Collecting and Applying Usability Data from Distance Learners

Assessing Demographics and Needs of Online Students before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Academic Libraries

“…There are assessments of virtual library research tutorials showing that effective online research tutorials lead to better student success (Appelt & Pendell, 2010;Blummer, 2007;Lindsay et al, 2006;Lo & Dale, 2009;Sachs et al, 2013;Saunders, 2018;Weeks & Davis, 2017) and librarians working and embedding within the learning management system (LMS), which displays the vitality of libraries integrating with the university LMS (Henrich & Attebury, 2012;Horvat et al, 2015;Mafuna & Wadesango, 2012;Marineo & Shi, 2019;Tumbleson et al, 2019). Assessing the usability of asynchronous online learning objects is crucial to university libraries, and sometimes comes in the form of usability studies on library websites, e-resources, and research guides (LibGuides) (Fry & Rich, 2011;Mitchell & West, 2017;Pant, 2015;Sonsteby & DeJonghe, 2013;Swanson et al, 2017). Learning lessons from library services and resources that serve virtual students is also valuable, such as evaluating chat and library electronic resources (Dempsey, 2019;Devine et al, 2011;Eastman et al, 2019;Ireland & Woods, 2008;Leong, 2007;Logan et al, 2019;Maloney & Kemp, 2015;Rogers & Nielsen, 2017;Valentine & Moss, 2017).…”