Transcript – Investigating Student & Faculty Departmental Spaces Through Visual Ethnography

Our team was funded through a Texas A&M University T3 grant. This grant encouraged faculty from various colleges to come together and collaborate on research. We designed an ethnographic photo study to inquire with students how they use and perceive study spaces. We started with 30 student participants in the College of Architecture and are continuing to recruit in the College of Education and Human Development, Mays Business School and College of Engineering. Visual ethnography is useful to capture when and where undergraduate and graduate students study on campus and their respective departments. We were interested in how students use public and personal spaces for study instead of just a textual survey. We sought to explore their preferences through imagery and what they found visually important about study spaces. We asked student participants to complete a short demographic survey, watch a tutorial on how to use Google Photos to complete a questionnaire by answering the questions with a photo and a few comments and finalize the study with an exit interview. We asked the students to collect data on images that were taken in public buildings or public spaces. We use grounded theory and qualitative coding to create core code themes. Images were ingested into Atlas T, a qualitative analysis software for further analysis. We developed eight overarching code themes study climate-controlled study environments, technology, comfort, proximity to amenities, study materials and accessories, access to help and safety. From our initial data collected, our students prefer locations with technology, spaces with long open hours and swipe card access, specialized equipment and furniture, collaboration areas and quiet areas. We believe the ethnographic data is useful to collect unbiased images from the students, including their perspective on preferred study spaces. Our research is ongoing.