LRC Annual Student Survey 2010-2011
Written by: Mark Gallagher, Director of Learning Resources
CC: Kevin Gilmartin, Principal, Jonathan Wallis, Vice Principal , Leadership Group,CAL’s,LRC Dept,
File, LRC website
Abstract
As with last year the LRC Spring Term survey was hosted online with a disappointing response rate that may compromise the validity of correlations between this and last year’s data. Students reported a broad satisfaction with the range of information resources and the other services provided by the LRC, although the profile of OpenAthens portfolio of databases needs to be raised amongst all cohorts. Students were also vocal in their free text comments on the need for the LRC plant to be improved with suggestions for new furniture and a brighter environment as well as access to a rich range of technological support, both onsite and within Moodle.
Introduction
As with last year the LRC annual survey was conducted in the second half of the SpringTerm,March 20010/11with the expectation that all students would be surveyed. Similarly to last year’s survey return were very poor with 224 responses, equating to 27.3% of the student roll, a fall of almost 10% on last year. This was disappointing as all tutors had been notified and the pastoral team had also been informed well in advance that the survey would take place.
Methodology
Much of the year’s survey (see addenda 1) replicatesthe questioning and structure of 2009/10. The survey consisted of a combination of 16multiple choice and open-ended questions in order to harvest a rich variety of qualitative data. In order to improve the overall student experience and automate time consuming data analysis it was decided to build and host the survey using a leading open source survey tool,Lime Survey. All tutors received instructions in advance via tutorial group and email with the contingency of a paper copy of the survey or use of the ICT suite if tutors believed their own laptop or PC access to be poor. It was anticipated that these preparations would be sufficient to ensure an improvement on the poor return rate of 2009/10. This year we decided to include a question about student usage of Moodle support courses for Q4. And for Q10 we asked ‘What LRC supportwould you like to see developed in Moodle?’ to gauge what support and media formats students preferred as well as providing an indication of the preferred learning styles of each cohort.
Results
The return rates are indicated below. Given the captive nature of the sample population and the speed with which the online survey could be completed (approximately 8-10 minutes) it was disappointing to receive such a poor return rate from all cohorts, but in particular for theFirst and Second Year Vocational groups. Such low return rates inevitably introduce the threat of bias distorting the data, withconclusions made being unrepresentative of the sample population. Given this inherent bias it is extremely difficult to make strict correlations between this and last year’s survey data.
Q1. Which Year Group do you belong to? All Cohorts
2010-11
2009-10
Q2. How often do you visit LRC?
The totals for the entire sample indicate that 41% of students claim to visit the LRC on a daily basis compared to 52.1% for 2009/10. Higher students visit daily at 45% compared to 50.9% for 2009-10, and First Year GCSE 30.65% compared to 62.5%. For all cohorts 70.9% claimed to visit the LRC on a daily or weekly basis, a fall of 20.9% on 2009-10.
Q3. If you answered “Never” to Q2. why not?
1 Response
The LRC is always busy and there aren't enough computers.
Q4. Do you find that the LRC meets yours needs for the following type of resources?
Table for all cohorts.Always / Most of the time / Some-times / Never / I don’t need this resource
Books to support studies / 22% / 20% / 28.57 / 8% / 10%
Reference books e.g. Dictionaries / 22% / 23% / 19% / 9% / 11%
Books for leisure e.g. fiction / 17.4% / 20.9% / 20.54% / 7.14% / 15.62%
Magazines / journals / 14.64% / 16.07% / 21.88% / 11.61% / 17.86%
Tapes, CDs, DVDs to support studies / 13.39% / 17.41% / 17.41% / 10.27% / 20.09%
Study spaces / 25.89% / 25.45% / 20.54% / 8.93% / 8.93%
Computers to work on / 24.11% / 26.34% / 22.32% / 11.16% / 7.59%
Photocopying / 36.61% / 21.43% / 18.30% / 3.57% / 9.38%
VLE Athens Databases e.g. NewsUK, Oxford Reference Online, Gale Schools / 13.39% / 12.95% / 19.64% / 6.25% / 22.32%
VLE Infoskills pages Moodle / 20.09% / 20.54% / 17.86% / 5.80% / 15.18%
Books to support studies
For all students the figures for study book relevance measured as ‘Always’, ‘Most of the time’ and ‘Sometimes’ has decreased from 87.5%last year to 70.59%. Although the rate for ‘Always’relevant has increased from19.6% to 22%. First Year GCSE expressed satisfaction with the range of curricular related books measured as ‘Always’ and ‘Most of the time’ at 36.74% a drop of 53.56% on 2009/10 and 45.65% for the Higher Students a drop of 65.65%. This result, apart from again attribution to bias as a result of a potentially unrepresentative sample, is both perplexing and worrying. The buying policy of the department remains firmly wedded to the needs of the curriculum through the use of curricular mapping and is complimented through regular contact with CA’s. We have also, due to our use of an institutional amazon account, been able to expedite and process student resource request very quickly (often next day) rather than the previous delivery estimate of up to two weeks. This drop in usage of hardcopy information sources is not matched by a concomitant increase in the use of our Athens database portfolio, perhaps indicating that students are still relying on a very narrow selection of online information retrieval tools and more significantly that teaching staff are still accepting a narrow selection of free online information sources in any bibliography of cited works.
