|
Download this paper
(pdf 301KB)
About the author
|
Abstract
The MARVEL project (Museums Actively Researching Visitor Experience and
Learning) has developed a set of strategies for measuring aspects of learning
in museums. The project was a partnership between the University of Technology
Sydney, the Australian Museum, Environmetrics Pty Ltd and the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Sydney. The strategies were designed to enable their use by museum
staff who may not have evaluation experience. The project aimed to find
appropriate ways to:
- assess the degree of learning that takes place in an exhibition/museum
- understand the nature of learning that takes place in an exhibition/museum
- establish benchmarks for learning outcomes
- compare the learning outcomes for different exhibitions
- share data with others and make comparisons with them.
Three strategies for uncovering visitor learning were developed:
- Personal declarations of learning (based on a set of statements about
their learning)
- Looking for understanding of the big ideas of an exhibition (open ended
questions)
- Looking for behaviours that indicate learning is happening. (through
observing visitors and listening to their conversations).
The tools were tested and developed at the Australian Museum and the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. The aspects of the project that are reported
in this paper include determining each tool's effectiveness in uncovering
the extent and nature of learning; developing the most appropriate and
effective use of each strategy; investigating the relationships between
the learning revealed by combinations of the strategies, and determining
the appropriate application of sets of combinations.
The findings showed that the strategies are complementary, each
providing a different insight into visitor learning and together
providing a rich portrait of visitors' experiences. In summary,
visual observation data tells us that people are learning and aspects
of how they are learning. It gives a good indication of the extent
and nature of visitors' use of hands-on exhibits. It also provides
information on a number of behaviours that do not involve talking,
such as reading, manipulating, looking at objects etc. Listening
data tells us more about how they are learning as well as some information
about what they are learning. It gives a much deeper understanding
of the learning that is taking place, how visitors are relating
what they see to other experiences, how the exhibits stimulate discussion
which is not always directly related to what they see. Only from
the listening data were we able to get a good picture of the emotive
responses to the exhibitions. At the same time the listening data
also gave a more accurate picture of non-learning behaviour as much
of this was revealed by hearing what they were talking about. Exit
survey data tells us what visitors are learning and if they know
they are learning. They give good comparisons with the listening
data regarding emotive responses, interest and curiosity. We found
that surveys were the best way to determine understanding of the
main messages. Visitor's views about the exhibit itself are revealed
in the surveys as well as the listening data. It was found that
while each strategy could provide useful information they also each
were missing out on some aspects of the visitors' learning - an
important discovery for museum evaluators. The information gathered
will prove invaluable to exhibition developers and designers, as
there were clear differences in the types of learning that was taking
place in different exhibitions.
Understanding the learning process and providing measurable learning
outcomes will be vital for museums in the future to enable them to demonstrate
to external bodies the value of museum visiting, show how museum learning
fits within a broader educational infrastructure and to assist them in
providing better learning experiences for visitors.
top
|
