Outcomes from a visitors study at the “INGV Open Day Event”

Abstract

Research Institutions are tackling the ever so increasing challenge to share the outcomes of scientific research and technological innovations with a forthright method in order to increase involvement of the community. To achieve that aim, the main recipients of the information must be the focus point on which outreach and educational activities concentrate. Standard analysis of visitor’s experiences within informal learning activities can provide useful information on the activity impacts. In fact, evaluating the performance allows to improve the effects, achievements and benefits in the audiences. This research was carried out by analysing quantitative and qualitative studies performed in the occasion of a temporary outreach event, in which visitors were the focal point. Different types of audiences were examined during an Open Day at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)—Italian Institute of Geophysical and Volcanological Research—based in Rome, leading to the results we present in this work. The event was remarkable as it brought together a broad selection of scientific laboratories, exhibition spaces and meetings with researchers, all custom tailored towards the specific audiences. At the end of the event, questionnaires were handed over to the visitors, both young and adults, and to any stakeholder that were present. The answers and the open feedbacks from the visitors have disclosed valuable information on INGV’s audience, and allowed the events organization and contents to be refined and improved. This procedure can most certainly be turned into a methodical system to obtain a general picture of the cognitive and emotional effects on visitors participating in scientific itineraries. The quantitative method used in this research involved analysing the answers in the questionnaires with a statistical approach and was blended with the qualitative method that took into account the visitor’s personal feedback and input. The aftermath of the study allows to pinpoint the main event issues and to take actions aimed to enrich visitor’s satisfaction and experience. In fact, advertising of the events ahead of time, arranging a well designed and implemented online information and booking system in order to better accommodate for the number of visitors, realizing dedicated apps for the each tours, creating a shorter questionnaire for children, and creating standards for questionnaires that would be used in the future.