The Ultimate Survey: Asking One Question at a Time to Get Feedback from Library Users

ABSTRACT

Libraries use surveys and other instruments to gather feedback from their users. However, with competition from many other campus entities requesting input, how can survey fatigue be avoided? To gather this feedback, the Social Sciences Reference Desk utilized a short, fun and easy method. Each week for 10 weeks during the fall semester of 2017, the reference assistants wrote a survey question on a whiteboard and provided sticky notes for patrons to write their answers. The survey provided valuable information about patrons’ needs and expectations. It also fostered changes that were easily implemented to improve the delivery of library services.     

Long Distance Relationships: Assessing the Library Service Needs of Rural Students in eLearning Courses

ABSTRACT

In states with limited road accessibility, rural students can feel isolated from library services. This article explores the creation, implementation, and results of an on-going longitudinal study assessing the library service needs of rural students in eLearning courses. To align with current practices in online pedagogies, including the Association of College and Research Libraries' Standards for Distance Learning Library Services and recent revisions to the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, this survey has been designed to help the library identify and improve services to enhance rural student success.     

Determining validity and identifying nonresponse bias in a survey requesting income data

Two procedures for validating incomes self-reported in ranges by University of Kentucky doctoral graduates, one comparing grouped data to income data collected by the National Academy of Sciences (1974) for the same year, 1973, the other comparing individual self-report data in a double-blind process to state income tax records, indicating that the self-report data were generally accurate. A check of respondents versus nonrespondents in various categories (sex, age, graduation year, Holland type, Biglan type) showed no difference in the proportion of response in any category. Comparison of nonrespondent income with respondent income in state income tax records revealed that nonrespondents averaged almost $3,500.00 less income during that year than did respondents. This finding held true across all categories but two.     

Library Marketing on a Small Liberal Arts Campus: Assessing Communication Preferences

As part of a newly created library marketing plan, librarians at the College of Wooster undertook a study of the communication preferences of students, faculty, and staff in early 2015. The results of the survey helped to develop a comprehensive picture of what library resources and services these constituencies are interested in learning about, as well as when, where, and how they prefer to learn about them. This article describes the development, distribution, results, and analysis of the survey, and highlights the importance of campus-specific library marketing practices.     

社会调查活动在化学专业中的实施探索

具有搜集和处理信息并不断深入认识事物本质的社会调查活动,在教育教学中发挥着越来越重要的作用。该文分析了社会调查活动在化学专业教育中的作用,介绍了开展社会调查活动的过程、评价方式及实施中注意的问题。     

留学生口语修辞运用情况调查分析

修辞是调整语辞使其达意传情能够适切的一种努力,对外汉语修辞则是一种跨文化的言语交际行为,留学生的口语修辞比书面语修辞更应该得到重视。本文对在昆明的一些留学生的口语修辞运用情况进行了调查,借此发现他们在口语修辞方面存在的问题,并对如何提高留学生的口语修辞能力提出一些建议。     

Measuring perceptions of the learning environment and approaches to learning: validation of the learn questionnaire

While focus on quality in Danish higher education has been growing in recent years, limited attention has been devoted to developing and thoroughly validating instruments that allow collecting data about university students’ perceptions of the teaching-learning environment. Based on data from a large sample of Danish university students, a Danish version of the Learn questionnaire was validated using confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. Analyses confirmed the existence of three scales reflecting students’ approaches to learning and six scales reflecting students’ perception of the teaching-learning environment. The results suggest that the Danish version of Learn is a valid instrument to be used for evaluation of the teaching-learning environment as well as for research into Danish university students’ learning strategies.     

Handling missing data: analysis of a challenging data set using multiple imputation

Missing data is endemic in much educational research. However, practices such as step-wise regression common in the educational research literature have been shown to be dangerous when significant data are missing, and multiple imputation (MI) is generally recommended by statisticians. In this paper, we provide a review of these advances and their implications for educational research. We illustrate the issues with an educational, longitudinal survey in which missing data was significant, but for which we were able to collect much of these missing data through subsequent data collection. We thus compare methods, that is, step-wise regression (basically ignoring the missing data) and MI models, with the model from the actual enhanced sample. The value of MI is discussed and the risks involved in ignoring missing data are considered. Implications for research practice are discussed.     

对内蒙古工业化阶段的测试分析

关于工业化的判断标准，主要有四项指标，即人均GDP、产业结构、人顺就业结构和城市化水平。在当前我国已加入WTO及全球信息化的大背景下，也应考虑增加国内外贸易和信息化水平两项指标。依据选择的六项指标，按地区分组计算处理和分类侧度，可以看出内蒙古处在工业化初期阶段。