Using data to (better) understand our visitors
Museums and science centres: who visits, why do they visit and how they feel about their experience? The truth is, our organisations vary greatly in the amount of data we collect from our visitors and few science centres and museums engage in efforts to collect data systematically from, or about, their visitors. Recent efforts to build evaluation capacity through large-scale initiatives and shared measures of visitors have attempted to change the way we track data and shared measures are paving the way for a new level of collaboration among informal science organisations.
This session highlights examples of data initiatives designed to enhance our understanding of visitors. Speakers will present their experiences from participating in and learning from multi-institutional data collection, while detailing findings and how the data can be applied.
Facilitator
Professor of science and environmental education
University College London
Session speakers
Manager, COVES & Learning Metrics
Mr. Auster, researcher at the Museum of Science in Boston, MA, will speak about the Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Experience Studies (COVES, www.understandingvisitors.org), a multi-institutional data collection effort in North America focused on driving institutional and field-wide improvement. Specifically, he will discuss the value of a shared, collaborative data project that allows for data comparison across sites.
Head of Visitor and Educational Research
Dr. Specht, Researcher at the German Institute for Adult Education Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning and Dr. Christian Haag, Executive assistant at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, will speak about the potential of data to offer insight into our institutions' non-visitors. Specifically, through the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Dr. Specht will present a secondary analysis of data to discuss one segment that visitor studies professionals often have the hardest time accessing: those who don’t visit.
Executive assistant to the executive director of research
Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories
Dr. Specht, Researcher at the German Institute for Adult Education Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning and Dr. Christian Haag, Executive assistant at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, will speak about the potential of data to offer insight into our institutions' non-visitors. Specifically, through the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Dr. Specht will present a secondary analysis of data to discuss one segment that visitor studies professionals often have the hardest time accessing: those who don’t visit.
Head of the ressort "Cultural participation research"
Foundation for Cultural Further Education and Cultural Advice
Dr. Vera Allmanritter (no profile), Cultural Manager and Audience Development expert, will speak about a new analytical method being tested to understand shifting audiences now attending cultural institutions. Specifically, she will discuss a pilot project funded by the German Federal Commission for Culture and Media that tested a shortened sociodemographic instrument in a large-scale visitor survey, including implications of the study for cultural management research and practice.
