Introduction

SciWise enables science engagement and communication practices with enhanced insights about the needs and interests of public audiences.

Overview

SciWise research initiative aims to improve science engagement practices through stakeholder participation, support education and build understanding of how attitudes and actions development for public audiences who visit science organisations and events, such as science centers, festivals and museums.

Furthermore, this initiative brings together science researchers and practitioners towards common goals in an improvement-oriented network. With the goal of collective improvement, this initiative enables self–monitoring, collaboration and sharing of 'good' practices.

Finally, this mission is achieved through use of the most innovative and up-to-date social science research methods and technologies that enable impact evaluation and facilitate the investigative capacities required to carry out this mission.

Community Community

Facilitate sharing information community.

Evaluation Evaluation

Improve community with good information.

Publication Publication

Report findings through publications.

Mission

SciWise brings science engagement organizations together in a network of like-minded insitutions committed to data-driven insights and practice.

Mission

The SciWise project aims to bring institutions together towards common goals in an improvement-oriented network. The goal of collective improvement is enabled in this project through self–monitoring, collaboration and sharing good practice among science center, festival and museum research practitioners.

SciWise uses established social science research and evaluation methods to facilitate the research capabilities required for this global mission.

timelineFacilitate sustainable & effective impact evaluation

This project addresses common constraints and acute limitations to robust, quality and effective visitor research and impact evaluation (e.g. Jensen 2014).

cameraEnsure high quality & standardized impact measures

The SciWise research project extends survey designs and methods from other recent global research projects. Information collected in this project supports better understanding of key areas for visitor research.

nature_peopleImprove social & educational impacts

SciWise connects to the community of practice, ensuring audience insights are useful, shareable, and effectively measure visitor experiences and learning impacts (e.g. Dawson & Jensen 2011).

touch_appUse technology to enable positive change

Participating science institutions are empowered by strong evidence delivered efficiently through automated impact evaluation, with real-time and ongoing insights into visitor experience and outcome, meaningful comparisons and sector benchmarks.

Purpose

SciWise seeks empowerment of science engagement and communication activities through evidence-based research, practice and policy.

SciWise Features

Participation in the SciWise audience research project includes the following project features:

  • more_vertMethods and Survey design

    The SciWise project team ensures fit between audience research and evaluation methods and your institution’s unique requirements. Design for up to 25 questions with response options (more can be included but we would advise caution in exceeding this number for the sake of respondents’ satisfaction with the evaluation experience). Research questions will be confirmed through consultation with your institution.

  • more_vertSurvey preparation and build

    Preparation of a staff or visitor-facing method to collect email addresses used to enroll visitors into the evaluation. This will include at least one demographic/visitor type variable (e.g. visit type: Family, individual, couple, other) and one impact-related variable. The online survey is built and provided to your institution with embed code which allows the survey to be integrated with the your institution’s web page and/or booking systems (optional add-on). This part of the survey system delivery process is guided by the SciWise technical team.

  • more_vertAutomatic email invitations

    Visitors are sent automated invitations at the close of business on the visit day. The invitations ask visitors to complete the online survey “housed” on your institution's website.

  • more_vertDashboard access with data analysis & reporting

    The system provides a flexible platform for evaluation and a basic level of analysis. Your institution stakeholders will be provided access to the Dashboard with pre-configured graphs that will generate automatically and in real-time when surveys are completed, with benchmarking against other institutions on an aggregate level where applicable. The statistical analysis of data can be modified upon request, as well as implementing more advanced statistics when required for reporting. Your institution will also have access to publications from the overall SciWise project.

  • more_vertData & Server maintenance

    Data are collected and stored on a server with automatic back-up. Data are always available for download and owned by your institution.

Evaluation Resources

SciWise supports evaluation efforts with expert-designed resources and high-quality methods now used across world-leading science engagement institutions.

Impact Evaluation

This initiative addresses common constraints on conducting robust, quality and effective visitor research and impact evaluation (e.g. Jensen 2014).

The SciWise research initiative draws on survey designs and methods from recent global research projects. Information collected in this project supports better understanding of key science engagement outcomes.

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Survey
Design

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Data
Collection

 work 

Data
Management

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Data
Analysis

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Data
Reporting

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Capacity
Building

Comparative Analysis

A cornerstone of SciWise is its approach to standardization, collaboration and benchmarking between science engagement organizations and projects.

