The newest Journal of Museum Education, Empowering Educators to Evaluate is a great guide to starting out small and growing evaluation to create better learning experiences. It follows three very relevant questions:
- How do you start?
- How do you share?
- How do you grow?
I have done varying levels of evaluation and visitor studies in my own work and I always find it illuminating and gratifying to be more deeply in touch with our visitors. I had the honor to work with Slover Linnett Audience Research on understanding our current audiences. Even when I think I know what our visitors will say, there is always something new to learn, or reinforce (with data!) what I already believed to be true.
So check out the Journal of Museum Education and start chatting with your visitors. You won’t be disappointed, but you might be surprised!
