In both years being analyzed in this report, there is some discrepancy in students reporting whether or not they used the online course librarian. There were two survey questions that asked students to indicate their usage of the OCL:
In the 2011-2012 year, there is a 16% difference between the two answers, with students more likely to respond that they used the OCL in the question: “Did you contact the online course librarian for assistance?” In the 2014-2015 Academic year there is only an 8% difference between the two answers, but more students said they used the online course librarian in response to the first question.
Combining both years it becomes clear that the most used resources are the Library Databases, the Course Librarian and ILLiad. This shows that the focus of students is on finding articles in these courses and that they are utilizing the online course librarian as a resource in their research.
The number of students who responded that they contacted the online course librarian for assistance is split almost evenly when combining the data from both years. There was percentage growth in the 2014/2015 Academic Year in the students that responded that they did contact the course librarian.
Most students are accessing the library from either the library link on the main SVSU Web page or from the library link within their Vspace course. These answers were consistent both years. Most students are not reaching out to the librarians or the library directly for support, instead are just going directly to the library website and researching. This means that the instructional portions of the courses are key, since students need to know how to properly use the website and resources.