Using google forms for feedback

Using google forms is proving to be a quick and easy way of getting feedback from students who use our Edinburgh campus library.  We have already been using them for recording quick, easily resolvable enquiries at the library service desk so decided to try them out last year for feedback.

The feedback that we wanted to capture was about the purpose of visits to the library and consisted of three questions

What is the purpose of your visit to the library today?

How long do you intend to stay in the library today?

If more facilities could be added to the library, which 3 are the most important?

There were a selection of options to choose from for questions 1 and 3.

The questions were printed out and handed to students to fill in at the library service desk.

We had 513 responses and the feedback helped to inform developments in the library last summer including the  installation of new group study spaces that have proven very popular with students.

Although the forms were printed out the responses were entered by staff into the google form online and this made it very easy to collate the responses and produce a summary.

This year, at the same time of year, we produced an updated form to collect feedback based again on the purpose of visits to the library. The questions were similar in that question 1 and 2 were the same and question 3 was ‘If more study spaces could be added to the library for next semester, which 3 are the most important’?
Respondents could select more than one response.
Copies of the form were printed out and distributed at the Library service desk as before. Also in order to promote the form, a link to it was posted on the Information Services Facebook page and twitter feed.  This resulted in quite a few online responses – of the total 373 responses, 291 paper and 82 electronic.
The responses were input into the google form which automatically populates a spreadsheet of results. The other useful feature of a google form is that it automatically produces a summary of results in an easy to read format.

The results show a preference for individual study spaces which is a reflection of the time of year leading up to revision but also reflects the room usage figures that we collect.
Preferences for future developments show a demand for individual study spaces  and in fact more study spaces of all kinds. Students selected more than one type of study space that they would like to see in the future.

 

Our busy LRC

Our Learning Resources Centre is busy - busy in a summer term way rather than an autumn term way. 
We are always busy but our 'footfall' has gradually increased throughout the year and we now average over 1250 accesses a day.  Tuesday is our most exciting day of the week as we have over 1500 entries (last Tuesday 1543) - that is a lot of students.  These are not all unique users but the majority of them are and few are just passing through. By 9.30 this morning we had had 274 students accessing the space and 137 of our computers were in use. 
The brilliant thing is that it is not chaotic.  The autumn term can be chaotic especially when we we are doing induction sessions and there are lots of new students.  This is where the management of the learning environment and the expertise of the staff is essential.  Basically if you have a library or LRC which is just a space with books, computers, tables and chairs in it it will not be effective. 
I'm not talking about rules here - I'm not a believer in the 'library rules' syndrome where lots of 'Dos and Do Nots' are displayed and followed to the letter and heaven forbid anyone who breaks a rule even if it is not working.  But you do need a framework, a framework which you can flex and bend in order to provide the best service for students and staff.  The difficult bit is finding a balance and being prepared to let it change and evolve.  Students change throughout the year, they work differently - by the summer term they are more purposeful, they have assignments to complete and they know where and when they want to work.  In the Autumn they need more guidance to find what they want and need.
Learning Resources Centres and Libraries take on the character and personalities of the students and staff that use them and the staff that manage and work in them and that is where we have a responsibility to ensure that it works.

and on a more cheery note...things to look forward to

1. Kindles - although we've had them for a few months now we have been loaning them to staff and students within the LRC just to see what they think.  Although there has been some interest we have decided that we need to have a 'proper' pilot and promote their usage across the curriculum.  We are starting from today and have four lecturers / tutors who are interested in using them with their students.
2. Electronic Course File to SharePoint - we are moving our electronic course file from the content collection on our VLE to our Intranet on SharePoint.  Hopefully this will make it a bit easier to access for staff.
3. Online collaboration / virtual classroom - we are continuing to use Mizaru which is an Adobe Connect customised solution to train staff and a lot of this is part of our LSIS Leadership in Technology project.  The next session is on Wednesday and it will include some more interactivity on the part of participants with them becoming presenters and hosts and running some of the session (hopefully)
4. Inductions - it's that time of year when we have to plan what we are going to do for inductions in September.  Last year we had the 3D Induction experience plus interactive feedback - this year we are going to try and combine the successes of last year into an online experience.  It's still at the early planning stages so will be interesting to see what we can and can't do.  I also want to try and do something using Augmented Reality - a self directed familiarisation tour - don't know how yet but I'm sure it's a possibility.
5. Journals - it has been the dreaded J word for much of this year - some of our journals don't get used much but I'm not sure why, whether it's lack of demand or lack of awareness.  We are going to promote them both the paperbased and the electronic formats.
6. Mobile App - our mobile app that we launched in January has been successful.  The next phase with more fuctionality including a library app is planned for release in August.