My colleague here at the Museum, Pauline, is digging around for recent published studies of evaluations with teachers about their experiences, expectations and needs when visiting museums and cultural institutions generally.
The recent post I wrote in response to Alison's request is also useful background.
Pauline has promised to post some of the things she has found so far, but I was wondering if anyone had some studies, information, findings etc they'd like to share with us??
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
What are the most effective ways to recruit new audiences and build repeat visitations to a cultural institution?
This question came from Alison Wishart, State Library of Queensland (who promises to blog a response!): "My assumption is that one of the most effective ways is to give school students, who visit the cultural institution with their school group, an exciting and rewarding experience so that the students then go home and tell their parents about the fantastic cultural institution and the family visits as a group again and again. Is there any written research in this area that you could point me to?"
Alison, research that I know of has continually found that the characteristic which most impacts on adult museum visits is whether they were taken to museums as children and the types of experiences they engaged in. The "big picture" references are:
* Falk, J., & Dierking, L. (1992). The Museum Experience. Washington: Whalesback Books.
* Falk, J., & Dierking, L. (2000). Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.
Prince investigated a range of attitudes and perceptions that were key to museum visiting. He found that visitors’ previous experiences with museums, as well as with learning and education generally, determined whether people then visited museums and the subsequent experiences they remembered. The reference for his work is:
* Prince, D. (1990). Factors Influencing Museum Visits: An Empirical Evaluation of Audience Selection. Museum Management and Curatorship, 9, 149-168.
Other references for these conclusions from a family perspective are:
* Ellenbogen, K. (2002). Museums in Family Life: An Ethnographic Case Study. In G. Leinhardt & K. Crowley & K. Knutson (Eds.), Learning Conversations in Museums (pp. 81-101). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
* Ellenbogen, K., Luke, J., & Dierking, L. (2004). Family Learning Research in Museums: An Emerging Disciplinary Matrix? Science Education, 88(Supplement 1), S48-S58.
and from a school-visit perspective are:
* Falk, J., & Dierking, L. (1997). School Field trips: Assessing Their Long-Term Impact. Curator, 40(3), 211-218.
The latter is particularly useful. A general overview of school visits and museums, with a comprehensive reference list is:
* Griffin, J. (2004). Research on Students and Museums: Looking More Closely at the Students in School Groups. Science Education, 88(Supplement 1), S60-S70.
I'm not sure if there have been any long-term tracking studies of visitation, but certainly Ellen's work is worth checking out.
Of course your broader question about new audiences generally is a whole new area but I have started small here. The big issue of how to attract and keep youth audiences (for example) can be found on here on my website. We also found in our study of audiences with disabilities that if museums offered great learning experiences, not just accessible ones, these groups would visit more regularly (and bring a whole lot more people with them).
Look forward to hearing from you.
Alison, research that I know of has continually found that the characteristic which most impacts on adult museum visits is whether they were taken to museums as children and the types of experiences they engaged in. The "big picture" references are:
* Falk, J., & Dierking, L. (1992). The Museum Experience. Washington: Whalesback Books.
* Falk, J., & Dierking, L. (2000). Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.
Prince investigated a range of attitudes and perceptions that were key to museum visiting. He found that visitors’ previous experiences with museums, as well as with learning and education generally, determined whether people then visited museums and the subsequent experiences they remembered. The reference for his work is:
* Prince, D. (1990). Factors Influencing Museum Visits: An Empirical Evaluation of Audience Selection. Museum Management and Curatorship, 9, 149-168.
Other references for these conclusions from a family perspective are:
* Ellenbogen, K. (2002). Museums in Family Life: An Ethnographic Case Study. In G. Leinhardt & K. Crowley & K. Knutson (Eds.), Learning Conversations in Museums (pp. 81-101). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
* Ellenbogen, K., Luke, J., & Dierking, L. (2004). Family Learning Research in Museums: An Emerging Disciplinary Matrix? Science Education, 88(Supplement 1), S48-S58.
and from a school-visit perspective are:
* Falk, J., & Dierking, L. (1997). School Field trips: Assessing Their Long-Term Impact. Curator, 40(3), 211-218.
