This is both a reply to Betsy Price and an announcement to the entire list.

Several of us who are interested in interpretive online programs have noted
that there is simply very little literature out there on what users want and
what they get out of our web sites. We have also noted that the tools used
by museums in audience research do not entirely apply to audiences who we
cannot see or talk directly with. Which leaves us with questions like
Betsy's and no place to go to share questions, observations, and answers.

To explore these issues further, we have launched an online discussion (it's
been a long haul dominated by technical glitches, but we're now live). If
you would like to join the forum, you have two choices. Participation by
email (like a listserve) can be initiated by sending a blank email to
[log in to unmask] If you would like to add access to
archives and other functions go to groups.yahoo.com/group/RULIOS (there you
will have to register an ID with YahooGroups).

If you're still reading this, you must be at least somewhat interested. In
that case, here's the official charter of the group:

______________________

Researching Use and Learning of Interpretive Online Sites (RULIOS)

This site is a forum for questions and observations about the ways visitors
use Museums' interpretive websites. Its foundation is two questions:
1) What methods, components, or techniques have been effective for online
learning, particularly inquiry learning?
2) How can we determine this? What methodologies can we use to evaluate
online learning?

Museums have long been interested in preservation and dissemination of
information and in how our audiences use it. The Internet can further those
goals. But because web audiences are outside our line of sight, we have more
trouble making observations of their use patterns (e.g. what do they want
and what do they get from our sites?). This group's fundamental questions
may produce a pile of published research in future years, but the discussion
can start here by simply asking questions and sharing observations from the
data our sites do collect.

This forum welcomes all museum, archives, Internet, and visitor studies
professionals, students, and others interested in museum and interpretive
online sites, their users, and their use.

Monitoring
This forum is monitored to keep it on topic--irrelevant or uncivil posts may
be deleted and members of the group can be removed. Users are nevertheless
encouraged to police themselves and the group by keeping discussion to the
point and by following the generally accepted rules of netiquette.

This group is also subject to the terms of service of Yahoo!Groups. Any
violations of these rules are the sole responsibility of the individual or
institution placing the post.

Archives
This site is archived on Yahoo!Groups. You may be able to participate in
email discussions without creating a Yahoo!ID (by emailing
[log in to unmask]), but to read the archive or use other
features of the group you must go to groups.yahoo.com/group/RULIOS and
register
______________________


_________________________
Steve Boyd-Smith
Curator of Online Interpretive Projects
Minnesota Historical Society



-----Original Message-----
From: Betsy Price [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 2:41 PM
Subject: A ? about exhibits and web interactives


Hi All:

I am working on a team of evaluators for a web-based textbook.  It is
an entire curriculum package of a greatly reduced textbook, wet labs,
and a huge website with interactives.

My question comes from my observations of students and teachers using
the interactive pages on the website.  Students and teachers are
reacting to the website activities like a visitor to an exhibit.  For
example students will click until they can get something to move
before reading about the activity. If nothing moves, they will assume
it is "broken" and move on.  Another example is that the most
successful text is designed similar to exhibit labeling.

Does anyone have any ideas who may have written a paper or noticed
anything similar?  Any suggestions?

Betsy


Betsy Price                      801-596-2619
SciEd Consultants                801-230-3031 cell
853 Northcliffe                  [log in to unmask]
Salt Lake City, UT 84103         [log in to unmask]

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).