Talking to Your Evaluator So That You Get the Information You Need, Friday, March 25th, 2011
Presenter: Lauren Russell, Project Coordinator - David Heil and Associates, Inc.
This workshop is geared toward Museum program and exhibit staff who want to improve their ability to use evaluation. Learn how you can collaborate effectively with internal and external evaluators. The workshop will incorporate best practice in evaluation communication, and group activities allowing participants to practice scenarios involving articulating program and exhibit goals, identifying appropriate methods of assessment and the opportunity to discuss and critique evaluation plans.

Making Informal Learning Experiences Meaningful For Young Audiences, March 25th, 2011
Presenter: Stephanie Lile - Head of Education, Washington State History Museum (WSHM)
Making learning experiences meaningful for your audience is a challenge all museum professionals face. But for our younger visitors, it's not just text, images, exhibitry, and objects that help kids engage and retain knowledge--it's a complete experience that must be planned and envisioned from the conceptual stage. Participants in this workshop addressed the principles and practices of Visitor Studies and informal learning environments to gain strategies for planning and evaluating experiences that include BOTH exhibit and program; for appealing to audiences of varying ages; and for using educational techniques to increase audience retention rates.

Brown Bag Lunch, March 25th, 2011
Presenter: John Falk - Sea Grant Professor in Free-Choice Learning, OSU
Discussion with John Falk, Ph.D., on current trends and research projects, identity and the museum visitor, informal learning environments and evaluation.

Using Design Studio Pedagogy to Creatively Model and Understand Visitor Experiences, March 25th, 2011
Presenters: Iain Robertson - Professor of Landscape Architecture; Leslie Rupert Herrenkohl - Associate Professor in the Learning Sciences and Human Development and Cognition Programs; Julie Johnson - Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture; all at University of Washington
Design studio pedagogy is a method of project-based education in which students develop effective designs using personal and cultural resources combined in new and innovative ways. This workshop adapted studio education methods to explore problems and issues commonly confronted by the designers, curators, education and research specialists, and users of museum exhibits. Workshop participants engaged in short, focused design explorations, using methods such as model-making, drawing, and writing, followed by discussions, presentations, and critique periods.

Programs Outside the Institutional Walls: An Educator’s Perspective and Role in Understanding Program Impact, September 17, 2010
Presenter: Dale MccReedy, Director, Gender & Family Learning Programs at the Franklin Institute
This half-day workshop provided an overview of the critical role educators can play in the process of evaluation, and in assessing the impact of programs offered outside the walls of our institutions. Attendees explored the challenges and benefits of reaching such audiences, whether through neighborhood associations, youth groups, or clubs. As educators trying to understand the impact of such partnerships, we need to consider what we want to know, need to know for funders, how we will use this information, and what we expect to eventually wonder about.

Engaging All in Science: Considering Diversity Through the Lens of Gender, September 17, 2010
Presenter: Dale MccReedy, Director, Gender & Family Learning Programs at the Franklin Institute
This half day session focussed on considerations of diversity – what does it mean, what does this look like, and how might one address issues of diversity. The discussion drew on gender literature as well as the NRC publication, Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places and Pursuits, and engaged participants in activities that highlight the ways in which personal and/or institutional cultures shape perspectives and expectations.

Understanding and Designing Evaluation, September 17, 2010
Presenter: Joe E. Heimlich
This workshop introduced the process of understanding, consuming and designing well-conceptualized evaluation studies for education programs and exhibits. Issues addressed included existing literature, theory, or conceptual frameworks used in evaluation; developing meaningful evaluation questions or issues to drive an education project; reviewing appropriate methods and audience samples for specific projects; and making practical use of evaluation results and reports.

Making Logic Models Work for You and Your Team, Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Presenter: OMSI Evaluation and Visitor Studies Staff led by Marcie Benne
What's the big deal about logic models? Logic models are tools evaluators and other stakeholders use to support the creative process in research, development, and evaluation. Regardless of whether you've used a logic model before or not, this workshop can further your techniques for using them effectively with teams. Our objective is to help you use logic models creatively, collaboratively, and confidently.

