Measuring the Online Student Experience: A Sensemaking Exercise

Congratulations to Jennifer and Diane on receiving the TCC 2024 Outstanding Paper Award!

Postgraduate students often return to the classroom, physical or
online, with little or no training for what is expected from them in terms of
reflective practice or critical thinking. While many universities are
benchmarking student experience in face-to-face or more traditional
programs, surveys do not offer customizable solutions to measure the
online student experience, especially at the postgraduate level. We begin
with the assumption that there is a need to measure the online student
experience that has not been met by current tools or processes specifically
within Library and Information Science (LIS). We employ social
sensemaking to examine the student experience discussed in the LIS
literature and map our understanding of the student journey to focus on a
student-centered journey more deeply. Focusing on the why and how of
the learning experience, this article discusses our mapping and the
stakeholders and partners involved in learning and teaching throughout a
program of study. We identify action research as a framework to explore
both the student experience and its improvement over time.

Campbell-Meier, J. & Velasquez, D. (2024). Measuring the Online Student Experience: A Sensemaking Exercise. The TCC Worldwide Online Conference Refereed Proceedings, 24(1), 7-14.