The document summarizes research conducted on the undergraduate research process using a user experience (UX) approach. The researcher conducted ethnographic research including observations, behavior maps, diaries and interviews with 5 undergraduate students over 6 weeks. Key findings included that students experience uncertainty in the research process, use support networks and social media to crowdsource advice, and struggle with organizing their research. The researcher concluded that an ethnographic approach provided insights not found through traditional feedback and recommended future longitudinal studies and improving supports based on findings.

1. Source: http://www.etown.edu/depts/history/originalresearch.aspx
What Can a User eXperience (UX) Approach Tell
Us About the Undergraduate Research Process?
Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference
UCD, 21-23 March 2016
Siobhán Dunne @dunnesiobhan

2. Overview
• Rationale for this research
• Literature review & methodology
• Observation, behaviour maps, diaries & chats
• Professional challenges
• Recommendations and future research
• Reflections on ethnography

3. Rationale
• Primary research requirement: MSc Education & Training
Leadership
• To capture the student voice - very little prior knowledge of
the undergraduate research process
• To advance a prior study on first year undergraduate research
behaviour (Dunne & Sheridan, 2012)
• ‘Library as lab’ - a natural habitat for observing research
behaviour
• To identify existing skills gaps in curriculum and support
services

4. Literature Review
• Impact of UG research on success & retention
(Kinkead, 2003; Stone & Ramsden, 2013)
• Factors Inhibiting UG Research
(Nairn & Smith, 2003; Healy & Jenkins, 2006)
• Assumptions about UG research process
(Bodi, 2002)

5. Literature Review
• User Experience in Higher Education
(Wasson, 2000; Iloh & Tierney, 2014)
• User Experience in Libraries
(Fried Foster & Gibbons, 2007;
Asher & Duke, 2012)

6. The Ethnographer
“participates, overtly or covertly, in people's daily lives
for an extended period of time, watching what
happens, listening to what is said, and/or asking
questions through informal and formal interviews,
collecting documents and artefacts - in fact, gathering
whatever data are available to throw light on the issues
that are the emerging focus of inquiry”
(Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007)

7. Library Anxiety
1. Fear of the library as a place, often
described by its impressive size
2. Not knowing where to find
information, nor how it's organised
3. Lack of self-confidence concerning
how to conduct a search
4. Fear of library staff resulting in an
inability to ask for help
5. Feeling like they're the only one not
to understand how the library works
6. Feeling of paralysis when starting an
information search
Source: Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, A. Jiao,
Q. and Bostick, S. 2004 . Library Anxiety:
Theory, Research, and Applications

8. The Participants
5 final year undergraduate students:
• 3 Communications + 2 Intercultural Studies
• 3 Generation X + 2 Millennial
• 6 week ethnographic study

9. Methodology (1/2)
Ethical considerations:
• study approved by DCU Research Ethics Committee
• each student received outline of research, plain
language statement & informed consent form
Population sample:
• recruitment
• incentivisation
Image source: https://flic.kr/p/9kperi
Source: https://flic.kr/p/qmNTBp

10. Methodology (2/2)
Data collection:
• 2 X 1 hour observation sessions
• Maintain a student diary (10 entries)
• 1 X retrospective interview
Data triangulation: validated by cross referencing
observation data & diary data
Data analysis: colour coding & assignment of broad
themes

12. Emergent Themes
• Time and Space for Research
• Research behaviour
• Uncertainty About the Research Process
• Harnessing social media
• Support Networks
• Organising research

13. Time & Space
“Finished analysing five articles. Went home
and examined work on bus”

14. Time & Space
“Went for a run – thought about my dissertation
and how I would approach it. Began breaking it
down into its constituent parts””

15. Millennial Student Behavioural Map

16. Generation X Student Behavioural Map

17. Research behaviours
“What I have been doing up till
this point is taking notes as I read.
I mark the page numbers and
either quote or summarize the
passages. I intend to use what I
write as an index of the main
ideas. While taking these notes
I’ve been mindful of writing in an
academic fashion, as I believe I
may be able to cut and paste
some of what I’ve written directly
into my dissertation”
(diary entry - millennial student)
Research Behaviour

18. Extract from my field notes
12.37 Opens article, takes notes in spiral bound notebook
Opens tab containing Word document
Flicks to another tab
12.39 Opens a different tab containing another article, this
time from acadmia.edu. Reads some text from it
Picks up phone to respond to Facebook message
Returns to Word and types text
12.41 Repeats this.
Checks word count and records in notebook
Opens up text book, scans index
Looks up body of text
Continues to flick between index and text.

