1. About the Survey
Information Technology Services (ITS) conducted an annual User Survey during the period from 25 February to 16 April 2021. This is an important ITS exercise for us to: (a) know about our users’ experience and satisfaction on our services; (b) gain a better understanding of our users’ needs in IT and related services; and (c) identify the areas where improvements are needed.
All staff and students were invited to participate in this survey. We received a total of 488 completed responses this year. 280 are from staff (57%) and 208 are from students (43%). The distribution is tabulated in Table 1.
Table 1: Respondents by User Groups
| Percentage | No. of responses |
Academic staff | 16.0% | 78 |
Professional and administrative staff | 41.3% | 202 |
Undergraduate students | 23.0% | 112 |
Postgraduate students | 19.7% | 96 |
Total: | 100.0% | 488 |
In this survey, users were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed with the survey questions that described the the services of ITS on a scale of 5 to 1, namely Strongly Agree (5), Agree (4), Neutral (3), Disagree (2) and Strongly Disagree (1). For questions that are not applicable to them, they could simply choose Not Applicable/Not Using (NA). The mean score based on the five-point scale is calculated.
2. Most Important and Most Satisfied Services
Table 2 shows the ranking of the top 10 IT services surveyed in terms of “most important” and “most satisfied” from users’ perspective. This year, the 10 most important services are also ranked the 10 most satisfied services.
Table 2: Ranking of the Most Important and the Most Satisfied Services
Ranking | Most Important | Ranking | Most Satisfied |
1st | 1st | ||
2nd | Centrally coordinated software (Zoom, MS Teams, Office 365, Qualtrics, Matlab, SPSS, Camtasia and more) | 2nd | Wired network (e.g. office and PC laboratories) |
3rd | – Moodle | 3rd | Service Desk support |
4th
| Centrally coordinated software (Zoom, MS Teams, Office 365, Qualtrics, Matlab, SPSS, Camtasia and more) | ||
5th | Moodle | ||
6th | WiFi network | 6th | HKU Portal |
7th | Service Desk support | 7th
| – Administrative systems for staff use (SIS, HCMS, Finance System, PRSD/PRD System, Computer Aided Facilities Management System, etc.) |
8th | Administrative systems for staff use (SIS, HCMS, Finance System, PRSD/PRD System, Computer Aided Facilities Management System, etc.) Student Information System (SIS) | ||
9th | Panopto lecture capture | 9th | Panopto lecture capture |
10th | HKU Virtual Private Network (HKUVPN) | 10th | Centrally timetabled classrooms |
3. Comparison between 2020 and 2021 User Surveys
Comparing the survey results of 2020 and 2021, the mean scores on the overall central IT services have been improved in both the “importance” and “satisfaction” aspects as tabulated below:
Table 3: Mean Scores on the Overall Central IT Services
| 2020 | 2021 |
Importance | 4.22 | 4.34 |
Satisfaction | 3.90 | 4.09 |
The mean important and satisfaction scores of the top 10 surveyed services are summarized below in Chart 4 and Chart 5.
Chart 4: Mean Score on the “Most Important Services” Attained in 2020 and 2021 Surveys
Chart 5: Mean Score on the “Most Satisfied Services” Attained in 2020 and 2021
4. Findings on the Most Important and Most Satisfied Services
From the above charts, users are most satisfied with email (“most satisfied” score 4.27), centrally coordinated software (“most satisfied” score 4.21) and Service Desk support service (“most satisfied” score 4.16) and the first two are also ranked the top 1 and top 3 most important services. We are glad to see that both the important scores and satisfaction scores on almost all the top 10 services have noticeably improved compared with 2020.
5. Summary
The results of this year’s User Survey reveal that users are more satisfied with our services compared with last year. We thank all respondents for their scores and constructive comments given to us. We will study the comments carefully and work out the improvement plans. We shall keep on enhancing the scope and quality of our services in line with the University’s missions as well as users’ expectation.
We look forward to receiving user feedback from our staff and students. Please feel free to contact our Service Desk at ithelp@hku.hk or 3917 0123 if you wish to let us know your feedback or need assistance in the use of the central IT services.
Idy Tang
User Services Team
Tel: 3917 6220
Email: tangky@hku.hk