Our Experience Tabling
We planned to table over two different days, an hour each day, in hopes of connecting with students and getting the word out about OERs. We tried to sign up for times we knew the library would have heavy traffic: middle of the day, when students have a few minutes between classes and think, “Hey, I’ll go study at the library for a bit before my next class!”
After setting up our table, and starting our one hour stopwatch, it was time to begin. At first, we a bit nervous and weren’t totally sure what to say to the hordes of people walking past. How would we grab people’s attention? What if literally everyone is wearing headphones? How do we get them to care about our issue, right off the bat? We quickly realized that the small handouts we made were our saving grace. It was the perfect icebreaker, and allowed us to get our message out there without having to take tons of time out of students’ days. They gave us something simple to start with and made it easier to start conversations with students.
Our approach was pretty straightforward: as people walked by, we asked if they’d take a quick poll about textbook prices and offered them some candy or University of Utah swag as a thank you. That usually got them to stop, and then we’d explain how the library can help by buying their required books. We also shared why the poll matters and how it could lead to more affordable options for students.
Some students were a little hesitant, thinking it would take too long, but ended up taking the QR code with them, saying they would complete the survey later, and many of them actually followed through! Others were really excited when we mentioned saving money on textbooks, took our poll straight away, and even shared their frustrations about how expensive books can be.
By the end of just one session, we had talked to over 85 students and collected 23 new responses for our survey! And by the end of the second day we doubled those numbers, having talked to over 150 students and getting nearly 50 poll responses total!
Now that we’ve done it, we realize how not-scary and actually beneficial tabling be and we are excited to adjust our approach based on what we learned this time, and see how many responses we can get the next time we table!
