AUDIENCE COUNTS AND REPORTING SYSTEM: ESTABLISHING A CYBER-INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MUSEUM EDUCATORS

Dr. Fred Volk (my amazing grad school professor and now-business partner) and I recently authored Audience Counts and Reporting System: Establishing a Cyber-Infrastructure for Museum Educators, which was published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. This is based on our multi-year engagement helping the Smithsonian Institution capture, assesses, and act upon pan-institutional attendance data.

ABSTRACT

Philanthropic and government organizations increasingly require quantitative and qualitative data as key components of program evaluation and as precursors to continued funding. The Smithsonian Institution has been challenged in recent years to demonstrate the value of educational programs delivered to the general public and to more specialized, niche audiences. This article describes an initiative involving Georgetown and Liberty University researchers working with The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies (SCEMS) and the Smithsonian Council of Education Directors (SCED) to develop novel methodologies and technologies to capture, analyze, and disseminate accurate and reliable quantitative attendance data from 27 independent education organizations across Central and North America. The difficulties inherent in museum education assessment are discussed, as well as how e-science was designed and implemented in concert with user-centered design practices and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to field a successful pilot project.

You can read the whole article free-of-charge online at the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.