Evaluation
Evaluation seeks to assess the worth and merit of an activity. It is about measuring the impact of a project and ensuring it is well designed to have maximum impact. Evaluation is not the same as monitoring which concerns counting, for example, audience numbers.
At Techniquest, we evaluate every visitor activity whether exhibits, science shows, workshops or busking on the Exhibition floor.
The 3 main types of evaluation are:
- Front-end – used to assess planning before any practical design or development work is carried out; often used to help establish the goals or objectives of a project;
- Formative – testing an exhibition or programme in development, for example to improve the functioning of an exhibit before it is installed; and
- Summative – concerned with completed exhibitions or activities. Summative evaluation assesses the final impact of the project and is the type of evaluation with which most people are familiar.
Evaluation is undertaken with the audience for whom the activity is designed and may take the form of focus groups, questionnaires, observations - both participant and non-participant -, and in-depth interviews. Often more than one method is used to increase the reliability of the results.
