2 Quality Assurance Activities
As part of the ongoing quality assurance management plan, two surveys were
conducted in the areas of distance education and document delivery. Below is a
summary of the results for the Distance Education Survey and preliminary results
of the Document Delivery Survey.
2.1 Distance Education Survey
This survey of Library services offered to Monash University's distance
education students is one of several initiatives undertaken as part of Monash
University Library's Quality Assurance Program. The survey was designed to
provide an in depth view of how this group of users perceived a spectrum of
Monash Library services so that appropriate improvements could be made where
necessary.
1336 or 22.3% of the 6000 distance education students returned the
questionnaire mailed to them in July, 1996. The respondents covered the range of
disciplines taught, with 423 students from interstate, 881 from Victoria (over
half from Melbourne), and 17 from overseas.
Some of the key findings include:
- 73.1% of the respondents regularly made use of Gippsland Campus Library
services. A small proportion (26.4%) did not do so for a variety of reasons.
For example, 24.3% used their local library or another Monash Branch Library
instead. Two groups of non users were a cause for concern: one group who
said they did not use the Gippsland Campus Library service because they were
ignorant of its existence, and a second group who indicated that they did
not need library support to complete their course of study, perhaps
reflecting the way in which the program was structured and taught.
- Users were generally satisfied with the Library services provided,
although the level of satisfaction varied with the type of service. Measured
on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 least satisfied, 5 most satisfied) the average
satisfaction rates for students who used the services were:
- 3.7 for off campus response/delivery time
- 3.6 for ease of use
- 3.1 for meeting their assignment or research needs
- 3 for the off campus voluntary library levy.
- Distance education students could either communicate with Library staff by
telephone, fax, mail or dial up modem, or by visiting the Library in person.
Students were generally very satisfied with these various modes of
communication, with the telephone and fax services having ratings in excess
of 3.9. Over 64.1% of the respondents did not have networked access. Those
who did mainly used facilities from home or the office. A small proportion
made use of the facilities of public libraries (0.7%), other universities
(1.9%) or the University Telecentres (1.6%). Those who were remote users of
the Gippsland Campus Library expressed varying levels of satisfaction with
the range of services provided, as displayed in Table 1.
Table 1 Average levels of satisfaction with services
| Service |
Av. Satisfaction Rate |
Requested books
|
3.65
|
Requested photocopies
|
3.92
|
Requested literature searches
|
3.8
|
Dialled into the Library catalogue
|
3.62
|
Used the Library's CD-ROM network
|
3.44
|
Emailed off campus staff
|
3.85
|
Electronically requested material from
another Monash Library
|
2.94
|
Electronically renewed books/placed a
hold
|
3.52
|
Accessed the Library Home Page
|
3.59
|
Other
|
3.69
|
- Many distance education students also visited the Gippsland Campus
Library in person for a variety of purposes. Table 2 provides a list of
the most common activities and the average satisfaction rate for each
activity.
Table 2 Average satisfaction with services when attending in person
| Activity |
Av. Satisfaction Rate |
Used the Library catalogue
|
3.5
|
Used the reserve collection
|
3.54
|
Browsing
|
3.51
|
Borrowing material
|
3.9
|
Consulted reference sources
|
3.55
|
Consulted the reference/loans staff
|
3.79
|
Used the periodicals collection
|
3.54
|
Requested material from another Monash
branch Library
|
3.15
|
Attended a Library tutorial
|
3.61
|
- Although distance education students were on the whole very satisfied
with the services provided by the Library, they were less satisfied with
some of the facilities provided, eg photocopiers, audiovisual equipment
and study facilities. These facilities had average satisfaction rates of
less than 3.5, as shown in Table 3.
Table 3 Average levels of satisfaction with facilities.
| Facilities
| Av. Satisfaction Rate |
Photocopiers
|
3.13
|
Audiovisual equipment
|
3.34
|
Study facilities
|
3.31
|
Library hours
|
3.74
|
Telephone service
|
3.90
|
- The qualitative section of the survey elicited additional insights.
Suggestions for other services included STD dial-in to the electronic
Library, more information on electronic Library services, an answering
machine, longer opening hours during weekend schools, and Monash-wide
rechargeable copy cards. Issues evoking both positive and negative
comments included the Enhanced Off Campus Library Service which was
introduced in 1996, electronic services, the telephone service, delivery
of Library materials, and access to other libraries.
On the whole, distance education students were satisfied with the
services provided by the Library. Nevertheless, there are some areas
which can be improved, for example, the intercampus loan service, the
photocopying service (which in Gippsland is not managed by the Library).
It is not surprising that the Enhanced Off Campus Library service had a
lower average satisfaction rate than most of the other services because
it involves payment of a service fee. The Library probably needs to sell
this concept more vigorously to persuade students of the value of the
heavily subsidised service. While there was a low level of satisfaction
with the physical facilities, these will be improved when the new
Gippsland Campus Library building is completed.
2.2 Document Delivery Survey
A survey of all academic and postgraduate students was conducted in November
1996 to determine who used document delivery services and how satisfied they
were with these services. The results of the survey will be available in
1997 and will provide the Library with information to further refine
document delivery services.
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