Assessment in Cultural Institutions - SI 633

Proposal open date: June 1
Proposal close date: August 2
Project timeline: September-December
Project duration: 15 weeks
Number of projects needed: 12

SI 633: Assessment in Cultural Institutions Syllabus

Description

In SI 633: Assessment in Cultural Institutions, master's-level graduate students work in small teams on a project relating to the assessment of a cultural institution’s service, tool, product or collection. The students will first design an assessment tool (i.e. survey, interview protocol, assessment checklist, focus group, point-of-use survey, heuristic evaluation, etc.), implement the assessment and then evaluate results to provide recommendations for the client organization.

Deliverables

Assessment design and/or tool
- Examples include, but are not limited to, a survey, interview protocol, assessment checklist, focus group, point-of-use survey or heuristic evaluation
Raw data from assessment
Recommendations for the institution to implement based on the assessment
Final presentation

Client Requirements

Level of engagement for course/program
- 30-60 minute weekly or bi-weekly meetings with the student team
- Regular feedback and communication to student team based on the course schedule
- Introduction to other roleplayers and users for interviews and/or data gathering
- Provide access to organizational data, systems and/or resources necessary for project completion
- Attend final presentation
- Complete project evaluation
Special requirements for the course/program
- Clients should be part of an organization that is a cultural institution (library, archive, museum, gallery, cultural heritage site, etc.)
- Client should be amenable to students scoping the project further once project match is confirmed

Previous Project Examples

Student archival engagement. Students developed a tool to collect qualitative and quantitative data to measure undergraduate student learning and engagement related to primary source and archival literacy.
Responding to user needs. Students designed and implemented a study to assess how well the National Museum of Women in the Arts Library and Research Center responds to library users’ needs.

Client Testimonials

“The students created a useful tool that will be used by departments within my portfolio. This tool will help us articulate a complete narrative about our outreach efforts. This project had a positive experience on our organization and the process encouraged a new engagement strategy for outreach activities.”
- Carmelita Pickett, University of Virginia Library
“The students’ work provided our museum with new data regarding our visitors (and prospective visitors) and what they expect when coming to our museum. We hope to use this data to make changes to increase our visitor numbers.”
- Phoebe Yates, Swedish American Museum

Past Clients

Contact us

Engaged Learning Office | [email protected] | (734) 763-1251

Please complete this form to submit a project proposal for one of our client-based courses or other programs, or to receive information about these opportunities throughout the year.