Listening to Our Students: Enhancing Library Instruction Through a Qualitative Assessment of Student Feedback
Date
2012-07Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In our ongoing effort to foster a culture of customer service
excellence, Texas A&M University Libraries uses LibQUAL+ to conduct
annual reviews of service quality as measured by those who matter most; our
patrons. This yearly practice reflects our belief that, “only customers judge
quality … [and that] … all other judgments are essentially irrelevant.”
(Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 2006). In an attempt to apply this
philosophy to library instruction the authors examined approximately 25,000
post-instruction questionnaires collected from undergraduate and graduate
students between 2005 and 2010. Free-text comments from the questionnaires
were transferred to ATLAS.ti and the data was coded to identify common
themes, patterns and issues across a range of demographics.
This study had two aims. Our first objective was to capitalize on the rich source
of qualitative data that student feedback provides as a basis for the development
of instructional training programs. This is in contrast to the typical situation in
which librarians, reflecting in isolation, seek to improve only their own
instruction sessions. Using student feedback at a programmatic level, however,
introduces a new dynamic; peer-to-peer learning. This simple initiative, we
argue, takes the use of qualitative data to a new level and, in doing so,
represents a significant advance in the training and development of instruction
librarians. Our second objective was to expand and enrich the discourse on the
scholarship of teaching within bibliographic instruction. We feel there should be
a greater consideration within the literature of other voices, especially those of
our students.
Subject
Library InstructionAssessment
Student Feedback
Questionnaires
ATLAS.ti
Qualitative Research
Academic Libraries
Students
Customer Service
Department
University LibrariesCollections
Citation
Goodwin, Susan; Budzise-Weaver, Tina (2012). Listening to Our Students: Enhancing Library Instruction Through a Qualitative Assessment of Student Feedback. ISAST. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /152224.