In her ASSESS post of 7 Aug 2003 11:08:23-0400, titled (unfortunately
for archivists) <No Subject>, Dawn Broschard wrote:
"Our Quality Improvement Department is interested in creating a 'customer
service' training for the University. As part of that venture, they would
like to create a survey to assess quality customer service (towards
students, staff, faculty etc.). Does anyone utilize or know of instruments
that can be used to assess customer service in terms of service skills such
as timeliness of greeting, communication etc.?"
On 7 Aug 2003 12:57:49-0400, Richard Lyons responded:
"Am I assuming correctly that you are seeking to establish a process
for students, staff and faculty members to assess such functional
areas as the library, food service, etc."
IF the survey intended by the "Quality Improvement Department" at
Dawn's institution will be designed partially for students' "customer
service" assessment of educational quality, then Dawn might be
interested in the long and sometimes heated thread on POD
(Professional and Organizational Development) regarding the pros and
cons of treating students as customers.
c. type "customer" (without the quotes) into the "Search for" slot
and "2003" (without the quotes) into the "Since" slot to obtain 63
hits as of 7 Aug 2003 11:34:003-0700.
In my opinion, Ed Nuhfer's (2003) POD post contained some especially
valuable insight:
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Those who champion the word "customer". . .[as a metaphor for
"student"]. . . are doing so out of obvious respect for students -
the desire to serve them well and to promote good service. . . . The
fiery defense of the use of "customer" appears to come from
seeing/being students in situations where they have been disrespected.
The rub seems to come in the different concepts of responsibility
that are seen between "customer" and "student." While a customer has
every incentive to advocate for quality, the customer is not
responsible for quality of whatever he/she is in the market to buy.
In contrast, learning and the process of becoming educated, as has
been stressed more clearly by [POD'er] Bob Leamnson [1999] than any
other writer, can occur ONLY in the mind of the student and ONLY
through willful participation in construction of that knowledge - in
acquiring the mental capital. It is the lack of stress on
responsibility that seems to rankle those who oppose the word
"customer" as a synonym for "student"
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"The Zeroth Law of Educational Thermodynamics - Nothing works if the
students don't.' "*
Richard Pendarvis (Chemed-L subscriber)
*Not to be confused with the "Zeroth Law Thermodynamics" [see e.g.,
Pippard (1961, p. 9)]:
"If, of three bodies, A, B, and C; A and B are separately in
equilibrium with C; then A and B are in equilibrium with one another."
REFERENCES
Leamnson, R. 1999. "Thinking About Teaching and Learning." Stylus,
esp, Chapter 5 "Teaching and Pedagogy": "Teaching must involve
telling, but learning will only start when something persuades
students to engage their minds and do what it takes to learn." [See
the above signature quote.]