Leo Appleton, Liverpool John Moores University
9th Northumbria International Conference on
Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services
Quality Assurance in a
Super-converged Student
Support Service
Background to L&SS
•Library Services + Computing Services
•Student Administration (Enrolment, Registration, Coursework submission,
Student finance, Bursaries, Student Loans)
•Programme Administration (Progression advice, Module advice, Examination)
•Access to Welfare and Advice
•Access to Careers and Employability
Key issues
Change
Management
Service
Standards
Strategic
Planning
Values and
Behaviours
Quality
What did we measure and count?
• Headcounts
• Gatecounts
• SCONUL Returns
• Annual Statistics
• LibQUAL
• Feedback and Comments
scheme
• Boards of Study
• NSS feedback and
comments
Library and IT
Support
• Enrolments
• Registrations
• HESA Returns
• Number of coursework
submissions
• Speed of enrolment
• Speed of coursework
processing
• Enrolment survey
• Boards of Study
• Programme Boards
• Matrix assessment
• Number of appointments
• Number of referrals
• Retention numbers
• NSS feedback and
comments
• Graduate destinations
Student
Administration
and Finance
Welfare and
Careers
Why?
•What is it contributing to?
•How do we join things up?
•How do individual service areas feed into an
institutional development plan?
•Who do we benchmark against?
•Where are the common standards?
•Where are the common service levels?
•Where are the common values?
Justifying the impact and value
How do we know if what we are doing
and what we are providing is successful?
Quality Assurance Framework
• How do we know how well we are doing?
• How do we know how much impact we are
having on the student experience?
• How do we know whether we are meeting or
exceeding student expectations?
• How do we inform future developments and
make sure we are delivering consistently high
quality services?
Need to do something different?
Massive increase in customer
satisfaction – driven by changes in
management behaviours
Added value of staff and
measuring the impact of the
customer at the moment of truth!
Measure student satisfaction
at key moments of truth
Enrolment
Information skills
Staff support
Induction
Study support
Assessment
Measures of performance and
satisfaction for 2010-11
Quality Framework – Enrolment
Numbers
KPIs
Feedback
• No. of fastrack
enrolments
• No. of online
enrolments
• No. of successful
enrolments for
returning students
• Time taken to enrol
• % of new starters
successfully completing
fastrack enrolment
• % of successful online
enrolments
• % of students satisfied
with enrolment
• Bespoke enrolment
satisfaction surveys
• Fastrack
• Non-Fastrack
• Returning students
• Anomalies
Quality Framework – Induction
Numbers
KPIs
Feedback
• No. of Induction
sessions
• No. of students eligible
for induction
• % of eligible students
receiving induction
• % of students satisfied
with induction
• Standard pro-forma to be
completed at each
induction sessions (e.g.
which students, how many,
etc)
• Induction survey to be
completed by all students
at induction to measure
satisfaction with induction,
perceived usefulness of
induction
Quality Framework – Information Literacy
Numbers
KPIs
Feedback
• Number of info skills
sessions
• Number of students
eligible for info skills
• % of eligible students
receiving info skills
• % of students satisfied
with info skills
• Correlation with LMS/eresource usage
• Induction survey to be
completed by all students
at induction to measure
satisfaction with induction,
perceived usefulness of
induction
• Comments in LibQUAL
Quality Framework – Study Support
Numbers
KPIs
Feedback
• Number of different
types of enquiry
• Number of book loans
• Number of Downloads
• LMF spend per student
• Time taken for reshelving
• Time taken for
document delivery
• Enquiry by student/type
• Loans per student
• Correlation with LMS/eresource usage
• Downloads per student
• % of students satisfied
with enquiry service
• Exit survey at key times in
the year to measure
satisfaction with enquiry
services
• Feedback and comments in
LibQUAL and NSS
Quality Framework – Staff Support
Numbers
KPIs
Feedback
• Number of different
types of enquiry
• Number of
appointments made /
attended
• Time taken to respond
to enquiries and
referrals
• % of appointments
attended
• % of enquiries
responded to within
target time
• % of students satisfied
with enquiry services
• Feedback and comments
on staff support within
NSS, Mirror survey,
Comments scheme and
LibQUAL
• Periodic enquiry
satisfaction surveys
• Student Finance online
transaction survey
Quality Framework – Assessment
Numbers
KPIs
Feedback
• Number of coursework
submissions
• Times taken to get to
School Offices
• No of pieces of
coursework processed
within agreed service
standard - % satisfaction
rate
• % of coursework
arriving at School within
standard time frame
• School office satisfaction
survey
What now?
Establish robust systems to implement
L&SS Quality Assurance Framework
Staff understanding of Values
driven Quality Assurance
Commitment to quality improvement and continual
responsiveness approach to student feedback and
satisfaction
Thank You
• Leo Appleton, Associate Director, Library and
Student Support, Liverpool John Moores
University.
• l.appleton1@ljmu.ac.uk
• Appleton, L., (2010) ‘Living through super-convergence:
creating Library and Student Support at Liverpool John
Moores University, SCONUL Focus, 49, pp. 67-70
• Appleton, L., (2011) ‘Super-convergence. Liverpool John
Moores University, 7th October 2010, SCONUL Focus, 51, pp.
85-89