Smithsonian Learning Lab - research foundations and development

Smithsonian

Learning

Lab

learninglab.si.edu

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

April 1, 2015

Darren Milligan

Senior Digital Strategist

Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access

Smithsonian Institution

@darrenmilligan / [email protected]

This Morning

1. The Smithsonian and Outreach

2. Why Digital?

3. Research

- Evaluation of Learning Materials

- Audience Survey

- Digital Learning Resources Project

- Tools for Middle Schoolers

4. Learning Lab

This Morning


2. Why Digital?

3. Research


- Audience Survey



4. Learning Lab

Source: Frontline Design, http://www.frontlinedesign.org/project/night-at-the-museum-2-battle-of-the-smithsonian

Image from Flickr user Mike Procario,

https://www.flickr.com/photos/procario/11060000573/, used under a CC BY-ND 2.0license.

Image adapted from the Department of Education,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/departmentofed/9602545478/, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Smithsonian (in 2014)

19 Museums and Galleries & National Zoo



137.7M Museums Objects & Specimens

1.9M Library Volumes

136,194 Cubic feet of archival material



137.7M Museums Objects & Specimens

1.9M Library Volumes

136,194 Cubic feet of archival material

6,373 Employees

721 Research Fellows

9,817 Volunteers

This Morning


2. Why Digital?

3. Research


- Audience Survey



4. Learning Lab

1995

23.6 million physical visits to museums

72,942 digital visits

1995



2014


99 million digital visits

1995



2014



Physical: 26,700,000-23,600,000 /

23,600,000 X 100 = 13.16% increase

Digital: 99,000,000-72,942 / 72,942 X 100

= 135,624.27% increase

1995



2014



Physical: 26,700,000-23,600,000 /

23,600,000 X 100 = 13.16% increase

Digital: 99,000,000-72,942 / 72,942 X 100

= 135,624.27% increase

Pew Research Teachers Survey Report February 2013

92%: Internet has “major impact” on their ability to

access content, resources, and materials for their

teaching

90%: use search engines to find info

84%: use Internet weekly to find content that will

engage students

80%: use Internet weekly to help them create

lessons

Image: Haxorjoe at en.wikipedia, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nokia1100_new.jpg, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic,

2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

The Problem

Fragmented Brand

Outdated Platform

Lack of Detailed DataWho is using our resources?

Why are they using them?

How are they using them?

Where are they using them?

How would they prefer to access them?

In what format would they prefer them?

Are they using them as designed?

Are students learning from them…?

This Morning


2. Why Digital?

3. Research


- Audience Survey



4. Learning Lab

This Morning


2. Why Digital?

3. Research


- Audience Survey



4. Learning Lab

Remedial Evaluation of the Materials

Distributed at the Smithsonian

Institution’s Annual Teachers’ Night

(2010)

Literature review and evaluation to produce

generalizable guidelines for the design and

development of museum-based lesson plans and

investigated classroom educator methodologies for

incorporating museum-based lessons into

classrooms.

Methodology

Phase One

Extensive literature review

Phase Two

Analysis of comments on specific

Smithsonian lesson plans

Phase Three

Focus groups and in-depth interviews

with classroom educators

Results: Literature Review

Usability and navigability of websites are important.

Common usability problems for visitors (including

classroom educators) who are non-museum

professionals when using museum websites:

• Frustration with overloading of content

• Distracting graphical user interfaces

• Browsing not conducive to understanding specific

topics

• Difficulties with certain terminology

• Disconnect of museum websites to the physical

museums

Results: Literature Review

Key requirements classroom educators need for

museum material to be incorporated into their

teaching:

• Aligned to curriculum standards

• Updated

• Interdisciplinary

• Related to big concepts

• Educational

• Not dependent on museum visits

Results: Analysis and Focus Groups

Key requirements classroom educators need for

museum material to be incorporated into their

teaching:

• Enjoyable for their students

• Interdisciplinary

• Adaptability

• Alignment with curriculum standards

• Flexibility to accommodate a diversity of students

Results

Educators reported that they used

Smithsonian materials acquired at

Teachers’ Night as resource starting points

for their teaching. Museum materials do not

always fit into their teaching (museum

materials must be deconstructed and then

reconstructed).There was no definite

indication that participants from the

focus groups used the materials as

intended by the Smithsonian.

This Morning


2. Why Digital?

3. Research


- Audience Survey



4. Learning Lab

Capturing the Voice of Customer,

Satisfaction Insight Review of

SmithsonianEducation.org (2011)

Collected from more than seven thousand surveys

completed by visitors to the central Smithsonian

Education website, the makeup of this audience,

their motivations for site visitation, their activities

while on the website, and their sources of

dissatisfaction were explored.

Methodology

User satisfaction survey (using the methodology of

the American Customer Satisfaction Index)

conducted via SmithsonianEducation.org.

A total of 7,470 surveys were completed during the

twenty-four month span of data collection through a

popup window presented to website visitors. The

survey consisted of twenty-one numerically scored

model questions, as well as ten multiple choice and

five open-ended custom questions developed by

SCLDA.

This Morning


2. Why Digital?

3. Research


- Audience Survey



4. Learning Lab

Digital Learning Resources Project

(2012)

To assist the Smithsonian to better understand the

educational uses of Smithsonian digital resources

and provide a road map for future digital

development.

Research objectives focused on classroom

educators’ ability to identify, analyze, and extract

digital content, with the ultimate goal of enabling all

users to achieve their own personal learning

objectives through the Smithsonian’s resources.

Intended Outcomes

Short-term: to increase classroom educators’ skills

in identifying, analyzing, and extracting specific

Smithsonian digital learning content

Medium-term: to increase skills to make strategic

use of digital learning content

Long-term: to foster online users who are active

creators of digital resources personalized for

learning in their own classroom.

Methodology

Phases One/Two

Focus groups with twenty classroom

educators in Northern California combined

with user analytics; literature review &

environmental scan

Phase Three

Prototypes were developed and tested by

group of sixty-nine classroom educators

(grade-level and geographically diverse)

Results: Phases One/Two

Search and Visualization Tools

Museums need to make resources more findable and to

generate assets that are personalized and accessible

anytime, anywhere, and on multiple platforms. Classroom

educators also asked for:

• Search results with thumbnails, previews, tag clouds,

and rating systems that allow them to easily identify what

is useful and what is not

• Personalized search hints

• Search capabilities that can be either highly filtered or

extremely broad


Engaging, Standards-aligned, Learner-centered Content

Classroom educators put student interest and engagement

at the top of their list and need content that aligns with

learning goals and standards.

• Engage students

• Allow for student interaction and adaptation

• Afford accessibility for various learning styles and levels

• Offer coherence with the lesson and multidisciplinary

opportunities

• Support problem-based learning goals

• Support standards-based teaching goals


Instructional Tools

When extracting resources, classroom educators want:

• Flexible technologies for a diversity of devices and

delivery methods

• Tools to assess learning

• Tools to adjust reading level of text

• Ways for classroom educators to upload their self-

authored components into a saved file, or resources

from other sites or collections

• Specific pedagogical tools

Prototype

http://scems.navnorth.com

Results: Phase Three

Search and Visualization (Identifying)

• Search by entering a general search term, then filtering

further if needed. Educators also preferred the gallery

view to review their search results. Participants want

more intelligence in their searches and results to guide

them toward the most valuable resources.

• Use a diversity of locations to find what they need and

have little loyalty to one site in particular

• Use the Facebook Share option, but the most popular

method of sharing was emailing the link to themselves or

a colleague.


Authentication, Saving, and Storing (Analyzing)

• To save resources that they find useful.

• The flexibility to organize and annotate resources

according to their own schemas.

• Flexibility in the types of viewing methods available: one

for whole-class interaction and one for individual

interaction.

• The ability to allow students to use the site and its tools

as much as the classroom educator.

• Content that is aligned with Common Core State

Standards.


Instructional Tools (Extracting)

• Were excited about the use of “interactives” with the

resources found in the Smithsonian collection.

