Research Article
The Relationship Between
Student Demographics and Student Engagement with Online Library Instruction
Modules
Mary C. Thill
Associate Professor
Ronald Williams Library
Northeastern Illinois
University
Chicago, Illinois, United
States of America
Email: m-thill@neiu.edu
James W. Rosenzweig
Assistant Professor
John F. Kennedy Library
Eastern Washington
University
Cheney, Washington, United
States of America
Email: jrosenzweig@ewu.edu
Lisa C. Wallis
Associate Professor
Ronald Williams Library
Northeastern Illinois
University
Chicago, Illinois, United
States of America
Email: l-wallis@neiu.edu
Received: 28 Mar. 2016 Accepted:
11 July 2016
2016 Thill, Rosenzweig, and Wallis. This
is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike License 4.0
International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial
purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the
same or similar license to this one.
Abstract
Objective
–
To investigate whether there are any demographic trends affecting student
engagement with online library instruction which might have implications for
practice, the authors designed a case study to examine the relationship between
student demographic characteristics and engagement with online library
instruction modules in English 102 courses at a single university.
Methods
–
The authors recruited 181 students from English 102 (ENG 102), a research-based
composition course, to participate in the study. ENG 102 instructors asked all
participants to complete an online library instruction module embedded in the
university’s course management system, either before in-person library
instruction or in lieu of face-to-face library instruction. No external incentive
was provided for online module completion. The research team measured levels of
student engagement by recording the amount of time students spent on each page
of the online module. In collaboration with the Office of Institutional
Research, the authors then pulled demographic data on each participant using
the university’s student information system. Pearson chi-square tests were
performed to determine whether there were any notable associations between
levels of student engagement and student age, grade point average, gender, and
race/ethnicity.
Results
–
Observable trends tied age and higher grade point average to higher levels of
engagement with online instruction. There was additionally a slight trend
linking female participants to higher levels of engagement than their male
peers. In the category of race/ethnicity, the two largest subgroups, Hispanic
and Caucasian students, exhibited similar levels of engagement.
Conclusions
–
The authors conclude that there may be demographic implications for practice in
designing online library instruction programs, especially when considering
student age and academic performance indicators. They also conclude that, owing
to this case study’s limited sample size, further study is warranted to
investigate these conclusions, and to further examine the possible impact of
gender and race/ethnicity on engagement with online library instruction
modules.
Introduction
Today’s librarians are
educators, advocating for the integration of information literacy into the
college curriculum through embedded librarianship, collaborations on curriculum
design, and co-teaching opportunities. However, in reality many librarians must
continue to deliver traditional one-shot sessions and make the most of limited
opportunities to engage directly with students in the classroom. This is driven
largely by their partners in the teaching faculty who, contending with the
demands of their content-packed syllabi, often feel that they must limit the
amount of classroom time devoted to library instruction. In this environment,
faculty and librarians alike are considering hybrid and fully online models as
attractive methods to enrich or even replace face-to-face information literacy
instruction.
The research team worked
at Northeastern Illinois University, a four-year master’s level public
Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in the Midwestern United States. HSIs, by
definition, have a student body comprised of at least 25% Hispanic students at
the undergraduate or graduate level, or both (Hispanic Association of Colleges
& Universities, n.d.). The team became interested in this research after
their library received a significant internal grant to develop a set of
professional-quality animated videos for information literacy. This raised the
question of how best to incorporate videos into the existing instructional
program. The authors of this paper were accepted into the Assessment in Action
program of the Association of College and Research Libraries, which provided
peer-to-peer support and professional development to design a study that
examined the potential effects of the new videos on student engagement,
success, and completion.
The natural partners for
this investigation were instructors of English 102: Composition II (ENG 102), a
research-based writing course delivered to undergraduates. The department of
English requires all sections of ENG 102 to visit the library at least once to
receive a standardized lesson in searching library databases. Although many
composition instructors prefer traditional face-to-face library instruction, a
set of instructors expressed interest in migrating to a mixed or even fully
online lesson. For that reason, the research team developed three pedagogical
approaches to study the effect of the videos: a hybrid “flipped classroom”
model, a fully online module, and a traditional face-to-face session with no
video enhancements.
The study examined the
different attitudinal and cognitive effects of the three modes of instruction,
as well as investigated what factors, if any, correlated with success in each
format. The specific element of the broader study that will be addressed in
this article is the role that demographic factors played in persistent
engagement with online library instruction modules. Some students completed all
assigned online modules, but most engaged only in part, or not at all. The
research team sought to identify those students who were most engaged with
online library instruction, and whether any demographic factor differentiated
them from their less engaged peers.
Literature Review
Little scholarly
research has been published on the populations served by online library
instructional modules, despite the fact that academic libraries increasingly
rely on these modules to address the trend in higher education towards offering
more classes and degree programs in online formats. What literature exists
provides an incomplete and even contradictory picture of student engagement
with online library materials. While Koohang (2004) found that male students
were more likely to self-report high levels of confidence and satisfaction
engaging with the online library, a very early study by Alexander and Smith (2001)
showed that more women than men expressed a preference for online library
instruction. Jowitt’s study in New Zealand (2008) indicated that the population
of students self-selecting to use library-produced podcasts to learn library
skills was largely female.
The landscape of the
academic library has changed fairly dramatically since the early 2000s,
however, as libraries have developed new models for resource and service
delivery that increasingly extend into digital spaces. One recent study that
addressed student engagement with online materials and instruction in the
academic library was Soria, Fransen, and Nackerud’s research with first-year
students at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, in which they found that
student engagement with the library correlated with higher grade point average
(GPA) (2013). Their measure of student engagement, however, was very broad,
extending to checking out books, using library databases, and other less
intensive means of engaging with the library, in addition to receiving library
instruction. Therefore, the applicability of their findings to this study’s
more narrow focus on student engagement with online library instruction is
unclear. Bowen’s recent study of LibGuides and websites as delivery vehicles
for information literacy instruction did collect some self-reported demographic
data from participants. However, as the collection of demographic data was
incidental to the study’s purposes and from a limited sample of participants,
Bowen did not offer analysis of demographic performance or draw conclusions
about engagement levels by subgroup (2014, p. 156). With few clear, recent
studies addressing the demographics of library patrons using online library
modules and how those demographic groups engage with those modules, it is
difficult to make any evidence-based assertions about these subjects.
For that reason, the
authors conducted a review of literature on the more extensive research that
has been done regarding online credit-bearing college courses. The authors were
especially interested in any research that indicates whether different
demographic groups are likely to be more or less engaged, persistent, and
ultimately successful in the online environment. The published research on
these questions has focused particularly on the demographic categories of age
and gender.
Older students have
generally been identified as one of the target demographic groups for online
classes and degree programs. Early research suggested that older,
non-traditional students were more likely to enroll in online courses (Dutton,
Dutton & Perry, 2002; Halsne & Gatta, 2002). Jaggars and Xu (2010),
however, found that this was true only of first-year students in their sample,
and that over the course of their entire college career, students over 25 were
no more likely to enroll in online courses than students under 25. The early
research by Dutton et al. suggested that this tendency of older students to
enroll online was driven largely by considerations of convenience, especially
balancing their studies with work and family obligations (2002, p. 11).
Callaway and Alflayyeh (2011) investigated these claims, and found that, while
age did not seem to correlate with convenience factors, older students tended
to enroll in online coursework based on perceptions of quality factors. A
recent study by KunhiMohamed (2012), however, indicated that older age in
students correlated slightly with both number of messages posted in their
online coursework and the total time they spent accessing the course materials.
This finding suggests that higher voluntary engagement might be expected of
older students in similar online modules designed by the library, but delivered
via the same content management system (CMS) used for online coursework.
Regarding gender as a
demographic category, the literature is consistent in identifying women as more
likely to enroll in online coursework and more engaged with the content of that
coursework once enrolled. Research has consistently found that online students
were more likely to be female than male (Halsne & Gatta, 2002; Jaggars
& Xu, 2010). Early research by Marley (2007) indicated that women were
significantly less likely than men to fail in their online coursework, and
Marley suggested that this academic success might stem from a greater
dedication of time and effort on the part of female students. Subsequent
research has borne this out: KunhiMohamed (2012) found that female students
were slightly more likely than males to post messages and engage with course
content. Yoo and Huang (2013) found that female students reported a greater
sense of intrinsic motivation in their online coursework than men did. Shen,
Cho, Tsai, and Marra (2013) found that gender was a significant predictor of
self-efficacy in both handling tools in a CMS and online course completion,
with women having the advantage in both cases. Yukselturk (2010) examined
gender in a male-dominated Turkish engineering program and found that the
female students were more likely to be “active” in their course engagement than
male students. On the whole, the literature sends a very consistent message
that women are more likely to have the skills to engage in online coursework,
the motivation to do so, and the commitment to engage in ways that improve
their chances of success. As a result, the research team’s expectation was high
that female students would be more engaged in voluntary online library
coursework, especially when delivered via the institution’s CMS, than their
male counterparts.