The latter is particularly useful. A general overview of school visits and museums, with a comprehensive reference list is:
* Griffin, J. (2004). Research on Students and Museums: Looking More Closely at the Students in School Groups. Science Education, 88(Supplement 1), S60-S70.
I'm not sure if there have been any long-term tracking studies of visitation, but certainly Ellen's work is worth checking out.
Of course your broader question about new audiences generally is a whole new area but I have started small here. The big issue of how to attract and keep youth audiences (for example) can be found on here on my website. We also found in our study of audiences with disabilities that if museums offered great learning experiences, not just accessible ones, these groups would visit more regularly (and bring a whole lot more people with them).
Look forward to hearing from you.
audience research wiki
In the spirit of trying all forms of web 2.0 media, we have set up an audience research wiki , as a dicussion forum for audience research. Here we will post articles that particularly address museum websites and audience research. Please have a look, and add your comments and thoughts to our discussion pages. If you are new to wikis, have a look around, and also have a look at Chris Barry's education section wiki.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Innovative audience research
This post from Chris Larry: "Thought you might find interesting the work we are doing at American History Workshop with our Telling Lives story capture technology. This technology allows audiences to answer question to a video camera that is than collected as a response database." I think that this is a very innovative approach to seeking audience feedback. Are there any others out there?
Chris: do you see this as a sustainable way to continue capturing feedback? How has the organisation used the information in their future development of programs?
Chris: do you see this as a sustainable way to continue capturing feedback? How has the organisation used the information in their future development of programs?
Doing audience research
Mel asked "What are traditional methods of finding out about your audience and is the internet affecting the way you do audience research?"
Audience research is a discipline of museum practice that provides information about visitors and non-visitors to museums and other cultural institutions, influencing the ways museums think about and meet the needs of their audiences and stakeholders. Audience research is also a strategic management tool that provides data to assist museums more effectively plan and develop exhibitions and programs; to meet their corporate goals; and to learn as organisations.
In audience research a range of methods are used to address issues such as who visits; motivation; behaviour; satisfaction and learning; as well as who does not visit and why. Areas examined include visitor demographics, visitor behaviour, leisure habits and learning strategies. Methods are chosen in accordance with the questions that need to be answered.
In a 1990 paper, Chan Screven noted that the most popular methods inlcude structured and open-ended interviews, questionnaires and rating scales, informal conversations, tracing visitor movements through exhibits and unobtrusive observations of stops, time spent, exhibit usage, and reactions to mocked-up exhibit components.
Other ways of conducting audience research include video-taping visitor behaviour and audio-taping conversations. Focus groups; telephone surveys; and online surveys and panels are also employed to research current and potential audiences as well as non-visitors.
A list of beginning readings about audience research in museums can be found on the
FAQ section of my website - on there you'll also find a downloadable list of beginning references.
I also wrote a paper on the history and practice of audience research in cultural institutions: Kelly, L. (2005). Evaluation, Research and Communities of Practice: Program Evaluation in Museums. Archival Science, 4(1-2), 45-69. This paper contains a good list of references. More information about it can be found at the publishers' website.
I'll get to the internet part of your question shortly.
Audience research is a discipline of museum practice that provides information about visitors and non-visitors to museums and other cultural institutions, influencing the ways museums think about and meet the needs of their audiences and stakeholders. Audience research is also a strategic management tool that provides data to assist museums more effectively plan and develop exhibitions and programs; to meet their corporate goals; and to learn as organisations.
In audience research a range of methods are used to address issues such as who visits; motivation; behaviour; satisfaction and learning; as well as who does not visit and why. Areas examined include visitor demographics, visitor behaviour, leisure habits and learning strategies. Methods are chosen in accordance with the questions that need to be answered.
In a 1990 paper, Chan Screven noted that the most popular methods inlcude structured and open-ended interviews, questionnaires and rating scales, informal conversations, tracing visitor movements through exhibits and unobtrusive observations of stops, time spent, exhibit usage, and reactions to mocked-up exhibit components.
Other ways of conducting audience research include video-taping visitor behaviour and audio-taping conversations. Focus groups; telephone surveys; and online surveys and panels are also employed to research current and potential audiences as well as non-visitors.
A list of beginning readings about audience research in museums can be found on the
FAQ section of my website - on there you'll also find a downloadable list of beginning references.