Reference books and dictionaries
For all students 64% indicated that the reference stock was relevant to their needs measured as ‘Always’ ‘Most of the Time’ and ‘Sometimes’ adecrease of 12.9% on 2009/10.
Books for leisure
There has been a slight drop in all students stated satisfaction with the fiction stock with 58.84% satisfied measured as Always” Most of the time” and “Sometimes” compared to 65.3% for 2009/10. The LRC has paid a great deal of attention over the past year to, not only buying to support the needs of the English curriculum, but also selecting leading prize winning and World Fiction (especially that of Africa and the Middle East). It continues to remain a worry that 24.19% of First Year GCSE students do not think that the fiction stock is relevant compared to 12.50% for Higher students. Anecdotal data from the team’s conversations with students seems to indicate that although students are aware of the increase in the breadth and range of the collection over the past year that curriculum reading takes precedence over reading for leisure. It would be intriguing to discover what percentage of students are now using their own handheld devices to access fictional E-book content.
Magazine/journals
For all students the numbers of students satisfied with the relevance of journals and magazines has decreased by 9.59% to 52.59% compared to 61%in 2009/10, measured as ‘Always’ ‘Most of the time’ and ‘Sometimes’. Amongst the cohorts 44.1% ofFirst Year GCSE students expressed satisfaction with the relevance of the resources compared to 57.49% for Higher students. Again this figure is disappointing given the range and breadth of journal resources available. Anecdotally staff have noticed an increase in the use of very finely focused publications such as the Phillip Allan update series for the A1/ A2 cohorts.
Tapes DVD’s to support studies
The LRC has now completed the phasing out of obsolete VHS format with DVD and are well on the way to replacing the tape collection with audio CD or alternative online resources. As with last year we have continued to diversify the collection to reflect the needs of all curriculum areas by buying an increasing range of documentaries. Satisfaction for all cohorts measured as “Always” “Most of the time” and “Sometimes” has remained static at 45.16%. Looking at satisfaction within the cohorts measured as “Always”“Most of the Time” and “Sometimes”the First Year cohort satisfaction has increased 2% on last year to 45.16% while the Highercohort has increasedfrom 48.6% to 50.07 afour year high.
Study Spaces
With 62 non PC study spaces the LRC has not increased capacity on last year and continues to fail to meet previous sector (FEFC) guidelines that 20% of students should be accommodated at any one time in learning resource or study centres. The development of a new office space in what was a substantial section of the Careers Suite will not improve the provision of study space and is a perplexing move by the institution. For all cohorts 71% of students stated that they were satisfied with the supply of study spaces compared to 91% from last year measured as “Always”“Most of the time” and “Sometimes”. This drop in satisfaction can be correlated to the growing inflexibility of the LRC study spaces given developments in student’s access to model technologies and the increasing use of cloud computing applications. Students increasingly work with a range of traditional and mobile technologies and currently the LRC in common with the rest of the site does not offer a study environment conducive to changes in student’s use of technology or study habits. However, the summer promises a radical departure with moves to create a Creative Commons* where an intelligent deployment of new technology, coupled with timetabling and staffing changes will hopefully improve the study utility of the LRC.
Computers to work on
This year shows student satisfaction with the computer provision in the LRC remaining broadly static from 2009/10 at 50.4% measured as either ‘Always’ or ‘Most of the time’. The number of students who reported that they never need to use an LRC desktop machine has increased by 6.9% this year to 7.9% perhaps reflecting the use by some students of handheld devices.
Photocopying
Satisfaction with the photocopying facilities remains high at 78.6% of students ‘always’ most of the time’ and ‘Sometimes’ finding the facilities meet their needs. Students have also become aware, through LRC advertising, that the photocopier is also enabled as a network scanner.
VLE AthensDatabases
For all student cohorts there was a precipitous drop of 45% in satisfaction with the Athens authenticated portfolio of proprietary databases from a satisfaction level in 2009-10 measured as “Always”“Most of the time” and “Sometimes”. Looking at the Higher cohort 49.38% expressed satisfaction with these resources down from 57% in 2009-10 and First Year GCSE students 38.71 were satisfied with the resources compared to 42.3%in 2009/10. It will remain to be seen whether the mediocre levels of satisfaction can be correlated to a reduction in the use of the Athens portfolio of databases, albeit with caution to the bias of this result, it is a surprise given the information literacy outreach that the LRC has effected over the course of the year and the favourable feedback from many teaching staff.
