Facilitating Museum Evaluation with Real-Time Data Mining

该项目创新性地使用了人们熟悉的技术（智能手机和平板电脑），以应对负担得起的、持续的、大规模的博物馆评估所带来的紧迫挑战，同时鼓励博物馆参观者深入参与博物馆的内容。使用智能手机应用程序，博物馆参观者向一位名为“发现博士”的“虚拟科学家”提出问题。D博士提供答案和完成有趣的小挑战的机会。访问者提出的问题被收集在一个大型数据库中。一个分析系统分析这些数据，一个受密码保护的网站为博物馆工作人员提供连续的、可访问的评估数据，帮助他们对与比特相关的内容（如多媒体、演讲主题、讲解员培训、体验车等）进行及时调整（或长期更改）。随着时事和游客的需求和兴趣的变化。该项目的智力价值在于，它正在非正式教育者中建立评估能力，推进游客研究、博物馆评估、非正式科学学习和情境参与等领域，并有助于博物馆开发新的评估技术。该项目具有许多更广泛的影响：Ask Dr. Discovery系统适用于任何希望使用或适应其环境的场所。通过增强游客体验，改善博物馆对数据的访问，以在全国范围内进行评估和数据驱动的决策，Ask Dr. Discovery对博物馆和所有类型的游客都产生了直接和间接的影响。该项目还通过雇用多元化的本科生团队来培训下一代STEM和教育创新者。

This project is making novel use of familiar technology (smartphones and tablets) to address the immediate and pressing challenge of affordable, ongoing, large-scale museum evaluation, while encouraging museum visitors to engage deeply with museum content. Using a smartphone app, museum visitors pose questions to a 'virtual scientist' called Dr. Discovery (Dr. D). Dr. D provides answers and the chance to complete fun mini-challenges. The questions visitors ask are gathered in a large database. An analytics system analyzes these data and a password-protected website provides continuous, accessible evaluation data to museum staff, helping them make just-in-time tweaks (or longer term changes) to exhibit-related content (such as multimedia, lecture topics, docent training, experience carts, etc.) as current events and visitors' needs and interests change. The intellectual merit of this project is that it is building evaluation capacity among informal educators, advancing the fields of visitor studies, museum evaluation, informal science learning, and situated engagement, and is contributing to the development of novel evaluation techniques in museums. This project has many broader impacts: The Ask Dr. Discovery system is available to any venue that wishes to use or adapt it to their context. By enhancing the visitor experience and improving museum access to data for evaluation and data-driven decision making across the country, Ask Dr. Discovery has both a direct and indirect impact on museums and visitors of all types. This project is also training the next generation of STEM and education innovators by employing a diverse team of undergraduate students.