1. Technology Services
2. askIT
3. Policies and Publications
4. Surveys & Feedback
5. Satisfaction Surveys
6. Spring 2009 Student Survey

Spring 2009 Student Survey

Technology Services conducted a satisfaction survey of VCU students, spring 2009, using the TechQual+ survey instrument. TechQual+ is a 3 year old survey based on the same methodology used successfully for many years by the Association of Research Libraries' LibQUAL+ survey. While the relative immaturity of the TechQual+ project means that the results are unlikely to be as reliable as LibQUAL+, the survey does provide us with insights into where we need to concentrate on improving services.

Conclusions

Technology Services greatly appreciates the time and effort that many of you put in to complete the Spring 2009 Student Satisfaction Survey. Based on the survey findings and on analysis of the open-ended questions and suggestions, the network -- and most specifically, the wireless network – and email are the 2 areas that clearly stood out as most in need of improvement. When asked “In your opinion, how would you most like to see technology services improve at VCU in the next 2 years?” students overwhelmingly mentioned wireless (39%) and email (19%).

Overall, these student survey results were more positive than the Fall 2008 Faculty & Staff Technology Services Satisfaction Survey.  However, with the exception of “Banner usability”, which was not identified as a significant problem by students, this student survey pointed to the same areas for improvement that the faculty/staff survey pointed to:

1. Network reliability and speed
2. E-mail
3. Consistency in problem resolution
4. Wireless
5. Macintosh support

For a number of these, work has already been underway for some time to improve service and reliability. The links at the top of the page will direct you to brief summaries of the analysis of these areas of need and our action plans for improvement.

In comparing senior responses to freshman responses, one question stood out – “Having access to important university provided technology services from my mobile device.”  Freshmen had much higher expectations for this service than did seniors, providing evidence that confirms what we thought, that major change is underway regarding the importance of mobile devices to students.

Again, thanks to the many of you who took your time to provide your feedback about how we are doing and make suggestions on how we can improve. This document will be updated over the next year with our progress as we work to address the issues that were pointed out. We intend to survey students as well as faculty and staff using this same survey instrument during fall 2009.

It is always helpful to us for you to report problems that you have to the VCU helpIT Center (828-2227, help@vcu.edu) with as many specific details as possible. Please do not assume that we are aware of a problem. It is similar to a power outage in a neighborhood. If everyone in the neighborhood assumes that their neighbor has reported the outage, the power will not get restored because the power company may not know there is a problem.

Your comments on these plans are welcome. You will be asked to authenticate to ensure that comments are from VCU, but your comment will be stored anonymously. Please include your name and contact information if you would like a response.

Complete Survey Results

2009 Spring Technology Services Student Satisfaction Survey 

This article was updated: 07/2/2013