LSO: Ensuring learner desktop is "LMS ready" & support plan for E-learning

Question

We are entering a time period with a significant rollouts planned for WBT's and on-line tests. Despite the efforts of our IT organization, our end user environment isn't quite as standardized as we would like. This creates the potential that when learners go into the Learning Portal to take a WBT or on-line test, things might not work as planned, leading to learner frustration and an increased volume of support tickets.
Examples of things which could go wrong include: (1) user has a pop-up blocker turned on, (2) user might not have the Java plug-in installed for their browser (or a really old version).
So.....
1) What do you do to minimize the risk of learners running into problems?
I'm especially interested in any attempts you've made to give users information to help self-audit their own PC's in anticipation of taking E-learning.
2) What does your technical support plan look like for E-learning tickets?
What I'm interested in is what directions do you give to your Help Desk so they know under what circumstances they should route a call to a particular resource.
I  would like to hear from other customers who are live with LSO (300 or above) as to how you address these items.

Answer 1

Variability in content and users desktops are two major issues from a support standpoint. Some of our content is internal IP and created by employees with no instructional design background. For this we provide standard templates, standard creation tools and job aids to assist in creating a WBT that allows the user to know what to expect from one to the next. For desktop issues, we often identify known issues (a WBT requires a new version of Flash plug-in for example) prior to deployment and have the specific technology pushed to all user's desktops.
For issues like pop-up blockers, we note the need to disable them completely from the users Learning Plan where they access the content since this is a common problem. As issues are identified and solutions determined, we make sure the helpdesk is notified. This is then added to their ticket management support checklist depending on the issue that was originally reported. If the helpdesk (Level 1) can't resolve the issue over the phone then they refer it to the developers (Level 2) who contact the employee directly. The developers close the loop by communicating the resolution to the helpdesk for future use.
Hope this helps.