Executive Summary
The Information Technology (IT) survey has been applied to Angelo State University (ASU) students throughout the years in order to measure not only the performance of the I.T customer service but also to guarantee that the students are receiving appropriate help in the facilities and that the services that I.T offers are the most appropriate ones for the student body population. This survey is also part of an annual review that focuses on customer satisfaction perceived by the students. Also, one of the purposes of this study is to identify the different trends among the student body and to accommodate all the necessities that might emerge throughout the years. The results then are used to adapt the strategy that the information technology department, in this way the department can focus on the most successful services provided, improve on dissatisfactory results and develop new services according to the student’s requests and new trends.
There are a total of eight computer labs on campus that are open to the student body at different hours. The MCS and the Library computer labs are the most widely used as the MCS is open twenty four hours from Sunday to Friday and the Library computer lab closes every week day at midnight. All of these places offer a variety of services from hardware and software customer support, to the capabilities of checking out headphones, printing in color and, in the MCS computer lab, a quiet room where students can work on their project without any disturbances.
Furthermore, the computer labs are managed by student lab assistants who have been trained in the different I.T procedures, software and hardware that are being offered to the customers. As of spring of 2009, there are approximately 37 lab assistants working around campus on the different computer lab facilities. These lab assistants are also trained in different areas such as Help Desk, that specializes taking work requests from the Angelo State University population and Multimedia that works mainly with the maintenance of the ASU webpage.
The computer labs at Angelo State University also offer a widely selection of software, from the most basic ones such as Microsoft Office to the most specialized ones that are used in specific majors such as Adobe, SPSS, MacromediaFlash, among others.
During the spring of 2009, the Information Technology survey was distributed between the dates of March 23rd and May 1st. The survey was distributed among different classes with the previous consent of the professors. The classes were chosen according to the place where they were being held at. For example, some the classes taught within computer labs were selected so that the students had the opportunity to fill out the survey by using their computers. Even though most of the classes were selected at random after taking into consideration the previous criteria, an effort was made to represent accurately ASU’s current demographic and classification break. The survey was applied to the student body in two different formats in order to promote participation and maximize the best results. There was an online survey that information technology department linked to one of the icons on the computers’ desktop. This icon was accessible from all the computer labs within campus in order to facilitate the survey-taking experience. There was also a paper-based survey that was given out to the students in different classes that did not count with computer capabilities.
The final number of completed valid surveys was 274, 154 being paper based and the remaining 120 taken over the internet. Also, it is important to mention that there were a number of surveys that could not be used for the experiment due to errors or empty spaces.
Taking into consideration the data and results from previous years, we have decided to implement the SERVQUAL analysis by using the three dimensions of services that are most relevant when measuring the customer’s satisfactions with the services and customer support that the Information Technology department provides. The three dimensions aforementioned consist of:
Staff (Factor 1)
This factor is composed by elements such as:
1. Assurance- Knowledge and courtesy of the employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence
2. Empathy – Providing care and individualized attention
3. Responsiveness – Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
Service (Factor 2)
This factor focuses on the following characteristic:
1. Tangibles – Appearance of physical facilities, equipment and personnel.
Professionalism (Factor 3)
This factor relies on how I.T and its employees meet the customers necessities in a professional manner.
1. Reliability – Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
These three factors are the defining components of the I.T survey. After factor analysis was applied to group each variable into its respective group, the SERVQUAL score was calculated for each factor. This was done by subtracting each desired level from the perceived level.
Question (Q)= Perceived (P) – Desired (D)
The mean score was calculated for each of the three factors and presented in graphical form as follows..
Introduction
The Information Technology Department at Angelo State University, “strives to provide an enhanced technology infrastructure allowing secure access to an array of services for students, faculty and staff.” (angelo.edu, 2009) Currently, students have access to 7 general use micro labs which house 300 computers accompanied by 175 software applications, the largest of which boasts 24 hour access. In addition, 400 student use machines are available through specialized classrooms. (angelo.edu, 2009) With the great variety of technology and services provided at ASU, it is essential for the IT (Information Technology) Department to practice acquisition of and adaptation to the changing needs of its customers. Eleven years ago, the first survey was administered in order to address this.