I also wrote a paper on the history and practice of audience research in cultural institutions: Kelly, L. (2005). Evaluation, Research and Communities of Practice: Program Evaluation in Museums. Archival Science, 4(1-2), 45-69. This paper contains a good list of references. More information about it can be found at the publishers' website.
I'll get to the internet part of your question shortly.
Research on museum websites developed for teachers
I received the following email from the VSG list:
"Jessica from Randi Korn & Associates is looking for fairly recent studies of museum Web sites developed for teachers. She is trying to comb the literature to get an idea of how teachers are using the Web, specifically museum Web sites."
Jessica, I did a detailed study in November 2005 to gain a better understanding of how emerging internet technologies are affecting the learning environment, with a specific focus on teachers and high-school students. The overall objective of the research project was to provide us with guidance on how to best develop a website that meets the needs of students and teachers in the primary and secondary levels across a range of curriculum areas. General objectives were to gain insights into how students and teachers are using the internet and what they are looking for when they access websites.
We conducted a series of five focus groups with students and teachers from a mix of public and private educational institutions. There were primary school teachers from years 5-6; secondary school teachers from years 7-10 (mainly science teachers and co-ordinators); students aged 13 to 16; and a group of teachers specialising in technology and computing. The aim of the discussion was to look at participants’ use of the internet, their knowledge of media, and their reaction to a range of websites.
Ahead of time, participants received a letter outlining the aims of the research and providing a list of websites to review. These museum, gallery and general sites had targeted materials for teachers and allowed a two-way exchange of information - these proved to be extremey useful as a way to seek general and specific feedback - here's the list of the sites we used. As well, participants brought along a list of the website ‘favourites’ they used for recreation and education, which again gave us useful insights into how they were using the web.
The paper from this study (Kelly and Breault, 2006) will be published in the proceedings of the 2006 ICOM-CECA conference this year. I'm happy to email this paper to anyone who wants it.
Also, I'd be interested to hear of others' experiences, BUT rather than email - which only reaches a select few - why not blog your responses for many to share??
"Jessica from Randi Korn & Associates is looking for fairly recent studies of museum Web sites developed for teachers. She is trying to comb the literature to get an idea of how teachers are using the Web, specifically museum Web sites."
Jessica, I did a detailed study in November 2005 to gain a better understanding of how emerging internet technologies are affecting the learning environment, with a specific focus on teachers and high-school students. The overall objective of the research project was to provide us with guidance on how to best develop a website that meets the needs of students and teachers in the primary and secondary levels across a range of curriculum areas. General objectives were to gain insights into how students and teachers are using the internet and what they are looking for when they access websites.
We conducted a series of five focus groups with students and teachers from a mix of public and private educational institutions. There were primary school teachers from years 5-6; secondary school teachers from years 7-10 (mainly science teachers and co-ordinators); students aged 13 to 16; and a group of teachers specialising in technology and computing. The aim of the discussion was to look at participants’ use of the internet, their knowledge of media, and their reaction to a range of websites.
Ahead of time, participants received a letter outlining the aims of the research and providing a list of websites to review. These museum, gallery and general sites had targeted materials for teachers and allowed a two-way exchange of information - these proved to be extremey useful as a way to seek general and specific feedback - here's the list of the sites we used. As well, participants brought along a list of the website ‘favourites’ they used for recreation and education, which again gave us useful insights into how they were using the web.
The paper from this study (Kelly and Breault, 2006) will be published in the proceedings of the 2006 ICOM-CECA conference this year. I'm happy to email this paper to anyone who wants it.
Also, I'd be interested to hear of others' experiences, BUT rather than email - which only reaches a select few - why not blog your responses for many to share??
Thursday, May 03, 2007
ExhibitFiles Website
Check out ExhibitFiles - a great new website for exhibitions and museum staff - top stuff!
There is an interview with the site developers on Nina Simon's site which gives good insights to the thinking behind the development of ExhibitFiles.
There is an interview with the site developers on Nina Simon's site which gives good insights to the thinking behind the development of ExhibitFiles.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Do you have an audience research question?
Ask it here and I'll try to answer it for you. You may even be able to supply an answer yourself!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
