The Process of Conversion of the Paper Form of the Survey

In describing the process of how the Web survey was created and what factors of format, design and contents were taken into consideration, I will be building on the comparison of the two surveys.

First I will concentrate on the content, later describing in fuller detail the design and format decisions that I had to make while building the Web survey. It is important to note that all decisions on change of content of the questions were based on the nature of outcomes that I was looking into within the framework of my research questions as well as the theoretical framework of my research.

The paper form questionnaire consisted of 23 questions. The first 2 questions were multiple choice questions about motivation to take the course and how the students learned about the course:

In the Web survey the first question stayed the same; the only difference was that the respondents were given a choice to check all the items that applied:

Based on feedback from the second pilot survey as well as discussion with my committee members, Question 2 was dropped from being included in the Web survey. How students learned about the course did not seem to have a big influence on the impact of the course as compared to motivation.

East St. Louis has been a major site for implementing the service-learning and community projects within the course, along with a few sites in Urbana-Champaign, Danville and so on for all the years included in the study. In East St. Louis, a community with a high incidence of poverty that was desperate for help with information technology and training, the students were potentially getting their richest experiences including work on community projects. So asking the question about the location of the project was quite important.

The next four questions of the original questionnaire were as follows:

Multiple choices within Question 3 and Question 4 were consolidated into one before they were transferred into a Web version. For example, in Question 3 the three different

technological skills of understanding about computers, increase of knowledge in computer networking and comfort level with computers were brought together as general technological skills. In Question 4 the second choice: changed the understanding of people living in poverty was dropped and view of library and information services was consolidated with the way I think about LIS professions. The skills mentioned in Question 5: leadership, communication and teamwork skills are the core of the personal outcomes as the result of the service-learning experience, thus they were retained and transformed into the Web version the way they were and presented in a separate table. The table functionalities of Inquisite helped to place each single category in a separate row. Level of agreement is based on a Likert Scale. Question 6 was totally dropped from the Web survey: while understanding personal strengths and weaknesses while doing work in the community is important, they were already suggested in other questions. Enhancement of the ability to work with community organizations and members as one of the important outcomes of service learning was added as another row in the Table with Q3 and Q4.

The two tables described above were created in Inquisite survey builder using “choose one (radio button)” format which is used to solicit a forced choice from a set of possibilities, in my case a Likert Scale starting from Strongly Agree and ending with Strongly Disagree. The question also supports an optional Comments box, which allows the respondents to enter a different choice from the ones that were provided.

Questions 7 through Question 13 in the print questionnaire were open-ended questions. Transferring open-ended questions into the Web survey format was straightforward. Depending on how long you expect the answer to be you have to insert two types of boxes: Text Question box and Paragraphs (memo field). In an instance of a text question the number of characters that respondents can enter is restricted and this box allowed up to 255 characters. A paragraph field is used when the respondents are encouraged to provide more extensive information than what will fit in a text question. The memo field is limited to a maximum of 32,000 characters.

Realizing the value and impact of both negative and positive experiences of the students in LIS 315/451 course, Question 7 of the paper form of the questionnaire: Please briefly characterize your experiences in the course, highlighting both positive and negative aspects was incorporated into two separate questions in the Web survey and the one with the least valuable experience was stated first. For both questions as well as for the rest of the open-ended questions that were transferred into the Web survey, I used the paragraph (memo field) boxes to give the respondents enough space to talk about their experiences.

Questions 8, 9, 10 on other community experiences before, during and after GSLIS (see below) were completely excluded from the Web survey taking into consideration that the major focus of the research was the specific experience in the course and how it impacted the respondents.

A central question of the whole study is the impact of the course on career development, so Question 11 was transferred into the Web survey with only a slight change in a wording.

Question 12 on what the respondents remembered most and Question 13 for additional comments on the impact

were incorporated into one question on the impact on the students and their subsequent careers, and grouped at the same page with a central question on career development.

were transferred into the Web survey with the exclusion of questions about the term the course was taken, presuming that not everyone would remember the term and it was not of the same significance as the semester/year they graduated. Those questions with additions to the question on the start time of professional work which was listed as Question 22 in the paper form were also grouped together on the Web survey. While the Age category was placed in a single choice button selection table, and the year was required for inputting in a small Text Question box next to the start of professional work question, a drop down menu with all the terms and years included in the research was provided for Question 17 (11 on the Web survey).

Question 19 on the title of the position of the respondent and Question 20 on the type of organization where the respondent is employed were the last questions of the print version to be transferred into the Web survey.

The question about the type of organization the respondent preferred to work in after graduation was added to the Web version in addition to the transferred Question 20. As shown in the screenshot below, the choices of the types of organizations are far more expanded than in the original list. The names of the types of the organization have been adopted from the Survey of 2004 MS Graduates of GSLIS and their employers conducted in July-September 2005 by the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs. The GSLIS survey was based on a model of the Library Journal Salary Survey of the recent Master’s Graduate Salaries and Placements, and the major objective of the survey as stated by the GSLIS administration and faculty was in gathering information from recent graduates to determine their initial career goals, current LIS area of employment, and satisfaction with the GSLIS program.

The importance of including Question 14 along with Question 15 was to identify the job preference of the LIS 315/451 graduates, which might be associated with the impact of the course. The goal of asking both those questions was to see the employment goals of our graduates compared with their current employment situation. The identical questions were asked in the GSLIS alumni survey as well.

As a follow up to these questions are Questions 16, 17 and 18 of the Web survey:

Asking for the job title is relevant information within the major focus of the present study - career development from the point of view of new trends in the profession and new specializations and titles such as community informationist, teen librarian, information architect, etc. In Q17 I wanted to determine if the position the respondent is holding is in the field of his/her choice. A response to this question can also shed some light on what the graduates of the course choose as their careers, and help to determine if these choices are impacted by their experiences in the course. If the response to Q17 is NO, Q18 is supposed to clarify why the person was not able to get employment in the area of his/her choice. Q19 is the last one in the series of career questions, and also reflects the trends in career development and career ideas of the graduates. Question 20 has been discussed above.

3.4.2.2 Major Considerations and Decisions Involved in Different Aspects of the Web