VLE Infoskills and study skills pages
This is a revised question about student’s satisfaction with a package of online support resources incorporated into Moodle, the Sixth Form VLE. The LRC has digitised a range of online guides both to information literacy aptitudes (finding, locating evaluating and synthesising information) as well as creating a bespoke online resource for EPQ students to compliment interventions through lectures and one to one reference librarianship. For all cohorts 52% of students were satisfied with these resources measured as “Always” “Most of the Time” and “Sometimes” with only 5.8% indicating that thought that these resources would never be useful. The high number of no answers for this question makes any correlation difficult, although, when coupled with student anecdote about EPQ online support it would seem that students have a desire for more support to be provided to aid the gamete of research activities in a variety of media format. To this end the LRC has diversified the range and media of online Moodle support using text animation and audio-visual screencast technology to better meet the differentiated needs of our diverse student body.
Q5. If you ticked ‘Never’or ‘Sometimes’ above how could we improve our resources for you?
All cohorts;
Increase improve range of DVDs10
Need more study space 20
Improve the fiction book collection 5
Improve the non-fiction collection 7
There were some very thoughtful responses to this question with students suggesting for example particular genres of fiction which required expansion or improvement and how we could better use space to improve the balance of private and more social study.
Q6. How often do you use MyPC to book your PC time inthe LRC?
MYPC allows students to book the LRC’s 32 networked PCs up to two weeks in advance and is available from every Sixth Form desktop. The usage levels of MYPC for all cohorts has fallen from to 35% measured as “Once a day” and “Once a week” for 2009/10 to 27% this year. Additionally, the percentage of students never using it for all cohorts has risen from 31.9% in 2009/10 to 39% this year. The level of ignorance of the system has stayed broadly static from last year at 10% of all students.
Q7. If you answered'Never' to the previous question, why not?
73 free text responses received including;
A computer is always available 23
Unaware of the system 4
Prefer to work from home at a PC 3
Use the PCs in F6 2
Q8. Have you used the LRC catalogue to find books, journal articles and DVDs eitherfrom Moodle or from the standalonePCin the LRC?
The LRC catalogue has now been available from any internet connected PC for the past two academic years. The LRC has attempted to raise the profile of the catalogue through integration within Moodle and through the use of widgets within individual Moodle courses. This year (albeit from the last term) the LRC has been making the catalogue a more federated platform with the addition of E-books websites and reviews in an effort to increase student use of quality information resources. For all cohorts 34% indicated that they used the LRC catalogue an increase of 9.6% on last year. For the higher cohort the figure of usage increases to 37%, this increased awareness may be reflective to the close information literacy support hat has been done with students from the EPQ, History, Word development, Geography World Development and Science programmes over the course of the year.
Q9. If you answered 'Yes' to the question above how would you rateyour confidence usingthe LRC online catalogue.
If the data is amended to remove the skewing effect of no answers then of all cohorts approximately 12% of users are Very Confident with 60% reasonably confident in the use of the LRC catalogue.
Q10. What LRC supportwould you like to see developed in Moodle?
This is a new question for this year and was designed to provide an impression of the type of support media format that students would like to see incorporated into the LRC Moodle courses. T also may provide a glimpse of the preferred learning styles of our students. For all students there was a strong response to all of the suggested media types and it is interesting to note that 43.75% were interested in the provision of courses to support the broad range of research activities that students could find themselves involved in while at WMSF. The model for this type of provision has already been set by the creation of an EPQ research support unit.
What LRC supportwould you like to see developed in Moodle?Answer / Count / Percentage
Help video clips (1) / 55 / 34.38%
Research courses (2) / 70 / 43.75%
Podcasts (3) / 23 / 14.37%
Help documents Word/PowerPoint etc. (4) / 57 / 35.62%
Q11. How would you rate the LRC staff support for your information needs?
This question seeks to measure student’s perceptions of the success of the LRC team in meeting student’s information needs, through classroom teaching, reference work, guiding and day to day advice. For all students 69% find the LRC staff ‘Always helpful’ or ‘Usually helpful’ a decrease of 2% from 2009/10. It is to be noted, however, that only 3% of respondents felt that staff were unhelpful a vindication of the LRC’s attempts to provide students with a professional level of learning support.
Q13. Please comment on your answer to the question above.
A selection of comments;
They are pleased to help when asked.
If I need help they are always there to provide help and support. To also show me resources if I can't find what I need.
They always try to help as much as they can.
They always provide the right information and they help you out when you ask for it.
They are always helpful when we need them, which is really good, shows that they are really committed and ready to be there for us anytime.
The LRC team ROCK.
Q14. How easy is it to find what you are looking for in the LRC?(Think about signs and layout).
For all students 89% thought that the LRC was effectively signed and amenable to their browsing needs. This compares to 95.4% of students indicated that they feel it is “Easy” or “Usually OK” to locate resources and facilities in the LRC for 2009/10.
Q15. How would you rate the study atmosphere in the LRC?