19. 12.42 Places book back on desk and opens Google
Opens library catalogue and enters search
Moves to Advanced catalogue search
Scans results and opens book record
12.44 Opens tab containing Google Book search
Scans table of contents
12.45 Opens tab with ‘different’ journal article
Scans first page
Returns to Word doc
Flips to Google results tab
Returns to Word doc and types for a minute
12.47 Returns to article
Returns to Word doc and types for another minute
Scrolls through Word doc (finger on screen) this lasts for about a
minute

20. Uncertainty about
the Research Process
Lecturer’s Advice
“The research process is
non linear – each step can
influence subsequent and
previous steps”
Student’s Reality
“Today I’m starting my
methodology chapter, I’ve
no idea how to do it. I have
to get it done today”

21. Source Evaluation
Millennial Student
“While waiting on articles to load, I begin to examine
other ones I already have open. There is a slight problem
in that I’ve found articles covering [blank] and [blank] and
[blank] but none covering all three”.
Generation X Student
“So it’s looking at the value of things, it’s looking at the
whole thing. It’s not looking at the title and going ‘that
title doesn’t match what I need’. And I think a lot of
people do that, they look at it and go I don’t know, this
isn’t what I’m looking for”

22. Crowdsourcing research advice
“there was one girl who went on [Facebook ] & said:
‘I’m doing this all wrong’ and eight or nine hours later
said ‘I’m doing it this way anyway’. Even though there
was people who said you are doing it wrong... so you
have this kind of rationalisation, they all picked each
other up...I wanted to go on and say just take your
finger out, you still have three days, just do it, you can
still salvage it. But all there was was no, its gonna be ok
cos everyone here has said so”
[Generation X student]

23. Support Networks
“it’s easier to ask classmates
because they’re my peers,
we’re in the same boat. We
often share assignments with
one another if we’re stuck. A
gang of us work together in
the same group study room.
That way then we can study
independently but collaborate
if we need advice”

24. Organising Research
“Still in the coffee shop,
checking two references
on my phone but I can’t
find them. I’m sure I
have written them down
somewhere but I have
too many little notes.
I’m so disorganized this
semester. I don’t know
what’s going on with
me”

25. Key Learning Moments
• Increased student diversity brings new challenges for
intercultural communication: cultural library anxiety
means some students avoid seeking the help they
require
• Issues of trust and the co-production of knowledge: as
co creators of data, this was collaborative ethnography
• Students strongly desire extra supports to teach them
research skills

26. Ethnographic approach uncovers information difficult to elicit by
other means and complements traditional feedback mechanisms
such as The National Survey of Student Engagement

27. Actions & Future Research
Sharing findings with staff & students to improve
support & IL interventions
Longitudinal study - more disciplines and a study of
faculty understanding of UG research process
A life logging study?

28. Professional Challenges
• Ensuring participants didn’t feel like objects of
external scrutiny but rather partners & co producers
of data
• Capturing genuine research behaviour & mitigating
against participants ‘telling me what I wanted to
hear’
• Knowing when to wear the most appropriate hat:
Student | participant| observer | librarian

29. References (1/1)
• Asher, A., and Miller, S. 2011. So You Want to Do Anthropology in Your
Library? or A Practical Guide to Ethnographic Research in Academic
Libraries.
• Asher, A. and Duke, L. 2012. College libraries and student culture: what we
now know. Chicago: American Library Association.
• Bodi, S. 2002. How do we bridge the gap between what we teach and
what they do? Some thoughts on the place of questions in the process of
research. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 28(3), pp.109–114.
• Dunne, S. and Sheridan, V. 2012. The bigger picture: undergraduate voices
reflecting on academic transition in an Irish university. Innovations in
Education and Teaching International [Online], 49(3), pp. 237-247.
Available from: DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2012.703019 [Accessed 26
February 2016]
• Fried Foster, N. and Gibbons, S. 2007. Studying Students: The
Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester.
• Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. 2007. Ethnography: principles in practice.
London: Routledge.
• Healey, M. and Jenkins, A. 2009. Developing undergraduate research and
inquiry [Online] Available from:
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/developingundergradua
te_final.pdf [Accessed 26 February 2016].

30. References (2/2)
• Iloh, C. and Tierney, W. 2014. Using ethnography to understand twenty-
first century college life. Human Affairs, 24(1), pp.20-39.
• Kinkead, J. 2003. Learning through inquiry: an overview of undergraduate
research. New Directions for Teaching and Learning [Online], 93(Spring),
pp.5-18.Available from: DOI: 10.1002/tl.85 [Accessed 26 February 2016].
• Lanclos, D. 2015. Ethnographic Techniques and New Visions for Libraries,
in Library Analytics and Metrics: Using Data to Drive Decisions and
Services. Ed. Ben Showers.
• Nairn, K. & Smith, A. 2003. Young people as researchers in schools: the
possibilities of peer research. Paper presented at the annual meeting of
the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL, 21st to 25th
April, 2003.
• Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, A. Jiao, Q. and Bostick, S. 2004 . Library Anxiety:
Theory, Research, and Applications. Scarecrow Press.
• Stone, G. and Ramsden, B. 2013. Library impact data project: looking for
the link between library usage and student attainment. College and
Research Libraries, 74 (6), pp.546-559.
• Wasson, C. 2000. Ethnography in the Field of Design. Human Organisation,
59(4), pp. 377-388.

31. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/safetylast/3909869662
Thank You
siobhan.dunne@dcu.ie
@dunnesiobhan