Benchmarking

The cornerstone of SciWise research is its benchmarking objectives and capabilities, made possible through expert-designed questions, survey methodology and technology. Benchmarking provides points of comparison with other participating institutions in Key Benchmarking Areas to enable shared knowledge in pursuit of good practice.

Key Benchmark Areas

Benchmarking in this initiative gives participating institutions real-time insights about how audience experience and educational impacts change internally over time and in comparison to other institutions nationally and globally in key benchmarking areas.

These key benchmarking areas have been developed in part based on international guidelines published by science associations and national regulations. Questions are organized by visit-related categories and the initiative’s key benchmarking areas.

personAudience Profile

Understanding your organization’s audience profile is important for targeting audience development initiatives as well as contextualizing survey responses. Automated analytics show whether there are systematic demographic patterns in terms of participation or outcomes.

thumbs_up_downAudience Experiences

An essential concern for any science engagement organization or event is the quality the visitor experience. From the food and facilities to talks and interactions with staff or volunteers, monitoring the visitor experience in real-time allows practitioners to intervene as soon as a problem emerges.

visibilityScience Engagement

Increasing public engagement of science is a major content theme highlighted in science engagement institutions’ policies and guidelines. SciWise enables participating organizations to see their impact on science awareness and attitudes with real-time results benchmarked by institution type, national and global averages.

Tools for Benchmarking

This initiative enables comparative impact evaluation at a regional, national and global level. This is accomplished using innovative research technology, standardized systems for comparative benchmarking and a focus on audience experiences and educational impacts.

Comparisons are based on standardized measurement tools to understand audience profiles, experiences and outcomes relating to science engagement. This initiative uses benchmarking to aid in discovery and distribution of best practices.

Modern Technology

SciWise enables long-term impact evaluation of science engagement activities with modern, best-in-class digital research technologies.

About the survey platform

What is the tool used for the project?

The survey system used in this project has been built to enable best practice for research and impact evaluation. Therefore, participation in this project includes impact evaluation as a standard feature, allowing pre-visit and post-visit data collection at a minimum. As well, long-term follow-up surveys are possible with additional consideration that, for example, are sent to visitors three, six, or nine months after their initial visit. The system is fully user-friendly and accessible to institutional users with no previous research expertise.

Data Collection Technology

Learn more about SciWise's automated evaluation system and options available for data collection.

Learn More
SciWise Question Bank

Once you join SciWise, you get full access to the Question Bank. But what is it and how does it work?

Learn More

Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting

For the first time, science institutions can have ongoing, long-term and integrated evaluation of audience profile, visitor experience, membership retention patterns and educational impacts, with real-time comparisons to sector benchmarks.The mission and objectives are enabled with innovative technology that automates the process of data collection, aggregation and processing, sector-level analysis, and evaluation reporting. Audience data are analyzed automatically within a project dashboard that provides each institution with benchmark scores for its comparison groups.

To enable science institution stakeholders to target improvements, information provided by visitors will automatically be presented to institutional stakeholders in a dashboard.

  1. Graphs summarize visitors' survey responses, underpinned by statistical analysis. Graphs and related analyses are customizable.
  2. Results are shown in the institution's dashboard in real-time, as survey responses are submitted.
  3. Comparison groups will be automatically set by nation and organization type. Other benchmark groupings can be set up by request.
  4. Data is owned by the institution and always downloadable.

Participating institutions will gain a more accurate insight into visitor experience through automated impact evaluation with built-in benchmarking.

Expert Support

SciWise mission and purpose is guided by world-leading science engagement experts and practitioners who empowerment through data-driven insights.

This initiative is guided by world-leading expert advisors from around the world. Advisors help to orient the initative and ensure its impact is maximized for participating science practitioners and their public audiences.

The initiative’s research team facilitates the research and evaluation process using the SciWise survey tools, supporting science engagement institutions each step of the way from initial interest to real-time benchmarked analytics.

Resources

SciWise offers access to research articles and book chapters addressing evidence-based science engagement and communication topics and best practices.

Evidence-based science communication (Jensen & Gerber)

View article

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Chapter 9: Why impact evaluation matters in science communication: Or, advancing the science of science communication (Jensen, Eric)

View article

Evaluation Methods

SciWise enables evidence-based practice through expert-designed surveys and pilot tested survey questions most relevant to science engagement impact.