Brown Bag Lunch, March 16, 2010
Presenter: Cathleen Gal
An informal discussion with Portland State University's (PSU) Institutional Review Board. PSU's IRB reviews research protocols external to PSU, including those from VSA members. They have experience reviewing social science and educational research protocols. Cathleen Gal, the IRB's Research Integrity Coordinator,  described PSU's IRB process and answer questions from attendees.

Measuring Attitudes, March 16, 2010
Presenter: Dr. Shawn Rowe
On the one hand, attitudes are apparently easy to document and measure. On the other hand, when we are dealing with attitudes, we are dealing with phenomena that may be difficult for the evaluator to operationalize and measure and difficult for participants to articulate. This situation is complicated by the perspective one takes on attitudes as something more or less stable that one has or as something one articulates as necessary in interaction. In this half-day workshop, we discussed a variety of approaches to operationalizing attitudes and tools for documenting them.

Evaluation 101, March 16, 2010
Presenter: Julie McNalley and Kris Morrissey
What do you know about your visitors? How do you find out? How should you be thinking about your audience as you develop new programs and activities or assess the impact of your existing programs and activities? This workshop provided an introduction to the types of evaluation approaches and strategies used in museums and consider how they work hand-in-hand with program and exhibit planning, implementation, and assessment. The workshop was designed for individuals who are interested in or new to the field of evaluation (also called visitor studies or audience research) or individuals who want to be informed consumers of evaluation studies.

Evaluation 101, November 14, 2008
Presenter: Saul Rockman
Introduction to the range of issues and approaches to formative and summative evaluation. The workshop was based on the content of an existing, freely-available and accessible website focused on evaluation in informal settings. Participants explored components of evaluation strategies and review labs on the site that are available for post-workshop reference.

Logic Model Workshop, November 14, 2008
Presenter: Joe E. Heimlich
This workshop introduced techniques useful in facilitating diverse stakeholder groups through the development of a logic model. Using a thought-provoking, practical, and fun format, the workshop leader facilitated participation in a Mock Logic Development Stakeholder Meeting. Interspersed “sidebar discussions” allow reflection on the group process. Workshop content includes introduction of relevant theory, research findings, and lessons learned from experience. Knowledge about facilitating stakeholder groups is enhanced by exploration of concepts like granulation, flow, linking, clustering, forks in the road, identifying audiences, and “hot spots.”

What Research Tells Us about Working with Teachers, July 15, 2008
Presenter: James Kisiel
For many museums and similar settings, teachers with school groups comprise a significant percentage of the institution’s overall visitorship. This workshop introduces a variety of research findings (old and new) that provide insights about how teachers perceive and navigate informal learning resources. Participants strategize ways to use what is already known about informal learning and ‘teacher culture’ to reconsider how to better serve this traditional audience.

Getting Published, July 15, 2008
Presenters: Jan Packer, Roy Ballantyne
The process of reporting and publishing research in a journal like VSA’s Visitor Studies can be a satisfying part of an author’s professional development, and sharing findings is a way to increase the impact of one’s work by contributing knowledge that can enhance visitor experiences. But the path toward getting published is not always transparent. This workshop explores the process of writing and submitting a research paper and provides information about how the review process works. Participants engage in small group exercises to develop and practice some of the skills involved in writing research papers and producing publishable articles.

Lenses, Filters and Frames: Calibrating and Cultivating Self As Responsive Instrument for Professional Excellence and Ethical Praxis, July 16, 2008
Presenter: Hazel Symonette
Excellence and ethical practice in evaluation are intertwined with orientations toward, responsiveness to, and capacities for engaging diversity. Breathing life into this expectation calls for critical ongoing personal homework for evaluators. Who are you as you walk in the world? Does your envisioned image of self radiate and would others agree? Which others? Engaging and using the self as responsive instrument summons one's capacities to move beyond unilateral self-awareness and personal declarations towards multilateral self-awareness and boundary-spanning communications as you work with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders. Multilateral self-awareness prepares you to engage the reality that evaluative judgments are inextricably bound up with culture and context. This workshop offers an opportunity to mindfully develop the Self-as-Instrument Portfolio as participants discover, calibrate and cultivate their lenses, filters and frames.