Given the existing body
of library literature, the authors elected to design a study that would address
online library instruction in a contemporary context, employing modules loaded
into the university’s existing CMS, rather than podcasts as used by Jowitt
(2008) or other, older forms of online content delivery. The study was narrowly
focused on engagement with online instruction itself, to see if the broader
claims about library engagement in general, made by Soria et al. (2013), apply
to the specific context of library pedagogy. In response to fairly extensive
research on engagement in online learning by different demographic groups in
higher education, the authors chose to continue that line of research into
online library instruction. They hoped to determine whether these trends persist
when the student is taking a brief library course, as opposed to longer,
credit-bearing courses.
Aim
The authors had one principle aim for this research: to investigate
whether there were any demographic trends affecting student engagement with online
library instructional modules which might have implications for practice. The
ultimate goal was to present a case study that would illuminate for the first
time the demographic landscape of online library instruction.
Method
Context
At Northeastern Illinois University, ENG 102: Composition II is a
research-based writing course with high enrollment. While not a requirement for
the completion of the baccalaureate degree, it is a required course in a
variety of majors, ranging from the natural sciences and social sciences to the
humanities. In addition to standard library instruction requirements, standard
elements of all sections of ENG 102 include learning outcomes, quantity and
types of research-based writing assignments, and handbook selection. English
department faculty teach all courses. Most sections of ENG 102 follow different
instructor-selected course topics, and the final research assignment is most
often outside of students’ chosen disciplines. In Spring Semester 2014, there
were 18 sections offered.
Recruitment
The English department
requires certain standard elements, including learning outcomes and final
research paper assignments, across all sections of ENG 102. Nevertheless, the
department’s culture places a high value on the freedom of individual
instructors to shape the curriculum, and there is consequently variation from
one section to the next in how library instruction is performed. Therefore,
participant recruitment was conducted in two stages. First, the research team
approached faculty assigned to teach ENG 102 sections in Spring Semester 2014
requesting permission to randomly assign their sections to one of the three
pedagogical approaches: fully online, hybrid, or traditional face-to-face.
Faculty support for the project was high, and therefore 14 of the 18 sections
participated in the study. Every participating section was a traditionally
scheduled ENG 102 class that met regularly in an assigned classroom on campus.
The second phase of recruitment involved approaching students from
participating sections to sign consent forms. The research team offered a
modest incentive, valued under five American dollars, in exchange for students’
participation. Student enrollment for flipped and online classes was 69.6%.
Modes of Instruction
The project involved
three pedagogical approaches: traditional face-to-face, hybrid, and fully
online. The research team designed lessons for all approaches that shared the
same learning goals related to searching for and accessing journal articles in
the library’s largest multidisciplinary database. This article focuses solely
on the online modules delivered to the hybrid and fully online sections
participating in the study.
Students in both the
fully online and hybrid classes received library instruction through the same
online module embedded into the university’s course management system, D2L. The
online module consisted of seven online pages, altogether containing four
online tutorials, each under two minutes in length, short supplementary text, and
three worksheets to be completed offline. The worksheets were not collected or
graded. English composition instructors offered students no grade-based or
additional incentives to complete the online coursework. Therefore, completion
was entirely voluntary. Instructors in the hybrid classes asked students to
complete the online module prior to their class’s assigned work day at the
library. Instructors in the fully online classes asked students to complete the
online module prior to beginning research for their term paper.
Data Collection
By delivering online
instruction through D2L, which requires users to log in with their unique
student identification (NetID), the research team could view the exact amount
of time each student spent on each page of the online course module. For
reporting purposes, students who spent no time on any page of the online module
were labeled as “avoiders.” The research team divided students who spent any
time at all in the online module into two groups: “completers” and “partial
completers.” To be labeled a completer, a student needed to have spent as much
or more time on each page of the module as the length of time needed to watch
the video content for each page. Students who fell short of that standard on
one or more pages, but who spent any amount of time in the online module at
all, were labeled partial completers.
