Student Involvement for Student Success: Student Staff in the Learning Commons

Abstract

How do you effectively train and assess student staff in a learning commons environment? How do you foster a student-led approach while maintaining accurate and high-level service? How do you create an environment where student staff are engaged and motivated to succeed? Peer-to-peer service models are fundamental to many learning commons environments and contribute to student success. Many student-delivered services in learning commons compliment programs traditionally offered exclusively by professional staff such as librarians, IT professionals, learning specialists or student affairs personnel. In such service models, students are the front line contact and the need for knowledgeable assistance and accurate referrals remains paramount. This article presents the findings of a study that investigated how training and assessment is approached with student staff in a learning commons environment. Learning commons coordinators and supervisors from across North American shared how they train students (methods and content), approach ongoing professional development of student staff, and how they monitor or assess the overall quality and accuracy of their student service models. The survey results and tangible examples offer insights and strategies for fostering an engaged student team, driven to deliver a high level of service.hether the space is called a learning commons or an information commons, new and innovative learning environments are pervasive in academic libraries across North America. These spaces often combine advanced technology, learning support, and collaborative work areas and emphasize a learner-or student-centered approach to services. Since the early 2000s, much has been written with respect to design of learning commons spaces, planning of services, and implementation of technology; however, there is little focus in the literature on training staff to work in a learning commons environment. As noted by Lippincott, 1 "[t]he range of services in an information commons is broader than in a traditional reference area." Consequently, with a crl13-469

Students Helping Students: Creating and Evaluating a Collaborative Service Model in the Library

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“…As a matter of fact, libraries are evolving constantly, making training programs never-ending works-in-progress (Connell and Mileham, 2006). When coupled with the high turnover of student staff, this can pose a challenge with regard to knowledge retention and transfer (Mitchell and Soini, 2014; Stanfield and Palmer, 2010). Nonetheless, the work performed by students must be regularly and consistently evaluated in order for academic libraries, and their patrons, to fully benefit from their reference assistant programs.…”

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