 students said that they
face problems.

Problem downloading course materials from self-service?

6%

94%

Yes

No

The following are how the students rated different aspects of the self-service website.

Rating

Navigation is Easy
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
0

10

15

20

25

30

No. of Students
Respondents

The graph shows that most of the students agreed that navigating within the pages of selfservice is easy. However, by combining those who strongly disagree and those who disagree it
is understood that there are many students who are not satisfied.

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Rating

Necessary Help is Provided

Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree

10

15

20

25

30

No. of Students
Respondents

While most of the students believe that moderate amount of help is provided on self-service
few disagreed to this statement. This can be due to some complexity in what is provided in help
menu.

Rating

The Design is Appealing

Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
0

10

15

20

25

30

No. of Students
Respondents

The look of the site is said to appealing. However, as previously mentioned, students who
reported page crashes, along with few other students says otherwise. The chart below shows
that most students agree that the site is simple and easy to use.

Rating

It is easy to use
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
0

10

15

20

25

30

No. of Students
Respondents

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Overall, the website is great

Rating

Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree

10

15

20

25

No. of Students
Respondents

For the overall website, most students who took part in the survey says that it is neither good
nor bad. However, 25% of the students say that it is not good. This shows that website needs
to be improved. Suggestions from students for improvements are discussed later in this report.

Next area that was looked into was course registrations. As students use self-service to register
for courses, this particular page needs to be easy to understand and simple to use. Hence,
information about the difficulties students face when registering online were recorded with the
help of the survey.

Difficulties faced in registration process

5%

48%
54%

63%

Subject codes not available online

Having to add one subject at a time to the "cart"

Too many steps

Other

Subject codes not available online means searching for the correct course becomes problematic.
Having to visit the respected faculty to just check the subject codes can be a difficult tasks for
students that live in another island like Hulhumale.

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In the registration process students search for each subject separately and add them to a cart
on at a time before they can proceed with the registration process. Any mistake in the
aforementioned process requires removing the subject from the cart and doing all over again.
This process is time consuming. Those who said they had other problems gave answers that is
either irrelevant to the question or an answer that falls under subjects codes not being available
online.

Online Payment for Course Fees?

21%

79%

Yes

No

Around 80% of students believe that online payment service should be offered through selfservice. Those who agreed and disagreed had valid reasons. The summary of the reasons
specified by the students are provided below.

Why online payment should be included:

o Simpler and more time saving than waiting in a queue outside budget section,
o Easy for students who has to go for work,
o Less load on students and staffs alike,
o More safety, no need to carry lot of cash with you to the Finance section,
o Simple for students who live in a different island like Hulhumale and Vilingili.

Why online payment should not be included:

o Dont believe MNU has the capability to do it safely,
o Online payment is not secure,
o No proof of payment for students,
o Might give errors and cause irreversible losses for students.
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The summarized list of possible improvements for Course Homepage suggested by students
are listed below.

Enable opening courses in separate tabs,

Change the design,

Add a logout button,

Improve Mozilla Firefox support,

Make it more user friendly.

For unnecessary features, many students have suggested removing the last page that appears
after user logs out. This particular page has a button asking the user to click it to close the
browser. However, this does not work. Second feature suggested by students was removal of
course subject cart in registration process and changing it such that registration can be done
with fewer steps.

In the suggestions area of the survey, students have said to upgrade the site to latest web
technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 hence self-service website was built a long time ago, the
technologies it use might be obsolete or can be improved. Moreover, students have said to
integrate different system MNU uses into one so that they can access all the services with just
a single account and a password.

Other suggestions included things like help to be provided as a user goes through a process like
registration. Students suggested including things like arrows pointing where to go, what to do
next when they try for the first time or when they require help. Apart from the above mentioned,
most students have suggested improving the look and simplicity.

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9. Conclusion
Overall, the current self-service system used in Maldives National University is not up to the
level it should be. Although it provides many functions, faults and opportunities for
improvement are found in different areas of the current self-service website. As the system was
built few years back, the technologies used back then might now be obsolete. This means the
system requires upgrading to todays technologies.

From the survey it was also found that online payment service is supported by many users of
the current system. Altering the current system to meet the requirements of the students is
important. By doing so, Maldives National University might be able to provide better help to
students in different ways.

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10. Recommendations
The conducted survey showed that students are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the current
self-service system. This can be due the reason that although the website has problems, they
are able to get what they want from the site. However, Maldives National University needs to
improve the website with the help of a person with required technical skills. The look of the
site needs to be changed to a modern way. Registration and course home page should be
prioritized for improvement. Navigation and process within these pages needs to be improved.
Being able to register easily without much hustle, and opening course homepages in new tabs
need to be enabled for simplification.

Use of hardcopy lectures and GEM system to give course materials can be a reason why
students use self-service rarely. So, by integrating the features of GEM into self-service, MNU
can have more students using the self-service system.

Online payment feature for paying for the course needs to be added to the self-service system.
However, this process has to be carried out with professional help. A proof of payment can be
mailed to the students when they do online payment. Also, even if this feature is added, the
traditional method of payment should also be available. This can help students decide the way
they want to make the payment at their own risk.

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References
Kenneth E. Kendall, J. E. (2011). Systems Analysis and Design (8th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson
Education Inc.
Maldives National University (2013). Strategic Plan 2013 - 2017. Male': Maldives National University.
Maldives National University (n.d.). http://www.mnu.edu.mv. Retrieved from The Maldives National
University: http://www.mnu.edu.mv/index.php/contacts

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Appendix
Appendix 01

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