Transcript Slide 1
LibQual+ ® in a Distance Education Environment Jan Lewis INTRODUCTION MOST USED LIBRARY SURVEY COMPARISONS East Carolina University is a leader in online education. The university has 57 online programs. Nursing, Education, Business Administration, and Technology Systems are some of the largest programs. The percentage of usable surveys was higher in 2007: 70% versus 47%. Graduate students completed 62% of the surveys, a percentage close to their representation in DE programs (68%). DE-only students comprise 18% of our total enrollment of 24,351; 20% of all student credit hours are earned online. Most of our growth over the past 5 years has been due to DE enrollment increases. More than 85% of our DE-only students take less than a full course load, while balancing the demands of jobs and families. 68% are enrolled in graduate programs. Undergraduate Majors Graduate Disciplines Human Ecology is a large College at ECU. It was not listed as a Custom Discipline in 2003. Students may have selected Social Sciences / . Psychology or Other as an alternative. To help us learn more about how DE students perceive and use library resources and services, we administered LibQual+ to 6007 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in one or more online courses in Spring 2007. This poster presents some of our results and compares them to our 2003 LibQual+ survey of our general student population. SOME OF THE COMMENTS RESULTS General satisfaction levels were User Self-Assessment levels were Expectations have risen, too, as this chart higher in every category in 2007. higher in every category except one in 2007. showing Minimum, Desired, and Perceived levels for Information Control illustrates. Most Desired items in 2007 were: 1. Making electronic resources accessible from my home or office. 2. The electronic information resources I need. 3. A library Web site enabling me to locate information on my own. 4. Employees who are consistently courteous. 5. Modern equipment that lets me easily access needed information. Many of these items had the largest Superiority Gaps, too: In 2003, some of the largest Superiority Gaps for undergraduates related to Affect of Service and Library as Place: 1. A library Web site enabling me to locate information on my own. -0.97 1. Print and/or electronic journals collections I require for my work -1.39 2. The electronic information resources I need. -0.95 2. Employees who instill confidence -1.35 3. Print and/or electronic journal collections I require for my work. -0.89 4. Making electronic resources accessible from my home or office. -0.87 5. Easy-to-use access tools that allow me to find things on my own. -0.86 3. Easy-to-use access tools -1.19 4. Readiness to respond to users’ questions -1.09 5. Employees who are consistently courteous… -1.05 6. Quiet space for individual activities -1.05 We plan to do additional analysis, including: • Create thermometer graphs for all 22 questions for undergraduates and graduate students. • Identify red zones and analyze by discipline. • Analyze the comments. • Compare our results to those of our peers and to the LibQual norms. • As a DE student I have found the online resources to be relatively easy to use and have met my needs. I appreciate the hard work that has made resources available online. Thanks! • I’m DE and would use the services online more if it was more clear on how to use them. I’ve tried numerous times and can never find what I need so I turn to Google … to find what I need. • I had a lot of topics to research but did not make time to find out how to log into ECU library web services. • I love Joyner. Everyone has always been so helpful, courteous and bent over backward to help me. • I had no idea I could access the library through my home office. • Why would a patron ever ask for less than 100% for a desired or acceptable service level? Minimum level service poll appears to be asking “how little can Joyner provide its patrons and still be perceived as having acceptable levels of service.” ACTION ITEMS Redesign the library Web site to make it easier to use. Implement federated searching (Serials Solutions’ 360 Search). Publicize electronic resources and services more effectively. Offer Camtasia tutorials and virtual tours. Conduct focus groups to learn more about student needs. Buy/subscribe to even more e-journals!