The research team
collaborated with their university’s Office of Institutional Research to access
demographic information on students. At the conclusion of the study, data were
pulled from Banner, the university’s enterprise resource planning system (ERP),
which is used to track, organize, and store student information. The research
team requested student age, gender, race/ethnicity, cumulative GPA, and student
level (i.e., freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior).
Results
Student participants
were predominantly female (61%), which reflects the ongoing trend in American
higher education of increasing enrollment by women. The most recent data from
the National Center for Education Statistics indicate that, in 2012, 56.8% of
students in degree-granting secondary institutions in the United States were
women (National Center for Education Statistics, 2014).
Students were
predominantly 18-22 years of age. In the United States, students have
historically begun college immediately after high school and completed their
undergraduate work in four years, though enrollment trends are slowly changing
(National Center for Education Statistics, 2015).
For the purposes of this study, we labeled those students aged 18-22 as
“traditional.” Alternatively, students who were older at the time of this study
were grouped as “non-traditional.”
As with the university
population as a whole, the largest segment of participants identified as
Hispanic of any race, followed by Caucasian/White, Asian, and African
American/Black. Since 2007, the U.S. Department of Education has required
institutions of higher education to collect ethnicity and race data as two
questions: ethnicity (Hispanic or Non-Hispanic) and race (at a minimum White,
Black or African-American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native
Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander). Institutions may add other race categories
if they feel they are relevant to the state or institution (U.S. Department of
Education, 2008). The study institution, for instance, has added “Nonresident
Alien,” for reasons unclear to the research team, as a Nonresident Alien could
be of any race.
Most students were
freshmen in their second semester, which is when ENG 102 is typically taken.
See Table 1 for descriptive statistics.
Table 1
Overall Composition of
Participant Sample
(N = 181)
|
|
n |
% |
|
Gender Male Female |
70 111 |
38.7 61.3 |
|
Agea Traditional (18-22 years) Non-Traditional (23+ years) |
139 42 |
76.8 23.2 |
|
Race/Ethnicityb African American/Black Asian Caucasian/White Hawaiian Pacific Hispanic of Any Race Native American Nonresident Alien |
8 26 51 3 85 1 3 |
4.4 14.4 28.2 1.7 48.0 0.6 1.7 |
|
Student
Level Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior |
107 58 10 6 |
59.1 32.0 5.5 3.3 |
|
Categorized
Cumulative GPAc Less than 1.00 1.00 – 1.99 2.00 – 2.99 3.00 – 3.99 4.00 |
7 11 76 7 12 |
3.9 6.1 42.0 41.4 6.6 |
aMean age = 20.97
bCategories determined by the campus Office of
Institutional Research & Assessment. Excludes 4 cases (2.2%) who did not
report Race/Ethnicity.
cMean GPA = 2.83
For the independent variables of age and cumulative
GPA, analysis revealed observable trends, but no statistically significant associations.
Age, a scale variable, was coded into categories prior to cross tabulation
analysis using a Pearson chi-square test (p = .129). Student participants were
categorized as either traditionally aged (18-22 years) or non-traditionally
aged (23 or older). As shown in Table 2, non-traditionally aged students were
more likely to be completers (35.7%) than were traditionally aged students
(20.9%). At the other end of the spectrum, traditionally aged students were
more likely to be avoiders (45.3%) than were non-traditionally aged students
(33.3%).
Table 2
Age Levels for Avoiders, Partial Completers, and
Completers
|
n (% of Age category) |
||
|
|
Traditional (18-22 years) |
Non-Traditional (23+ years) |
|
Avoider |
63 (45.3) |
14 (33.3) |
|
Partial
Completer |
47 (33.8) |
13 (31.0) |
|
Completer |
29 (20.9) |
15 (35.7) |
Table 3
Race/Ethnicity of Avoiders, Partial Completers, and
Completers
|
n (% of Age category) |
|||||
|
|
Afr. Amer./ Black |
Asian |
Cauc./White |
Hispanic |
Other |
|
Avoiders |
3 (37.5) |
5 (19.2) |
24 (47.0) |
40 (47.1) |
3 (42.9) |
|
Partial Completer |
4 (50.0) |
11 (42.3) |
16 (31.0) |
26 (30.6) |
3 (42.9) |
|
Completer |
1 (12.5) |
10 (38.5) |
11 (22.0) |
19 (22.4) |
1 (14.2) |
For cumulative GPA prior to Spring Semester 2014,
level of engagement increased with mean student GPA: avoiders’ mean cumulative
GPA entering the semester was 2.72, while partial completers’ mean cumulative
GPA was 2.81, and completers’ mean cumulative GPA was 3.07.
