Interspersed with my work on bigger projects (Gallery box, Museum Classroom, etc) I worked on several smaller projects. One was data collecting. I did two versions of this. I worked with the head of the Education Department, Dr. Denice Blair, to create a qualtrics survey to send to teachers (K-12 and College Level) after they completed a trip to museum. The other version of data collecting that I did was passing out surveys for a current exhibit, Finding Our Voices: Sister Survivors Speak.
For the post-visit survey, I worked on qualtrics. a site that makes it easy to develop surveys, to develop a quick questionnaire focusing on what the teachers (and their students) enjoyed about their visit and what needed to be improved. We wanted this to be something that could really help us create better programming and continuous visits to the museum.
The other major form of data collecting that I worked on was administering the pre- and post-surveys for the Finding Our Voices: Sister Survivors Speak exhibit. These surveys were already established and my job was to pass out the survey information to large groups when they came to visit this exhibit. A lot of time, these visitors were willing to participate in this exhibit survey. Which is wonderful, this information really helps. However, sometimes I collected data by setting up a table by the front of the exhibit and waited for people to come by and participate. This was far more challenging and I would get fewer responses.
Data collecting and evaluation is a major part of museums. How are you expected to understand visitors needs and wants, and if your exhibits, and by extension your museum is doing its job if you don’t talk to your visitors. I already had some experience with evaluations, however, developing one as intricate and expansive as the post-survey visit for teachers, was something completely new to me. I didn’t know at first how to go about writing these questions. I ended up needing to have multiple discussions with the department about how to phrase the questions.
Data collecting isn’t always easy, but it is important. I discovered that as frustrating as it can be at times- such when you sit for two hours waiting for just one person to take your survey- it can also be rewarding. Seeing that people still want to engage with the museum and the work even after you leave is great. Data collecting wasn’t always my favorite part of the internship, trying to talk to people can be difficult at times, and it can get tedious however, I did end up learning how to write a good survey, and how to actually collect surveys.
Museum Musings 