Left-field: do students use the EDS search limiters?

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Regent’s is…

‒An independent university‒A charity‒A not-for-profit higher education

formed of seven schools‒A multisite Library service

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“Developing tomorrow’s global leaders”

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Regent’s University Londoninteresting times…

‒ Higher education on the site since 1908 through Bedford College

‒ Regent’s College grew out of different educational institutions 1984 – 2009

‒ Became a University and acquired AIU London in April 2013

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RULDiscovery

‒Purchased: summer of 2012‒ Implementation: August –

October 2013‒Popular!

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RULDiscovery focus group : November 2014

6 attendees: all undergrads, different business degrees

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‒Purpose: to start gathering feedback about use and experience of RULDiscovery

‒Make amendments based on that feedback

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‒Method: short written questionnaire

‒ 10 minute EDS observed searching exercise

‒ 30 minute structured discussion

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The question:

“Do you think that’s preferable…to have this bar (the left-hand limiters) on the side to see what options you can use to narrow your search down?”

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BA Global Management 1st year

‒ “…I think the options on the side are the most helpful part of the whole thing because not many people go to the advanced search because there’s the ‘And’ ‘Or’ and stuff like that and it gets really confusing…so it just makes it easier for you, especially when you’re under a bit of pressure to get loads of essays done.”

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BA International Business Management 3rd year

‒ “Yeh I think it’s perfect, it’s simple to go on the side and have it already there for you to click besides having to change the screen and go into advanced search.”

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BA Media Communications with Management 2nd year

‒ “It’s what you expect a school resource to look like, it’s different from Google”

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Conclusions:

‒Very few of the participants used the limiters in the searching exercise

‒However, all thought that the limiters were important and shouldn’t be hidden

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‒Disconnect between views and use of the discovery service

‒Questions around the idea and expectations of an academic resource…

CC creative commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrzeon/

5 individual interviews: March 2015

undergrad and postgrad participants, mix of business and psychology

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‒Purpose: To learn more about how students search

‒To explore the idea of what students think academic resources should/do look like

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‒Method: 10 minute observed searching exercise

‒ 30 minute structured interview, using EDS and Google

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Search box is king‒Students’ searching style is influenced and controlled by growing up with Google‒They search discovery services as they would Google

Findings…

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Choice is good…?‒They value the options which the limiters provide, although they don’t often know about them or use them‒They like the idea of the limiters‒They know EDS would be less valuable without the limiters

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Information overload‒Amount of information students face makes them selective/‘blind’ to EDS features/limiters‒They are likely to stick to what they know/have been shown‒Limiter column clutters the page

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“overwhelming”

“cognitive overload”

“takes too much time”

2nd year Psychology

2nd year Global Financial Management

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‒Students understand that the limiters are what sets a resource like EDS apart from Google

2nd year Global Financial Management

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Academic resources‒‘relevant’, free and instant access content ‒Google is generally seen as an academic resource‒Easiest search wins

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Academic searching‒Traditional searching style quickly

disappearing ‒Students no longer understand it or

think it’s necessary ‒ It’s not about discovery, it’s about

finding

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Recommendations

‒The limiter section should be better sign-posted when hidden

‒Relevance algorithms need to be improved

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A look into the future??

3rd year International Business Management

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