Analysis by gender suggested a minor trend, but,
again, no statistically significant association (p = 0.377). Female students
were slightly more likely than male students to engage with the online library
module: 27% of women were completers, compared with 20% of men, whereas 38.7%
of women were avoiders, compared with 48.6% of men.
As shown in Table 3, race/ethnicity analysis did not
reveal any meaningful trends. The two largest ethnic groups, Caucasians and
Hispanics of any race, were almost identical in their level of engagement at
every level (22% of Caucasians were completers, as were 22.4% of Hispanics; 47%
of Caucasians were avoiders, as were 47.1% of Hispanics). The third largest
ethnic group, Asians, did engage at a noticeably higher level (38.5% of Asians
were completers, and only 19.2% were avoiders), but the small size of the group
severely limits any conclusions that can be drawn from this data.
Discussion/Future Directions
The observable trend for age in the data corresponds with the trend
observed by KunhiMohamed (2012), indicating that age has a small effect on
engagement. Specifically, older students were more willing to spend time
interacting with the online instructional module. An implication of the data is
that online library modules similar to those used in the study may not be
likely to reach a traditionally-aged population of first year students, as
nearly half of them never accessed the module, and the vast majority of those
who did access the module failed to complete it. As instructors did not attach
an external incentive, such as a completion grade, to the online library
module, it is possible that the use of an incentive could alter this engagement
pattern. A possible conclusion from this study is that higher production values
in the library videos alone may not engage younger students. Both incentives
and active learning components need to be piloted in programs serving a large
percentage of traditionally aged students. A library that plans to implement
online instruction modules for on-campus students as a part of its larger
instructional program might be most successful by using those modules in
programs that serve primarily non-traditionally aged populations, as that may
yield higher levels of engagement and more effective outcomes for students.
The observable trend for GPA in the data supports the results found by
Soria et al. (2013), indicating that GPA has a small effect on engagement with
the library. As students’ cumulative GPA rose, so too did the students’
willingness to interact with the online instructional module. The authors feel
that this result was perhaps the least surprising outcome in the study. Higher
performing students would normally be expected to complete course assignments,
including the assigned online library module, more conscientiously, even absent
a specific external incentive. This trend suggests that lower performing
students may be the ones most likely to be left behind in online instruction.
Institutions looking to provide online library instruction should be mindful of
the needs of this group in the design and implementation of online instruction
modules.
The data show a very slight tendency for female students to engage more
persistently than male students. This effect is consistent with the findings of
multiple studies mentioned in the literature review (Marley, 2007;
KunhiMohamed, 2012; Shen et al., 2013) that found this distinction between the
genders in engagement with online coursework in general. That consistency
implies that the small difference between the genders in this data may be more
significant than the sample size would otherwise warrant, but based only on the
data from this study, the authors do not conclude that there are significant
implications for practice. Given the trend in the literature, institutions that
have identified concerns about low academic engagement by male students might
wish to proceed with some caution in relying too heavily on online library instruction
modules.
A comparison of the data for the two largest ethnic groups in the study
(Caucasians and Hispanics) demonstrates no trend of any kind, as the two groups
were virtually identical at every level of engagement with the module. One of
the smaller ethnic groups in the study, Asian-American students, did show
evidence of substantially higher levels of engagement, but given the smaller
size of that group, the authors cannot draw conclusions that would impact
practice. The university where this study took place is a Hispanic-Serving
Institution with substantial populations of both Caucasian and Hispanic
students. As a result, the comparison of chief interest for potential
application here was between those two groups.
Limitations
The greatest limitation
of the study was the size of the sample (181 students), which may have hindered
the research team from identifying statistically significant results in areas
where there were observable trends. The research team’s recruitment efforts
were inhibited by several leaks of private information that were highly
publicized in the media just prior to Spring Semester 2014. Students were
consequently cautious about signing the informed consent forms that would allow
the researchers to access their Banner data.