• Appreciated the search functionality of the site but want

better visibility of the tools, including prompts and

explanations for their use.

• Liked being able to upload resources from other sources

to augment their collections and appreciated being given

tools that make this easier to accomplish within the site.

This Morning


2. Why Digital?

3. Research


- Audience Survey



4. Learning Lab

Piloting Tools to Enable Active and

Participatory Learning for Middle

School Students: Facilitating Digital

Learning with Smithsonian Digital

Resources (2014)

Classroom educators have indicated that relevance

to students’ needs are a top priority. We are now

testing directly with students to better understand

how they use digital museum assets (specifically

digitized collection objects) and to document the

types of scaffolds necessary to enable active and

participatory learning using them.

Methodology

Prototype presented to middle school students in College

Park, Maryland and in Chico, California.

Testing was conducted using a predefined set of

instructions and tasks. Each testing session included an

activity where students were first introduced to the

Smithsonian, the research project, and their role as testers.

Students were then shown the prototype and walked

through how to search, save, and edit collections.

Individually, they were then asked to conduct the same

search. Finally they were instructed to search, create, and

edit a collection based on their own interests. The group

was then interviewed for suggestions of improvements.

Results

Challenges for Student Users

• Unintelligible descriptions: some of the students found

that the descriptions were difficult to understand

• Spelling limitations: some of the students could not find

the items they were looking for because they could not

spell the search terms correctly

• Loss of authority: some of the participants thought that

the information in their collections was unreliable if they

(or anyone else) were able to change the information

from the original Smithsonian descriptions (a feature of

the prototype)

Results

Feature Requests

• Auto-correct to assist with spelling

• Predictive searches/Recommended searches

• Ability to adjust fonts

• Draw on objects

• Put external images into their collection

• Share collections through social media and email

• Export their collection

• Create unique collages from multiple images

• Child-accessible collection descriptions



META TIME!

META TIME!

Conclusions Focused on

• Educator search preferences

• Factors that contribute to difficult

analysis and resistance to use learning

resources

• Educators’ preferences for learning

resources

• Educators’ preferences for platform

content and functionality

Educator Search Preferences

• Searching assist via autocomplete

and/or spelling assist

• Search results that allow for both

browsing and filtering

• Scannable grade level and subject

information

• Resources from a wide variety

of sources

Factors that Contribute to

Difficult Analysis and Resistance to Use

Learning Resources

• Too many search results; too difficult to

browse quickly for relevant content

• Distracting user interfaces

• Unfamiliar terminology and/or lack of

contextual information

Educators’ Preferences for

Learning Resources

• Interdisciplinary and/or multidisciplinary

• Connection to students’ interests

• Alignment to teaching standards and/or

relationship to big ideas

• Highly Adaptable

• Downloadable format

Educators’ Preferences for

Platform Content and Functionality

• Content available from more than one

one producer/supplier

• Tools available within the platform for

student interaction with the resources

• Variety of sharing options

• Ability to save and structure resources

within the platform for later review/use

This Morning


2. Why Digital?

3. Research


- Audience Survey



4. Learning Lab

Learning Lab Introduction Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAU

hgZTArs0

Smithsonian Learning Lab Process

Technical Specifications

Personas

Wireframes

Style Tiles

Style Guide

Mockups

Alpha

Beta

Beta Launch



Personas

Wireframes

Style Tiles

Style Guide

Mockups

Alpha

Beta

Beta Launch



Personas

Wireframes

Style Tiles

Style Guide

Mockups

Alpha

Beta

Beta Launch



Personas

Wireframes

Style Tiles

Style Guide

Mockups

Alpha

Beta

Beta Launch



Personas

Wireframes

Style Tiles

Style Guide

Mockups

Alpha

Beta

Beta Launch

< User Testing

< User Testing

< User Testing

< User Testing

< User Testing

< User Testing

A Minimum Viable Product

has only the core features that

enable the product to be useful,

and nothing more.




and nothing more.




and nothing more.

Smithsonian Learning Lab

Public Beta

Launch

September 2015

Follow Along

And Share Your

Thoughts

learninglab.si.edu



Thank you. Questions?

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