Abstract
This collaborative project, between the library and student guidance services at a medium-sized UK university, used qualitative User Experience (UX) techniques to explore Computing undergraduates’ experiences of support services. The research found that most students struggled with academic skills, and felt they had lacked support in developing academic literacies. Students were often unaware of support services available from student guidance and the library. Many struggled to balance studying with work, commuting, or family life. Lack of time due to external commitments may be a barrier to accessing support services. This research project has suggested several avenues for future research, including a larger-scale study to investigate demographic categories such as mature students and overseas students, and an exploration of the needs of commuter students.
Highlights
This study examines how Computing undergraduates experience support services, and how these can be better utilised to support students’ development of academic literacies
The current study aims to fill this gap by exploring how students view study skills and support services as part of their overall experience of studying and university life
They found the standards higher than they had experienced in further education (FE), with more emphasis on self-directed study:
Summary
This study examines how Computing undergraduates experience support services, and how these can be better utilised to support students’ development of academic literacies. The study focused on Computing students because previous research had found that these students showed disproportionately low use of the library (Collins and Stone, 2014). This is a concern, as library use correlates with both higher grades and higher retention (Abrams and Jernigan, 1984; Soria et al, 2013; Stone and Ramsden, 2013; Collins and Stone, 2014). The cross-team approach allowed us to explore how both the library (which provides information literacy support across the whole university) and student guidance (which provides study skills and personal development support to students in the School of Computing and Engineering (SCE)) were seen by students. Study skills and information literacy are closely linked so exploring both together allowed us to identify where further collaboration could be useful
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