I’m just starting to pull our data out for the JISC Library Impact Data Project and I thought it might be interesting to look at 5 years of grades and book loans. Unfortunately, our e-resource usage data and our library visits data only goes back as far as 2005, but our book loan data goes back to the mid 1990s, so we can look at a full 3 years of loans for each graduating students.
The following graph shows the average number of books borrowed by undergrad students who graduated with an specific honour (1, 2:1, 2:2 or 3) in that particular academic year…
…and, to try and tease out any trends, here’s a line graph version….
Just a couple of general comments:
- the usage & grade correlation (see original blog post) for books seems to be fairly consistent over the last 5 years, although there is a widening between usage by the lowest & highest grades
- the usage by 2:2 and 3 students seems to be in gradual decline, whilst usage by those who gain the highest grade (1) seems to on the increase
Hello
Very Interesting stuff here, which we are also looking at in terms of reviewing our current LMS.
Was just wondering if you have any initial data from your e-resource usage stats and student attainment?
Hi Iain
Not as yet — I didn’t get chance to do the e-resource usage extract before going on leave. Hoping to get it done sometime next week.
Hello Dave
Thanks for the reply. I am currently writing the business case here and wanted to show if there was any correlation between e-resources and degree attainment. As we don’t currently have any ERM, fed search or link resolver we are trying to construct an argument that having these, or something else which will make the e-resources more visible, could have a possible impact on not only the student experience but also on student retention as well as degree attainment and therefore graduate employability.
I’ll keep a beady eye on this project and will refer to it in the business case (as long as it helps with our story ;-))
The quick & dirty check we did of two years worth of our data seemed to indicate that there might be a slightly stronger correlation for e-resource usage than books:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepattern/4749209561/
We’ve only received one set of data so far that includes e-resource usage and seems to tally with the above:
Grade & book loans: Pearson Correlation -0.163 (p-value 0)
Grade & Athens logins: Pearson Correlation -0.183 (p-value 0)