The advisory team has drafted three broad guiding questions from which we would evaluate the year-long project as a whole. These guiding questions determine the evaluating strategy and implementation for each individual program.

Though the team is still honing the guiding questions, initial ideas center around a primary and two supporting questions.

Draft Overall Questions (11/11/13)

  1. Primary Question: In what ways (and/or to what degree) does the use of 3-D scanning/printing in education programming impact visitor engagement with the AIC collection? To explore impact and engagement, we can look at cognitive, affective, and behavioral measures, including: dwell time, “looking closely,” distractions/disruptions, questions, work/output, conversation, content understanding/interpretation/meaning-making, appreciation for art/making/AIC/more, feelings (of wonder, frustration, other), retention/memory, and much more (will need to explore more fully). We will not be able to measure all of these things; we will choose what we want to focus on for particular programs and determine what is feasible given the program mode/setting/audience/other.
  2. Supporting Question: In what way (and/or to what degree) do the program characteristics affect the impact of 3-D technology on visitor engagement with the AIC collection?
    We can look at such factors as facilitation, setting, mode, audience, and more.
  3. Supporting Question: In what way does three-dimensionality differentiate this form of “making” from other art-making experiences and this form of “viewing” from other art appreciation experiences at AIC?

The Museum3D advisory team will meet again in early December to hone these questions and review the evaluation process as used in the Program 2: Pose Like a Statue (Families) event held November 9, 2013.