MEASURES AND METRICS
DOMAIN: INSTRUCTION
Instruction Sessions for visiting classes and other educational programs organized by Repository staff constitute a special domain of Events. Because assessing their effectiveness and operational support needs involves distinct measures and metrics than other types of Events, they are treated in this standard as a separate domain. For sessions organized for groups that are not connected with a program of study, refer to the Events domain. For individual or one-on-one reference consultations, refer to the Reference Transactions domain.
Basic measure (“Number of Instruction Sessions”)
Count the number of Instruction Sessions organized or hosted by the Repository.
Rationale:
Recording the total number of Instruction Sessions provides a Repository with a basic measure of the Repository’s instructional outreach efforts.
Guidelines for collection:
- Count Instruction Sessions held at the Repository or at other locations if Repository staff are involved in the preparation or presentation of the session, or both.
- Count Sessions that are presented online only if they are live or recorded and watched by the students as a group. Exclude recorded presentations that students watch individually to fulfill an assignment for a course. Consider counting such viewings as page views, downloads, or social media reach depending on the platform used to view the recording (see Online Interactions domain).
- Count each Session conducted for a semester-long or multiple-session course as a separate Session.
- Include Sessions that in some way feature the Repository’s holdings through the display of original materials, physical surrogates, or digital facsimiles, or provide instruction on how to use the Repository.
- Include Sessions that are conducted for the benefit of K-12 students, undergraduate and graduate students, and adults enrolled in lifelong learning programs.
- Include visits by Repository staff to a school or classroom for the purpose of supporting or delivering a presentation to students that relate to the Repository’s holdings.
- If a session does not meet the preceding criteria, count it instead as an Event (see Events domain).
- Exclude Repository tours, Exhibition talks, etc., unless they are conducted for a group of students and otherwise meet the definitional criteria for Instruction Sessions. If not, count such tours and presentations as Events (see Events domain).
- Exclude consultations with individuals, even if they relate to an Instruction Session. Count such consultations instead as Reference Transactions (see Reference Transactions domain).
Application and examples:
- Staff from a special collections department at an academic library work with a faculty member to develop a semester-long course that relates closely to the department’s holdings. The course meets twice a week for 16 weeks, on Mondays in a regular classroom, and on Thursdays in the department’s seminar room. Count 16 Instruction Sessions.
Advanced measure (“Number of Students”)
Count the number of students who attend an Instruction Session.
Rationale:
Counting the number of students who participate in Instruction Sessions that are organized or hosted by a Repository can give the Repository ready measure of the extent of its impact, especially if the Repository can determine the number of unique students who attended a Session in relation to the whole student body.
Guidelines for collection:
- Count the number of students who attend the Instruction Session. Attendees can be tallied manually by Repository staff or reported to staff by the instructor of record.
- For webcasts and other online Instruction Sessions, count the number of viewers.
- Exclude faculty members, teaching assistants, and any others besides students. Some Repositories may wish to count separately the number of faculty members and teaching assistants who contribute to the preparation and presentation of the session.
- Exclude Repository staff unless they are enrolled in the course of study and are attending the session as a student. Some Repositories may wish to count separately the number of Repository staff who contribute to the preparation and presentation of the session.
Application and examples:
- An undergraduate course with 24 registered students visits the university archives for an Instruction Session, but only 20 of the students come with their professor. Count 20 attendees.
Advanced measure (“Instructional Level of Students”)
Categorize the instructional level of students who attend Instruction Sessions.
Rationale:
Categorizing and monitoring the instructional level of students who attend Instruction Sessions may help a Repository plan staffing levels and explore how its collections can be used to support different levels of instruction.
Guidelines for collection:
- Categorize the instructional level of students by grade level according to groupings that are relevant to the Repository’s data gathering needs. For example, some Repositories may wish to distinguish elementary, middle school, high school students while others may categorize all as K-12. Some Repositories may wish to distinguish different categories of adult learners while others may not. Some Repositories may wish to define categories for mixed groups that include students of different instructional levels. See also User Demographics domain.
- Instructional levels can be recorded for students individually, but Repositories may prefer to record an instructional level for each Instruction Session so that it can track how many Sessions are offered to classes at various instructional levels.
- Instructional levels of students or Instruction Sessions can be recorded manually or entered into a spreadsheet, database, or other system used by the Repository to manage Instruction Sessions.
Application and examples:
- A university professor schedules an Instruction Session in the library’s special collections department for an advanced American Studies course. Among the students who attend, 12 are senior undergraduates and 5 are master’s students. Depending on the categories used for instructional levels, count 17 students, or 12 undergraduate and 5 graduate students, etc. The Instruction Session may also be categorized and counted as a mixed-level Session for undergraduate and graduate students, or as undergraduate-level Session if it was primarily offered for undergraduates.
Advanced measure (“Instruction Session Duration”)
Measure the total duration of the Instruction Session.
Rationale:
Tracking the duration of Instruction Sessions can help a Repository demonstrate the extent of its instructional outreach efforts especially if this measure is kept along with numbers of Sessions and students who attend them. A cumulative total of Instruction Session hours can provide a more precise measure for comparison, especially if Sessions are of greatly varying length.
Guidelines for collection:
- Record the measure in hours and fractions of an hour or minutes.
- Calculate the total length of time an Instruction Session lasts. For starting and ending times, use the time the Session was scheduled to begin and end, or when it actually began and ended. Repositories should determine whether to include any time that staff may spend with students who arrive early or stay afterwards to engage with staff or the materials presented during the Session.
- Exclude the time that Repository staff spend setting up a classroom for an Instruction Session. Count such time as preparation time if that measure is kept (see Instruction Preparation Time advanced measure).
Application and examples:
- An English professor brings a freshman writing class to the library’s special collections department for an Instruction Session. According to the course schedule, the class is scheduled to start at 1:50pm and end at 2:40pm. A few students linger afterwards to take a closer look at some of the materials that were shown and to ask the special collections librarian some questions. The students leave at 2:45pm. The duration of the Instruction Session may be recorded as either 50 or 55 minutes.
Advanced measure (“Instruction Session Preparation Time”)
Record the amount of time Repository staff spend preparing and presenting Instruction Sessions.
Rationale:
Tracking the number of hours that staff spend preparing and presenting Instruction Sessions can help a Repository gauge the staffing levels required to maintain or increase its instructional outreach efforts.
Guidelines for collection:
- Record the measure in hours and fractions of an hour to the extent practical.
- Develop a tallying or reporting system for staff who are involved with preparing and presenting Instruction Session so that related activities are consistently recorded.
- Include the time contributed by student assistants and interns employed by the Repository. Some Repositories may wish to track the amount of time contributed by non-regular staff separately for review and planning purposes.
- Exclude time spent by non-Repository staff, such as faculty members and their teaching assistants.
- Include time spent scheduling and planning Sessions with faculty and other instructors, studying syllabi and reading relevant materials, researching and retrieving items from the Repository’s collections that will be used during the Session, preparing items for display, producing handouts or presentations, conducting the Session, putting materials away after the Session, and any other activities directly related to the preparation and presentation of the Session by Repository staff.
- Exclude time spent with students who return after the Session to consult materials for an assignment related to the Session or their class. Treat such consultations as Reading Room Visits or Reference Transactions (see Reading Room Visits and Reference Transactions domains).
- Offering the same or a similar Instruction Session will generally require less preparation time than a presenting a Session for the first time. Since the purpose of this measure is record the amount of time staff devote to preparing and presenting each Session individually, do so with the understanding that the data collected from this measure can support useful metrics such as total time spent preparing Sessions during a given period or the average amount of time devoted to Session preparation In addition, the data can be analyzed to estimate how long it generally takes to prepare new Instruction Session or repeat former ones.
Application and examples:
- A rare book library invites a biology class for an Instruction Session to view and discuss a selection of hand-colored botanical works. The head reference librarian spends a total of 45 minutes emailing the professor and talking by phone to arrange general visit logistics. The rare book curator spends a total of 3 hours reviewing the class syllabus and selecting volumes from the collections that most closely relate to the topics covered. On the day of the visit, a reading room assistant spends half an hour configuring the room and setting out book cradles. The curator spends 1 hour with the professor conducting the presentation. The reading room assistant spends one hour reshelving the books after the class and resetting the room. The head reference librarian spends half an hour logging statistics and sending a follow-up message to the professor. Record 6.75 hours.
Recommended metrics
Total Instruction Sessions per week/month/year
- Tabulating the total number of Instruction Sessions over a given periods of time can and comparing totals across periods can help Repositories monitor the extent of their instructional outreach efforts.
Average number of Instruction Sessions per week/month/year
- Calculating the average number of Instruction Sessions held during a given period of time can provide a baseline metric for monitoring their frequency from year to year or at different periods of the year so that resources required to support instructional outreach can be allocated accordingly.
Average number of Collections Units used per Instruction Session
- For Instruction Sessions that involve temporary displays or presentations of collection materials, calculating the average number of Collection Units used per session can provide insights into the degree to which collection materials are exposed through instructional outreach activities. For guidelines on counting Collection Units used during Instructional Sessions, see the advanced measure for Instructional Use under the Collection Use domain.
Average number of students per Instruction Session
- Calculating the average number of students who attend Instruction Session can provide a consistent index for comparing Session characteristics during different periods, especially if monitored along with other metrics, such as average number of Sessions and average preparation time.
Average preparation time per Instruction Session
- Calculating the total amount of time staff spend preparing and presenting Instructional Sessions and then dividing that total by the total number of Sessions will yield the average preparation time per Session. Monitoring this ratio can help Repositories assess the staffing resources required to maintain or increase their instructional outreach efforts.
Average preparation time per student
- Calculating the total amount of time staff spend preparing and presenting Instruction Sessions and then dividing that total by the total number of student attendees will yield the average preparation time per student. Monitoring this ratio can help Repositories articulate their allocation of staffing resources in student-centered terms.
Table of Contents
Measures and Metrics:
