Introduction

This report seeks to answer the following questions:

What are the best days and times for the Aquinas Writing Center to be open? Also how should our schedule be structured to be able to help the most writers who are and are not coming in? This basically means how many consultants should be on shift during certain days and hours? When to open and to close each day? And many more questions. In order for me to answer these questions I will be going over and using the many data sets that I have created and retrieved from the WCOnline scheduling system that we use to make appointments with writers.

Just for some context this is what our WC schedule looks like right now:

Monday 10am - 6pm

Tuesday 10am - 12pm and 2pm - 8pm

Wednesday 10am - 6pm

Thursday 10am - 6pm

Friday 10am - 12pm

Sunday 5pm - 7pm

Throughout, we will need the functionality of the tidyverse package, mainly to create the many visualizations I will use, mostly they will be bar graphs. The DT package is to help me with creating nice looking data tables. Finally, the readxl package is there to import all of the excel data sets that I have downloaded from our scheduling system.

library(tidyverse)
library(DT)
library(readxl)

Datatables:

For the data tables, I thought the best way to tackle the main problem of this report was to take all of the ones that I worked with before. I will use them to come up with what I think is the most efficient and beneficial schedule for the Aquinas College Writing Center to use.

Datatable of the the 2021 to 2024 Years

There are 8 total variables in the data set, and all of them are important for this analysis. The first one is Start_Time (the 1 hour block of time that the consultation takes, 10:00 am actually means 10:00 am to 11:00 am), Weekday (the days of the week excluding Saturday because we do not have consultations on that day), Months (The months of the year excluding June and July because that is when we have our summer break), and finally Count (all of the variables I have previously mentioned have their own count so I can see how many each of them occurred and to see which ones are the most popular).

Datatable of the Consultant’s Survey

There are 9 total variables in the data set, and all of them are important for this analysis. Firstly there is Are you opposed to or willing to try a potentially new schedule for the 2025 Spring Semester? (1 Fully Opposed to 5 Fully Willing) (This is to gauge the consultants to see how many of them actually are okay with changing our schedule for the Spring 2025 semester), If the Aquinas Writing Center was open past 11:00 PM, but only for REMOTE consultations, would you be willing to work a late-night shift? (This is to gauge the consultants to see which ones are okay with consulting remotely at late hours), Put yourself in the writers' shoes: what times and days do you think the WC should be open? (This is to see what the consultants think are good times for the Writing Center to be open to help the most writers), Would you be okay with potentially ditching the idea of having consulting hours over the weekend? (This is to see how the students feel about not having consulting hours over the weekend), Do you find the walk-in hours to be beneficial? (This is to see if the consultants think keeping the walk-in hours is a good idea), Please comment further on the walk-in hours. (This is to get the consultants opinion further on why they chose yes or no to the previous question about walk-in hours), Would you like to (potentially) have some sort of late night chill coffee/cafe vibe consultation experience? (This is to see what the consultants think about experimenting with a new type of atmosphere similar to a coffee shop), Any additional thoughts or comments about our WC schedule? (This is to ask the consultants if they have any final questions or comments they would like to add), Count (This count is just for the first variable to see how many consultants are wiling and opposed to a new schedule next semester).

Datatable of the Writer’s Survey

There are 8 total variables in the data set, and all of them are important for this analysis. Have you ever been to the Writing Center here at Aquinas College? (This is to see how many of the students who filled this survey have already been to the Aquinas Writing Center), Are you a student enrolled in the Block Pilot Scheduling Program this semester? (This is to see how many of the students who filled this survey are in the block pilot program here at Aquinas College. The block pilot program is only offered to freshman students. The freshman only take one class at a time every three and a half weeks rather than multiple classes at the same time each semester.), What do you think are the best days for the Aquinas College Writing Center to be open for in-person consultations? (This is to see what the writers think are the best days for the Aquinas writing center to be open. They were asked to choose their top three choices.), What do you believe are the best times for the Aquinas Writing Center to be open for IN-PERSON consultations? (This is to see what the writers think are the best times for the Aquinas writing center to be open. They were asked to choose their top three choices.), If--hypothetically--the Aquinas College Writing Center could be open 24/7 the whole semester, what times and days would you most frequently use to come to the Writing Center? (This is to see what would be the best days and times the writers would like the writing center to be open if there were no restrictions), If the Aquinas Writing Center provided REMOTE/ONLINE consultations past 11:00 PM would you use them? (This is to see if the writers would like it if the writing center provided remote only consultations at late hours), Is there anything else you would like to add? (This is to see if the writers who took this survey have any additional suggestions, comments, or concerns about our schedule for next semester), What would bring you to the Writing Center? Or back to the Writing Center more often? (This is to see what the writers who took this survey would like or want to see more to bring them to the writing center more).

Visualizations:

For the visualizations, I thought the best way to tackle the main problem of this report was to make various bar graphs from the data tables that I have up there. This can allow me to compare the 1-hour block appointments between eachother to see what our most busiest times are, and also be able to do this for the days, months, semesters, etc. to see when we should be open the most and when we should be closed.

Visualization of the Students Coming in For 10 AM Shifts

What these first visualization shows is that the 10:00 am time slot gets a good about equal amount of commuter (10) and non-commuter students (14) coming in. What the second graph shows is that almost all of these appointments were in-person (21) with only 3 that were online. What these two graphs together show is that it is mostly freshman to juniors who utilize the 10:00 am time slot this semester, while seniors using it a bit less, and graduate students don’t utilize it almost at all.

I find it interesting how this many freshman are able to come to the 10:00 am time slot. The reason why is because a lot of them are in the block pilot program and have one class that goes from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. It could be that their professor allows them to schedule an appointment with the Writing Center during class time to get them to utilize the service. Another thing that I find interesting is how many commuter students use the 10:00 am slot. It might be that a lot of them have a class that is right after the time so they schedule one before to have all of their things to do on campus one after the other.

Just looking at these graphs, and not taking anything else into account, here is what I think we should do with the 10:00 am time slot:

I think that we should keep the time slot and potentially have 2 consultants during the hour to allow more students who need help to be able to sign up. This hour is somewhat popular with the early/middle year college students so keeping it will be better to help as many of them as possible.

Visualization of Courses Students coming in For 10 AM Shifts

What this graph shows is that most of the freshmen and sophomores are coming in for the introductory courses that they have to take, while the juniors, seniors, and graduate students are coming in for those higher level classes that are more major specific.

This makes the most sense because those first two years for a college student is just getting all your general education and beginner major classes done with, and when you are at the end of your college years you are taking your more rigorous and major-specific classes to hopefully graduate soon.

Just looking at this graph, and not taking anything else into account, here is what I think we should do with the 10:00 am time slot:

I think we should do what I mentioned earlier with the first two graphs about the 10:00 am time slot. This is an hour that is utilized just like any other with a mix of class standings and the classes that brought them there.

Visualization of the Consultation Length For 10 AM Shift

This visualization shows that most of the consultations that happen on the 10:00 am time slot take 30 (the most), 40, or 60 minutes. With the 20 minute time being third. If we look at the breakdown of days, then Fridays and Tuesdays having the biggest range of times with them being between 20 to 60 minutes. The shortest range is Monday with it going from 15 to 30 minutes.

This shows that it is hard to make an accurate guess of how long a appointment will take on a 10:00 am shift. The only concrete ones are Mondays which only needed half an hour or less, and Wednesdays needed 40 minutes or less.

Just looking at this graph, and not taking anything else into account, here is what I think we should do with the 10:00 am time slot:

I think we should keep Tuesdays to Fridays 10:00 am time slots to be hour long consultations, while Mondays can be only 30 minute ones.

Visualization of How Willing the Consultants are to a New Schedule

This visualization tells me that the overwhelming majority of our consultants are willing and are keen on the idea of changing our writing center schedule!

What this means is that the writing center can start thinking about how to change the schedule to best help the most writers, and use this report as additional information of how to go about that.

Visualization of if the Consultants want Late Night Remote Consultations

This graph shows that more of our consultants don’t like the idea of having remote late night consultations past 11:00 pm than do.

This means that for the new schedule we should probably not add this as an option for consultants to work on or for writers to schedule for. If we were to add this as an option we might only offer it every now and then because some consultants did say they were up for consulting at this time.

Visualization of if the Consultants want Weekend Consultations to be Removed

What I can notice from this visualization is that a lot of our consultants are okay with removing weekend consultations. Which makes sense because most of us want to have our weekends free so we can relax and have fun, and only work on the weekdays.

What this could mean for our writing center schedule for next semester is that we could very well not have weekend consultations if that is something our consultants don’t want to do anymore.

Visualization of if the Consultants want Walk-In Hours to Stay

This graph shows that a vast majority of our consultants would like to keep the walk-in hours, and to have them how they are.

Looking at the written answers where consultants were asked to comment further about the walk-in hours, most said that we should advertise them better. Either on our scheduling system, WCOnline, by actually showing that there are hours there, instead of them being blacked out, and to show which consultants are on shift those hours, or other ways. Another recurring answer was to potentially change these evening walk-in hours to appointments only, or to have one consultant be a walk-in only and another to be an appointment only to have variability. Most consultants said that they feel the walk-in hours are beneficial if, for example, the whole day is booked then other writers still have a change to come in for a consultation. Another thing a consultant said was to maybe make them a first-come first-served sort of “list of priority.” Where writers can sign there name on a list so the consultants know how many walk-in appointments there are, and so students know when they can get an appointment.

Overall, just by looking at the graph and the additional comments about walk-in hours, I believe that we should keep them, but potentially change how they are done and to advertise them better so more students know about it.

Visualization of if the Writers want Late Night Remote Consultations (Been to vs Has not Been to the Writing Center)

This visualization shows that more students who have been and haven’t been to the writing center would not utilize late night remote consultations past 11:00 pm if we offered them than the ones that would.

This shows us that we should probably not have this as an option in our new schedule because not many students would be using it. If we were to add this, we might only offer it sporadically when we think we would get the most people using it.

Visualization of if the Writers want Late Night Remote Consultations (Block vs. Non-Block)

This one is the same as the last one just with if the writer is a block student or not. It tells the same story like the last one where most block and non-block students would not use the remote late night service.

Same idea like the previous one I mentioned, we could offer it only some times throughout the semester when we think it might be used by the most students. Other than that it might be an idea that we scrap and not use because most students and consultants would rather not work on their paper at night.

Visualization of the Best Days to be Open Based on Writers (Been to vs Has not Been to the Writing Center)

This visualization shows that for the students that have been to the writing center before, and those who have not at all, they want the middle of the week days, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, to be when we are most open. With Mondays and Fridays being second and third, respectively, and Sundays being last. One thing that I see a bit differently with the students who have not been to the writing center is that they have chose Mondays about the same amount as the middle of the week days.

This tells us that we should focus on having more hours in the middle of the week. We should also have not as many but still quite a bit on the beginning and last days of the week. Finally, we should have the last amount of hours on the weekends.

Just looking at this graph, and not taking anything else into account, here is what I think our days should look like:

I believe that we should offer the most hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. We should offer a little less on Mondays and Fridays, but a bit more on Mondays than Fridays, and offer only maybe a couple of hours on Sundays.

Visualization of the Best Days to be Open Based on Writers (Block vs. Non-Block)

This graph is the exact same as the last one, but looking at block and non-block students. For the block students, they want the the last 4 days of the week to be when we are most open, with Mondays not that far behind, and Sundays the least amount. For non-block students it is basically the same as above with the middle of the weekdays being when we are most open, then Mondays, Fridays, and Sundays the least amount.

This means that the writing center should focus on having the most hours during the weekdays, more specifically Tuesdays to Thursdays, and a bit less on Mondays, and a even fewer on Fridays. We should have Sundays be only a few hours at most to accomodate students who would use it.

Just looking at this graph, and not taking anything else into account, here is what I think our days should look like:

Tuesdays to Thursdays is when we should have the most hours and consultants on shift to take advantage of the popularity of those days. We should then have Mondays be a little less and Fridays even more less than Mondays. Finally, we should have Sundays we our lowest amount of hours and consultants on shift since not many students chose that day.

Visualization of the Best Hours to be Open Based on Writers (Been to vs Has not Been to the Writing Center)

This visualization shows that the most popular hours for students that have been to the writing center are 1:00 to 2:00 pm and 2:00 to 3:00 pm. With 3:00 to 4:00 pm behind them, and then a bunch of different times all around the same amount with 11:00 to 12:00 am being the least. For students who have not been to the writing center, the top three times are after 6:00 pm, 2:00 to 3:00 pm, and 1:00 to 2:00 pm. Then 12:00 to 1:00 pm is behind those times, and then we have a bunch of other times all around the same amount. Finally, 4:00 to 5:00 pm and 11:00 to 12:00 pm are the least.

This tells us that returning students want more hours in the afternoon and a bit in the morning and evening. First-time students also want more afternoon hours. On the other hand, they also want some more in the late evening, but not as much in the morning or late afternoon/early evening.

Just looking at this graph, and not taking anything else into account, here is what I think our times should look like:

I think that we should focus on having the most hours in the afternoon from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. We should also have possibly 3-4 consultants at these times to meet the demand for it. We should then have some hours from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. For how late after 6:00, that has to do with how long the library is open and how late out consultants are willing to work. We should probably have 2-3 consultants during this hour because it is somewhat popular. Finally, we should have some hours from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Here we should only have 2-3 consultants because it is about the same in demand as the evening times.

Visualization of the Best Hours to be Open Based on Writers (Block vs. Non-Block)

This graph is the exact same as the last one, but looking at block and non-block students. The most popular times for block students are 1:00 to 2:00 pm, 2:00 to 3:00 pm, and 3:00 to 4:00 pm with 4:00 to 5:00 pm being second but with way less votes. The rest have barely any one who chose them. For non-block students, their most popular times are also 1:00 to 2:00 pm, 2:00 to 3:00 pm, with after 6:00 pm being second. then all of the rest are about the same amount, with 11:00 am to 12:00 pm and 4:00 to 5:00 pm with the least amount of votes.

The block students answers make sense because they only have one class every day from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, so the times that would work the best for them would be the 1:00 to 3:00 pm which are right after their class. What is interesting is that the non-block students also said how they preferred the afternoon hours as well for appointment times. The only other times that the non-block students liked were some in the morning and evening which probably only works for some students if they don’t have class then.

Just looking at this graph, and not taking anything else into account, here is what I think our times should look like:

I think that we should definitely have the most hours and consultants on staff, maybe 3-4, during the afternoon to take advantage of this popularity and to be able to help the most block-students. A lot of them have to come in for first year seminar class and other introductory courses, so being open for them at their preferred times will get them to come in more. Other than we should have some hours in the morning and evenings to accommodate for our non-block population on campus and staff those with 2-3 consultants to help as many as we can.

Non-Visualization Data Analysis

Consultant Survey

Consultants Ideas for When the Writing Center Should be Open

The biggest consensus from looking at what the consultants think are the best times and days for the Writing Center to be open is to not have anymore morning shifts. This means that we should open at noon (12:00 pm) instead. Another big idea that many consultants talked about was having more evening hours to help accommodate for those night owl students. So being open more in the evening till like 9:00 or 10:00 pm. Some consultants also wrote how they believe that the Writing Center should have more hours on Fridays, while a smaller amount said the opposite. A lot of them said that we should be the most active during the afternoon to get the most block students in, and that is typically when everyone is the most free to come in. Some said that we should look at when classes are in session and when team practices and games are and try to work around those schedules to be open the most for those kinds of students, like student-athletes. Some did say that we should potentially be open more on the weekends, like Sundays, because most papers are due Sunday night, and lots of students already come on the few Sunday hours we have. While a smaller minority said that we should not be open on the weekends at all.

Overall, based on only what our consultants think is the best schedule here is a hypothetical schedule:

We should be open from Mondays to Fridays, and potentially also Sundays.

For Mondays to Fridays we should be open from 12:00 pm to 9:00 pm. We should have 3-4 consultants on shift in the afternoon, and maybe around 2-3 in the evening. For Sundays, we could be open in the late afternoon to late evening, so like 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Have only 1-2 consultants on those hours.

Approval of Late Night Chill Coffee/Cafe Vibe Idea

Many of the consultants love the idea, but many of them think it would be hard to actually be able to do it. Some consultants gave the idea that we could do it at the Moose, the coffee shop we have on campus, others said we could do it in our new space by handing out the coffee we already have, others said we could do it elsewhere in the library maybe, while some said we could do it in coffee shops outside near the campus. Lots said they would like to do this for the evening hours to get more students to come in. Some think we should only do this on certain days because they worry about the popularity of it, and if many of the writers would be willing to buy coffee at all. Some think it would be hard to implement in our space because of how limiting it is.

All in all, this is an idea that is well liked by our team and is something we should consider because it could help us get more students to come in. This is something thought that needs to be carefully, rigorously, and thoughtfully planned out before we try and implement it in any way.

Additional Thoughts

Mostly the consultants said the same things they said in the other long answer questions like more hours on Fridays, more evening hours, and be more friendly to writers coming in by offering things like coffee. Some consultants said how they already like how the schedule is now. One was wondering how our hours fit with study table hours, and another said having a more memorable/consistent schedule would help students know better when we are open. One consultant talked about how we could be open some days in the morning and other days in the afternoon. This could be for popularity of days.

Mostly the same things were said in previous questions so a schedule like the one I mentioned in the first long answer question (Consultants Ideas for When the Writing Center Should be Open) would apply with these answers from the consultants. They mostly just gave some answers to how we can change the schedule, and the rest were how to be more accommodating to students in various ways like more simple schedule, being more friendly, and how we fit with other services (like the study tables).

Writer Survey

The Best Times and Days if the Writing Center was Open 24/7

What I found interesting looking through what days and times the writers who took this survey think are the best times for the Writing Center to be open is that the most popular time was 1-2 pm for Mondays to Fridays. The second most popular time was 3-4 pm on Tuesday, then it was a bunch similar amount of choices between 12-1 pm, 2-3 pm, and 11-12 pm for Thursdays, Wednesdays, Mondays and Tuesdays. This is interesting that most writers want the afternoon times to be when the Writing Center to be open. It makes sense because most people are free at this time, also it is when the college doesn’t have any classes. Some survey takers mentioned times in the evening, and a few mentioned times in the morning. Most said how they wanted the weekdays, and some mentioned Weekends, only Sundays, as their preferred days.

