Support Queue
Students report a problem from their Chromebook, teachers from their portal, and the ticket arrives with the device already attached. Categories you define, priorities with SLA targets you set, and technicians scoped to their buildings.
What it does
A general-purpose help desk does not know what a Chromebook is. Every device ticket starts with the technician asking for the serial, looking it up, and checking who it is assigned to. The Support Queue is a ticket system that already has that answer, because it runs on the same records as assignment.
A student opens the UserAuthGuard extension on their Chromebook, chooses “Report a problem”, picks a category and describes it. The ticket is created with that device attached: serial, model, assigned student, building, last sync. Teachers submit and follow tickets from the teacher portal; technicians and secretaries create them in the dashboard, and can attach a device to any ticket by typing its serial. Categories are rows you define per district, not a fixed list, so they match how your buildings actually describe problems.
Each ticket has a priority (low to critical) with response and resolution targets you set per priority, so the dashboard’s SLA figures reflect your staffing rather than a vendor’s. Tickets move from submitted through assigned, in progress, waiting for the user or for approval, to resolved. Comments and followers keep the thread in one place; bookkeeping events such as assignment do not count as new activity, so the badge means a person wrote something. The submitter is emailed on submission and on updates, which you can turn off. Principals see ticket counts for their building; the support reports show common issues and resolution times over any date range.
- ✓ Report a problem from the deviceIn the extension popup. The ticket carries the device, the student and the building without anyone typing a serial.
- ✓ Categories you definePer district, as many as you need, edited in settings. A blank or wrong taxonomy is the main reason queues fill with “other”.
- ✓ Priorities with your SLA targetsResponse and resolution hours per priority. The queue flags what is at risk by your numbers.
- ✓ Building-scoped techniciansA tech assigned to two buildings sees those buildings’ tickets. Assignment can be routed to building techs.
- ✓ Teachers and principals have their own viewsTeachers submit and follow tickets without a technician login; principals see counts and status for their building.
- ✓ A repair track on the same ticketWhen the problem is hardware, the ticket gains repair statuses, parts and photos. One ticket, start to finish.
Requires
- The Enterprise plan with the Help Desk module.
- The UserAuthGuard extension force-installed on student Chromebooks for in-device reporting. Tickets can also be created in the dashboard and the teacher portal without it.
- Technician and teacher accounts in UserAuthGuard, which are created from your Google directory.
Does not
- Email parents. Notifications go to the submitter and to staff on the ticket.
- Replace a district-wide IT help desk for printers and projectors. It is built around devices and the people assigned to them; you can use it for anything, but the device context is what it is for.
- Close tickets on its own. Stale and duplicate tickets are surfaced in cleanup tools; a person decides.
Where it fits
The cracked screen
A student reports it from the extension between classes. The ticket shows the device, its repair history and warranty status, and the technician moves it onto the repair track and issues a loaner from the same screen.
A teacher’s cart will not connect
The teacher files one ticket from the portal and follows it. The technician attaches the affected devices by serial and sees their last sync and OU, which is usually where the answer is.
A device nobody can find
The ticket has the device attached, so when it becomes a lost-device case, an administrator starts that from the ticket, and the recovery record links back to it.
Frequently asked questions
How do students submit a ticket?
From the UserAuthGuard extension on their Chromebook: open the popup, choose Report a problem, pick a category and describe it. The device and the student are attached automatically. Staff can also create a ticket on a student’s behalf in the dashboard.
How does a ticket become a repair?
The same ticket carries a repair track with its own statuses (diagnosis, waiting for parts, sent out, warranty, complete), parts from inventory and photos. Nothing is copied to a second system; the history stays on one record.
Who gets notified?
The submitter, on submission and when a person updates the ticket, and the staff assigned to or following it. Both emails can be turned off per district. Parents are not emailed by the ticket system.
What reporting is there?
Support reports over any date range: tickets by category, status and building, response and resolution against your SLA targets, and the most common issues. Exports to CSV.
Tickets that already know the device
The Support Queue is part of the Enterprise plan, priced per student, à la carte. Start free first: the gap report lists every device with no owner and every student with no device.