Lessons Learned: A Reflection of Five Years of Engaging Educators with Digital Museum Resources

Abstract

This article reports lessons learned from educator need-centered professional development offerings (PD) on accessing and using digital museum resources through the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL), a free, interactive platform for discovering digital resources, creating content with online tools, and sharing with communities of learners. Since the platform launched in late 2015, the Smithsonian Office of Education Technology has engaged more than 20,000 educators on the use of the SLL through PD that was offered both in-person and digitally, synchronously and asynchronously, frequently through partners within the network of Smithsonian Affiliate museums. Results from more than 1,100 aggregated surveys, 50 in-depth interviews, and five focus groups were triangulated and demonstrated that PD was associated with increased participants’ awareness of, skills in, and frequency in using the SLL, creating, and sharing content, and overall satisfaction with the platform. Educators, especially those who participated in PD, agreed with statements about successfully achieving student learning outcomes when using SLL in classrooms. Findings highlighted the importance of cultivating long-term, supportive relationships with PD participants and partners and offering consistently available support with museum staff well beyond the workshops. They also pointed to the value of user-centered marketing research and strategies to broaden the reach of digital learning resources. As museums and cultural organizations work to meet the increasing demand to engage educators digitally, these concrete lessons can be adapted and applied to institutions that provide access to digital resources to educators.