Evaluation Plan Rough Draft - Kevin

GOOGLE DOC VERSION

Kevin Spracher

MAPS
Spring 2019

Podcast Evaluation Plan Draft

Project Description:

This evaluation project is intended to help guide the production of a short podcast aimed at visitors who may be identified as facilitators in MOXI.  It is an evaluation of our visitors to better understand them as facilitators in an informal setting. The long-term outcome is the creation of a tool that helps them be more effective facilitators.  The short-term outcomes are to determine what kind of information to present and what aspects should be highlighted to make the podcast a desirable piece of media for this audience.

Evaluation is necessary to make this podcast appealing to listeners. The results of the evaluation will allow us to create a product in response to the documented desires of our audience, rather than what we think they want or need.  It may also help determine whether our audience’s perceptions of a facilitator’s role is skewed from what MOXI believes that role to be. In that case, it may be necessary to include some instruction about why MOXI encourages an open-ended, inquiry-based model of learning.

Through observations and survey, we will identify visitors who act as facilitators in MOXI.  We will look for different types and frequency of facilitating behavior. Short interviews will help draw out what visitors think would make MOXI more engaging and impactful.

Evaluation Objectives:

• Gauge interest in a tool for more effective facilitation.
• Determine if a podcast is an appropriate tool for our audience.
• Identify perceptions of the role of a facilitator at MOXI
• Determine what information is wanted by facilitators in MOXI.
• Areas of the museum/exhibits where facilitation is high and low.

Evaluation Design

This evaluation is intended to better understand MOXI’s audience.  Since the outcome of the project is for facilitators, as described by Falk, we must first identify this subset of visitor.  The outcomes will depend on their responses. Questions will be designed with Falk’s definition of facilitators. (“Visitors who are socially motivated. Their visit is focused on primarily enabling the experience and learning of others in their accompanying social group.”)  The survey will also identify if visitors outwardly want tools to help them facilitate/deepen engagement. The survey will also ask questions that we can use to make correlations about their frequency in visiting, their experience as educators/museum-goers/scientist, how they get to the museum, whether or not they use podcasts, etc.

Methods:

• Google Form Survey of guests during their visit
• Conduct observations of groups on different days and times
• Conduct interviews (with the people I observe?)
• Consider conducting surveys and interviews with a subset of members (i.e. confirmed repeat visitors?)

Proposed Timeline:

Surveys and observations must be spread out over a variety of times and days to ensure a broad sampling of visitors.  Perhaps over a month?

Products:

A summary report detailing the findings of the survey, observations, and interviews.  This should highlight the perceived wants and needs of facilitators, and whether they align with MOXI’s perception of an effective facilitator.

Logic model: