National Occupational Standards in
Archaeological Practice

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AH3 Identify and evaluate the requirements of users of exhibitions or interpretative activities

AH3.2 Evaluate the impact of exhibitions or interpretative activities on users

Performance Required

This will involve:

1. Determining the criteria for success
2. Selecting the evaluation methods and implement them correctly using suitable and valid information collection methods
3. Accessing all relevant sources of information
4. Analysing and quantifying the results of the evaluation, recording them clearly in an appropriate format
5. Providing feedback on the evaluation to influence the strategy for learning and to revise the evaluated activity
6. Reviewing the suitability of the evaluation methods and making recommendations for further improvements

Occupational Context

1. Criteria (may include)
   • match with profile of target audience(s)
   • visitor satisfaction
   • visitor numbers
   • income generation
2. Feedback
   • lessons learnt
   • validity and reliability of evaluation conclusions
   • feasibility of responding to those conclusions, short and long-term
   • time and cost of evaluation

Knowledge Requirements

You need to know and understand how to:

• Assess whether an information collection method is suitable and valid
• Interpret statistics
• Record the results of the evaluation

You need to know about:

• targets for the activity
• The relevant sources of information
• The different information collection methods
• The value of different sources of information
• The limitations of different types of user survey
• Who should be provided with the results of the evaluation
• The limitations of the evaluation
• Quantitative and statistical methods
• Relevant legislation and guidelines
• Sources on professional advice

Required Skills

You should demonstrate:

• Data collection, analysis and interpretation

Evidence Required

You should provide evidence that you can define aims and initial objectives for the project

The candidate should be questioned, based upon the documentation provided, to explore how they:

• evaluate the impact of exhibitions and interpretative and learning activities on users.

This will mean using qualitative and quantitative information from a variety of sources, likely to include surveys, admissions data, booking records, knowledge and observations of staff, and publications.

The evaluations will be both formal and informal, and qualitative as well as quantitative.

Candidates will normally provide written evidence of an evaluation, possibly in the form of a report to senior manager, funders or trustees. Often recommendations will be in the form of memos or other correspondence.

This evidence would be supplemented with a significant degree of questioning to explain the rationale behind the identification of user needs and to demonstrate that the knowledge areas were fully covered.

Evidence Rules

The candidate should have been involved in evaluating a range of interpretative and learning activities.

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Today's date: 31/7/2010
This page last updated: 27/7/2007 16:17