As part of Angelo State University’s Information Technology Strategic Plan, one of its objectives is to, “obtain feedback from users on satisfaction levels and desired new services and
implement changes accordingly.” In order to obtain this feedback, the It department’s strategies include to, “conduct annual student survey to offer feedback on technology services” and “evaluate feedback provided by surveys and make necessary changes.”
As in years past, the survey consists of three parts. Part I of the survey was designed on the basis of the SERVQUAL instrument, first established by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry. SERVQUAL is a, “scale used to better understand the service expectations and perceptions of customers.”(Delivering Quality Service, Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 175.) Part II was designed for the analysis of ASU students’ attitudes and opinions on the available technology and services prepared by IT personnel. Finally, Part III was designed for determining demographic characteristics of the survey population.
Methodology & Survey Design
All the data needed was collected by using online and paper-based surveys that were proctored to students in random classes that had been selected. The only criterion for some of these classes was that they had to be taught in a computer lab, as this would represent the opportunity to access the computer-based surveys. Even though the classes were selected at random, it is important to mention that the ASU’s demographic distribution was taken into consideration when proctored the service. In other words, the study tried to survey about the same percentage of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students as they are enrolled. Compared to the number of student s in each classification taken from Angelo State University’s website from the Fall 2008 count, we were able to see that the total respondents of the survey were a good representation of the student population. The table that follows shows the differences between the percent of each classification representative of the survey population and the Angelo State University population as a whole. Also, a total of 274 valid surveys were collected, which represents 4.8 percent of the student population.
Angelo State University / Survey Respondents / DifferenceFreshman / 2111 represents 37% / 95 represents 35.7% / -1.3%
Sophomores / 1140 represents 20% / 42 represents 15.8% / -4.2%
Juniors / 991 represents 18% / 34 represents 12.8% / -5.2%
Seniors / 1292 represents 23% / 73 represents 27.4% / +4.4%
Graduate Students / 128 represents 2% / 22 represents 8.3% / +6.3%
Part I:
The Information Technology survey has been applied and constantly modified for the past decade. It is composed by three different parts or factors that measure different variables. These factors focus on the attributes that the staff possesses, the services that the computer labs offer and the professionalism in which different services are performed. The first part of the survey which majorly composes the three factors aforementioned uses the SERVQUAL instrument that was developed by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry. The study originally started with seven different dimensions but it has difficulties maintaining distinctions after two stages of scale of purification. In the original study, the dimensions included Communications, Credibility, Security, Competence, Courtesy, Understanding and/or Knowledge of Customers and Access. However, they were later combined into five dimensions due to the similarities among two of them. These five dimensions were later combined within the three factors or categories of the survey by applying factor analysis. It is also important to mention that the first part of the survey is composed by twenty five questions in which we have applied the SERVQUAL method to provide the most accurate result.
Part II:
The second part of the survey is based on the services and products that Information Technology is currently offering to ASU students. The questions asked in this section change yearly as the Information Technology department wants to obtain feedback about the latest IT related trends among the student body. Furthermore, the Information Technology department provides some options for the students and asks their opinion about who they would feel if new services were implemented. In this way, IT can gain an insight into the students’ thoughts and opinions.
Part III:
This section is mainly composed by questions about the demographics of the students surveyed. Also, there are a variety of questions pertaining to feedback and what the students like about I.T and what would need to be improved from their perspective.
Distribution and Analysis
The data used for the distribution and the analysis came from the Information Technology surveys distributed from March 23rd and May 1st of 2009. As mentioned before, there were two kind of surveys handed out to the student body. The online survey that was accessed through an icon placed on the desktop of ASU computers. The second kind of survey was paper-based and given out to the students during their classes with the approval of their respective professors.