Furthermore, this study
focused on a distinctive population. Students of ENG 102 are generally first
year students participating in a required course and writing on topics that may
fall outside of their chosen majors. Because the institution did not offer
composition as a distance learning course at the time the study was conducted,
all students were enrolled in fully on-campus courses. Thus, this project can
make claims only about on-campus students in an English composition class.
Distance students, students taking upper-level courses, or students taking
courses within their major may behave differently from the population studied
and demonstrate different levels of engagement with online library instruction.
While the authors
consciously attempted to maximize the internal validity of this research study,
it was not possible to control every potentially confounding variable. Multiple
faculty from the English department taught the different sections of ENG 102.
Therefore, students in the various sections may have received divergent
instructions regarding expectations for the library module and its relevance to
their research assignment. The study also does not report data about students’
library and technology experiences outside of ENG 102, such as prior library
instruction, or access to the Internet from off-campus. One major demographic
category not recorded in the Banner data provided by the institution was
socioeconomic level, which the authors would have included in their analysis
had it been available. Although the research team designed the online module
according to principles of best practice, there are numerous alternative
approaches to the delivery of online instructional content that could have
impacted the student engagement patterns observed in this study. Due to these
potentially confounding factors, the research team cannot make claims regarding
causation.
Lastly, this study’s
measure of student engagement (literally, time spent logged in on each of the
pages of the tutorial) has the advantage of being concrete and measurable.
However, it does not reflect the qualitative aspects of student engagement that
would be important in many contexts. Moreover, because there was no analogous
measure of engagement for the face-to-face classes, the authors were unable to
make comparisons of engagement between students participating in online
instruction and traditional instruction.
Recommendations
The authors ground their analysis of this study in their belief that an
effective library instruction program employs diverse pedagogical approaches in
order to educate the largest possible number of students. Their institution,
therefore, intended to use student engagement data as a means of indicating
where online modules might be implemented most effectively in the library’s
instruction plan. The academic librarians who formed the research team had
hoped that students of ENG 102 would respond enthusiastically to online
instruction, given the convenience of the medium and its potential to expand
the reach of the library instruction program.
The generally low level of engagement with online instruction across all
demographic groups was a disappointing outcome of the study, but one that was
highly instructive. Despite the potential convenience of online learning, both
for students and librarians, the population under study did not engage with the
online module at a high enough level to warrant its widespread adoption for ENG
102 classes at the authors’ institution. The institution continues, however, to
explore online instruction delivery methods and develop alternative modules for
online instruction, under the direction of a newly-hired e-learning librarian.
The authors would
recommend that future studies of online library instruction explore how
modifications to both the design and delivery of the online module might affect
engagement. One particularly promising modification is the use of incentives
(especially the most common incentive in higher education: a grade for
completion). Incentives might raise engagement levels across all demographic
groups, and furthermore might alter some of the trends observed in this study.
Another potential modification is the use of online modules with a different
student population, such as upper-level undergraduate or graduate students. The
authors initially elected to deliver the module through the institution’s CMS
for ease of student access, but alternative platforms should be considered and
studied, especially those that would allow for more interactive module designs.
Given the widespread use in academic libraries of traditional
face-to-face instruction, the authors would recommend that future studies
compare engagement in that setting to engagement in the online setting. It is
possible that some groups reluctant to engage in one setting will be better
served in another, especially given the major differences inherent in the two
pedagogical approaches.
Conclusion
This paper presents a case study that investigates the relationship
between student demographic characteristics and engagement with online library
instruction modules in English 102 courses at a single university. The
demographic factors studied were age, cumulative GPA, gender, and
race/ethnicity. While no statistically significant associations were found in
any demographic category, observable trends tied age and higher GPA to higher
levels of engagement with online instruction. These trends are substantial
enough to influence current practice at the authors’ institution. There was
additionally a slight trend linking female participants to higher levels of
engagement than their male peers. In the category of race/ethnicity, Hispanic
and Caucasian students exhibited similar levels of engagement. Given the
limited sample size for the study overall, the authors hope that future
investigators will continue to examine the questions raised by this study, in
order to more conclusively determine whether demographic characteristics of the
student population should guide the design and implementation of online library
instruction.
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