What I take from these answers is that the Writing Center should be open from Mondays to Fridays, and potentially on Sundays. We should open on noon and be the most staffed on the afternoon with maybe 3-4 consultants. We should then work till the evening potentially till the library closes, or till late in the evening like 8 or 9 pm. At this time we should have 2-3 consultants on shift.

What Would Bring Writers to and Back to the Writing Center

Most of the writers said that the biggest thing that would bring them back or bring them in for the first time is if they were required to for a class. Another idea that most said was for their to be better signage to know where the Writing Center is. They also said how if we had better hours and were more flexible it would bring them in more. Many also said how they wish the space we had was more welcoming and not so awkward to come in and ask for help. Many would like to see the space be a lounge where people can hangout and talk to do some studying, and a place where people come to more often. A couple also said that we should offer small snacks, stickers, and some other small things to people comimg in and passing by to incentive people to come. Finally, many said that they would like to know better what each consultant had to offer in terms of help like which ones were for certain papers like Scientific or history. Also one said they would like to see the Writing Center help with more types of writing like code, philosophy, etc.

All in all, all of these suggestions should be taken into account so that we can make the Writing Center a more welcoming and friendly environment for all students, faculty, and alumni to come to.

Additional Thoughts

Overall many people said how they love the Writing Center and how it is right now. Many took the time to praise some consultants and other people working here. One person did reiterate how they would like more Friday hours, especially in the afternoon, for block students to be able to come in more. Another one said how they would like the Writing Center to be more flexible for commuter students so they can save on gas.

Overall, the Writing Center has a great reputation among many people around the campus, which is good and we should keep this up!

Conclusion

Here is our current schedule again for reference:

Monday 10am - 6pm

Tuesday 10am - 12pm and 2pm - 8pm

Wednesday 10am - 6pm

Thursday 10am - 6pm

Friday 10am - 12pm

Sunday 5pm - 7pm

We also have to take into account what times the Grace Hauenstein Library is open as well.

Taking everything that I have showed in this report so far, all of the data tables, visualizations, specific questions, here is what I believe would be the best writing center schedule for next semester for both consultants and writers:

The biggest key is that we are consistent with our schedule, this means that we should not have drastically different times for each day.

Another key thing is that we should not start on the first month of the semester and should instead open on the next month becuase we barely get any traffic into the Writing Center in the very beginning of the semester because many students are just starting their classes and haven’t got any papers yet.

I believe that we should keep the same days that we already have been doing so far. This means we will be open From Monday to Friday and also Sunday. We did have a decent amount of consultants say they are okay with removing weekend consultations, but many of our writers like this day and use it quite often. We can staff the weekend hours with only consultants who are willing to work them, which we have a few who would do it.

Now for the times. The biggest thing that I will change from our current schedule is to completely get rid of the morning shifts. We will start all of our weekdays at noon. The only days that I would be okay with keeping the morning shifts is for Thursdays and Fridays because this semester we had a lot of students coming in on those days this semester. But I would only offer the morning shift in the middle of the semester and later because no one used them in the beginning.

Now for the actual schedule for each of the days that I came up with:

Monday 12pm - 4pm and 6pm - 8pm

Tuesday 2pm - 4pm and 6pm - 8pm

Wednesday 12pm - 4pm and 6pm - 8pm

Thursday 12pm - 4pm and 6pm - 8pm

Friday 10am - 4pm

Sunday 4pm - 10pm

I made Fridays start at 10:00 am because that was the day, this semester, that has the second most appointments made at 10:00 am, plus the library closes a lot earlier on Fridays so allowing students to come in a bit earlier and staying until the library closes will allow the most students to use our services that day. I made Tuesdays start at 2pm because we have our Writing Center team meeting from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm, plus Tuesdays has the lowest amount of students who came in the morning for 10:00 am shifts so completely getting rid of it and instead adding more evening hours will still allow students to come in still. I would also make all the 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm hours walk-ins to allow the most students to be able to come in. I would also have 2 consultants work those walk-in shifts to be able to help as many students as we can. For the 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm hours I would staff 3-4 consultants because those are the hours that the writers who took our survey said they wanted the most, and what the data has showed is the most popular hours. For Fridays and Sundays I would say we have our standard 2 consultants on shift for those days.