We got a total of 342 respondents and 274 of valid entries. Out of that number, approximately 154 surveys were paper based and 120 were taken online.
All the output of the online surveys was inputted in Microsoft Excel 2007. Some of the information needed such as demographics and the graphical representation of the results was obtain using said program. Also, the dataset in Excel was converted to SPSS in order to do the statistical analysis.
In order to analyze Part I of the survey, the SERQUAL method was used. According to “Delivering Service Quality”, by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, there are 22 questions within the SERVQUAL instrument. In an attempt to extract the questions that are not within the parameters set by SERVQUAL, we took the IT survey questionnaire and cross referenced it with the questionnaire found in the above book. The following are the questions included in the SERVQUAL analysis.
SERVQUAL / IT Survey Questionnaire1. XYZ Co. has modern-looking equipment. / 1. The computer labs containing state-of-the-art computers and peripherals. (Q21)
2. XYZ Co.’s physical facilities are visually appealing. / 2. A visually appealing computer lab (i.e. neat, clean, and organized). (Q12)
3. XYZ Co.’s employees are neat-appearing. / 3. Computer lab staff who are dressed appropriately for their position. (Q17)
4. Materials associated with the service (such as pamphlets or statements) are visually appealing at XYZ Co. / 4. Providing computing services as promised in the ASU catalog, computer lab brochure, or web page. (Q10)
5. When XYZ Co. promises to do something by a certain time, it does so. / 5. Services provided at times listed.(Q11)
6. When you have a problem, XYZ Co. shows a sincere interest in solving it. / 6. Staff who have the knowledge to answer my questions about computer lab policies, operating hours, software, and hardware. (Q3)
7. XYZ Co. performs the service right the first time. / 7. Computer response time during log-in or application loading. (Q18)
8. XYZ Co. provides its services at the time it promises to do so. / 8. Ability to find an available work-station in one of the six labs on campus. (Q14)
9. XYZ Co. insists on error-free records. / 9. Relying on the computer lab software and hardware to operate smoothly. (Q20)
10. Employees in XYZ Co. tell you exactly when services will be performed. / 10. Being directed by staff to an open workstation at another computer lab if the first computer lab is full. (Q15)
11. Employees in XYZ Co. give you prompt service. / 11. Receiving a prompt response to my computer lab problems and/or suggestions. (Q5)
12. Employees in XYZ Co. are always willing to help you. / 12. The computer staff’s willingness to help me. (Q1)
13. Employees in XYZ Co. are never too busy to respond to your requests. / 13. Computer lab staff can be distinguished from other students and are easy to identify. (Q13)
14. The behavior of employees in XYZ Co. instills confidence in you. / 14. The staff’s ability to instill confidence in me to use the computer lab software and hardware. (Q2)
15. You feel safe in your transactions with XYZ Co. / 15. Counting on the computer labs to have the software and hardware I need to complete assignments. (Q19)
16. Employees in XYZ Co. are consistently courteous to you. / 16. Computer staff who deal with me in a caring fashion. (Q4)
17. Employees in XYZ Co. have the knowledge to answer your questions. / 17. Staff who have the knowledge to answer my questions about software and hardware. (Q9)
18. XYZ Co. gives you individual attention. / 18. Disk space provided to me on the server (P: drive) is adequate for my data storage needs. (Q24)
19. XYZ Co. has operating hours convenient to all its customers. / 19. Convenience of normal operating hours to personal schedule. (Q16)
20. XYZ Co. has employees who give you personal attention. / 20. Computer staff who give me personal attention. (Q8)
21. XYZ Co. has your best interest at heart. / 21. Computer lab staff who have my best interest at heart. (Q6)
22. Employees of XYZ Co. understand your specific needs. / 22. Computer lab staff who understand my computing needs. (Q7)
So Q22 – the variety of software available in the computer lab, Q23 – the variety of special equipment (i.e. scanners and color printers) available in the computer labs, and Q25 – what is your overall satisfaction level with ASU computer labs have all been eliminated from the SERVQUAL analysis.