New University of Warwick Seminar Series: Evaluating Impacts of Public Engagement and Non-Formal Learning

First Seminar in Series: 4 November, 11am – 5pm (arrival from 10:30am)

at the Dana Centre, next to the Natural History Museum in London

http://www.danacentre.org.uk/aboutus/location

 Evaluating Impacts and Assessing the Quality of Evidence: Core Issues and Debates

Aimed at bringing together engagement, learning and communication practitioners, evaluators and academic researchers, this first seminar in the series will debate and discuss core questions such as:

• How can we understand ‘impact’ within public engagement and non-formal contexts aimed at fostering learning?
• How much ‘impact’ can be achieved through relatively brief interventions in the lives of visiting publics?
• How should the scope of ‘impact’ be understood? (e.g. is it possible to capture evidence of secondary and tertiary impacts?)
• How much is it possible to know through robust evidence about the social, cultural and economic impacts of such engagement or learning?
• What are the quality standards that separate ‘good’ from ‘poor’ evaluation and visitor research?
• Which models of research can be employed? (e.g. action research, case study, etc.?)

The seminar will include the following speakers:

• Dr Helen Featherstone (Chair, Visitor Studies Group, Content & Visitor Researcher at At-Bristol science centre and a Research Fellow at the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England, Bristol)
• Nicola Buckley (Acting Head of Community Affairs, University of Cambridge)
• Emma Pegram (Head of Learning Evaluation and Research, Natural History Museum)
• Emily Dawson (Doctoral Researcher, King’s College London)
• Dr Eric Jensen (Assistant Professor, University of Warwick, Associate Education Fellow, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Zoology, ZSL/University of Cambridge)

Register for the seminar series at the following secure web address:

https://jensen.wufoo.com/forms/evaluating-impacts-seminar-series-registration

Cost

£65 early registration fee (through the end of 5 September 2011), £75 registration fee thereafter. Lunch, tea and coffee are included in the registration fee.

-Places are limited and are awarded on a first come, first served basis. Discounts available if registering for multiple seminars within the series. (see website)

-Concessionary places are available (submit a short application to e.jensen@warwick.ac.uk explaining circumstances). If cost is a barrier to attendance, please don’t hesitate to apply.

About the Seminar Series on ‘Evaluating Impacts’

This seminar series brings together leading researchers and practitioners to discuss evaluation of impacts in public engagement and non-formal learning. These seminars will address how museums, festivals, zoos, universities, science centres, galleries, schools and other organisations with an interest in engagement, learning or communication can use good quality evaluation evidence to understand and enhance their impacts. Both practical and conceptual issues will be considered, as each of the main evaluation research data collection and analytic tools are discussed in turn.

Running from November 2011 to September 2012, this seminar series offers insights, skills development and networking opportunities for those who currently, or are planning in future to, conduct or commission evaluations of impacts. It will also be highly valuable to those who commission or use evaluation and research evidence to inform their practice. Moreover, these seminars will help anyone interested in public engagement, communication or learning to be a ‘critical consumer’ of research on impacts. For further information, please contact Dr Eric Jensen: e.jensen@warwick.ac.uk

The support of the University of Warwick, the British Science Association, the Dana Centre and the Wellcome Trust for this seminar series is gratefully acknowledged.

Overview of Topics for the Seminar Series

• Evaluating Impacts and Assessing the Quality of Evidence: Core Issues and Debates (4 November 2011, Dana Centre)
• Questionnaires as a Method of Evaluating Impacts (16 November 2011, 11am-4pm at the University of Warwick)
• Qualitative Methods of Evaluating Impacts: Focus Groups, Interviews, Ethnography (January 2012, Dana Centre)
• Questionnaires as a Method of Evaluating Impacts (February 2012, Dana Centre)
• Engaging Schools: Analysing Feedback from Teachers and Schoolchildren (Morning, March 2012, Dana Centre)
• Evaluation Research with Young People: Adolescents and Impact (Afternoon, March 2012, Dana Centre)
• Going Beyond the Usual Publics: Evaluating how to Reach New Audiences and Non-Visitors (April 2012, Dana Centre)
• Communication Technologies and Evaluation Research: Evaluation Online and Evaluating Online Engagement, plus Mobile Learning and Software Analysis Tools (May 2012, Dana Centre)
• Intensive 1-day Training Seminar in Advanced Qualitative Evaluation Research Methods (August 2012, University of Warwick)
• Intensive 2-day Training Seminar in Advanced Quantitative Evaluation Research Methods (September 2012, University of Warwick)

About the Seminar Organiser

 

Dr Eric Jensen is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London / University of Cambridge and Associate Education Fellow at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. He is an experienced evaluation researcher, with numerous peer-reviewed publications on public engagement published in top ranked journals such as Public Understanding of Science and books such as Investigating Science Communication in the Information Age (Oxford University Press). He recently had commentaries published in the journal Nature and the British Science Association publication People & Science and forthcoming in the journal Visitor Studies on the urgent need for substantial improvements in the quality and sophistication of evaluation of impacts in the field of public engagement, informal learning and science communication.

Dr Jensen’s previous research projects include evaluation studies of impacts conducted at ZSL London Zoo, Durrell Wildlife Park, the Cambridge Science Festival and Festival of Ideas and the Fitzwilliam Museum. Recent work with the Natural History Museum centred on developing an integrated evaluation and research framework that can ensure that rigorous long-term evaluation is integrated with the continual development of non-formal learning and public engagement practice.

At the University of Warwick, Dr Jensen lectures on the practice of social research and quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research methods, as well as co-convening the MSc programme in Science, Media and Public Policy. Dr Jensen’s publications can be accessed at: http://warwick.academia.edu/EricJensen

The Impact Agenda

In this podcast Mark Carrigan discusses the impact agenda with Professor Steve Fuller. The discussion encompasses the history of impact, its relationship to wider issues in higher education, existing academic responses to the impact agenda and strategic alternatives.