Survey and Methods Design

Three different surveys are used for the data collection:

Enrollment Survey (pre-visit survey)

The enrollment survey is designed to gather a few details quickly from visitors, including name, e-mail and visitor type. This is also an opportunity for asking impact items pertaining to a key concept, such as ‘science’. Options to enroll visitors include:

Entry Point Data Collection
Option 1 Visitors are invited to participate upon entering the facilities, either at a ticket desk or just past the entry gate.
Option 2 Systematic sampling should be used. Examples include selecting every other visiting group or every 5th visitor.
Option 3 Data can be entered by either visitor or staff, using an iPad or Android tablet to register data. A wide range of low cost devices can be used.
Booking/Ticketing System Integration
Option 1 An integration (“hook point”) can be set up between the enrolment survey and your institution’s booking system to gather visitor Name and Email.
Option 2 Other information can be gathered at your institution’s discretion (e.g. ticket type or purchase amount).
Option 3 This add-on can run parallel to other collection methods, such as face-to-face (may incur an additional setup).

Main Post-visit survey

Your visitors can access the main survey after their visit to your institution. Invitation e-mails for the main survey are batched at the end of the day (EoD) and sent by the survey system automatically to visitors’ e-mail accounts, inviting them to participate. Visitors can use their preferred electronic devices, such as personal computer, tablet or smartphone.

Delayed post-visit survey three months after visit

We enable longitudinal impact evaluation with the survey system, whereby a third and final survey invitation is sent to visitors up to 9 months after their visit (this timeframe should be discussed).

This survey asks visitors to answer parallel impact questions and, in accordance with your evaluation requirements, focuses on the de-facto impact regarding pro-conservation actions that visitors have taken after their visit (e.g., visiting other zoos, joining wildlife protection organisations, or reading up on conservation issues).

The cornerstone of SciWise research is its benchmarking capabilities, which is made possible through expert-designed questions and survey methodology. The Question Bank used for this project is available to participating science organisations at sign up.

Support for survey design

Support is provided for developing the methods and survey design to best meet your institution’s research and evaluation needs. Project advisors help to provide practical expertise and the SciWise delivery team implements the survey and technical systems.

Collaboration

Your institution's stakeholders should collaborate on the survey design and provide measurement objectives to help guide data collection in areas of interest.

Survey and question coverage

The survey design can address a range of interests including visitor experiences, service quality, and educational impacts. If impact evaluation has been communicated as the central concern of your institution's stakeholders, then items may be exchanged to include emphasis on emotional, attitudinal, learning or behavioral impacts pertaining to science education. In particular, these impacts may include the following:

  1. Emotional and attitudianl impacts from a visit
  2. Impact regarding science attitudes and actions post-visit.

Survey elements focusing on marketing and service elements (e.g. food and facilities) would be included in this survey design to the extent it is relevant to potential educational impacts.

Benefits to your institution

The audience intelligence generated can be used to inform internal improvement efforts at your institution and help support claims of educational impact in response to public request for evidence of impact and relevance to science education. It may also provide a means to demonstrate particular standards in relation to national science associations or licensing agreements.

Proposed Data Collection Approach

All data, analytics and reporting are accessible at all times through an integrated dashboard provided to your organisation's stakeholders. Where applicable, elements are also benchmarked against other institutions participating in the SciWise Project on an aggregate level. The following methods are standardized, but can be adjusted based on specific request.

Costs

Participation costs include consultation, survey design, system delivery and ongoing support for visitor impact evaluation, automated research, and real-time analytics.

Costs Structure

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Using the calculator:
The tool above will estimate participation costs for your instituion. Simply select your institution type and an estimated annual number of visitors per year that visit. A quote will be prepared for you.

These costs are per site of data collection. Proposed costs are valid for up to 30 days.

  • more_vertCost Structure Explanation
    Cost Structure Explanation
      The SciWise cost structure is based on four main factors:
      1. Whether your institution is for-profit or non-profit.
      2. The country your institution is in, determining "Tiers".
      3. The number of annual visitors your institution has.
      4. Whether you choose between monthly or annual billing option. If you choose the annual option, the cost includes one month free.
  • more_vertCountries & Tiers
    Countries & Tiers
    Costs are adjusted by country based on relative purchasing power and per capita gross domestic product.
  • more_vertAnnual Visitor Numbers
    Annual Visitor Numbers
    For institutions with less than 200,000 annual visitors additional cost reductions apply automatically. Institutions with over 200,000 annual visitors can still apply for cost reductions. Furthermore, institutions with under 10,000 annual visitors can apply to have their costs further reduced or waived entirely.
    Below 200,000 Below 100,000 Below 10,000
    30% 50% 70%

    In either special case, you are welcome to email research@sciwise.org about these adjustments.