SYNTHESIS EVALUATION REPORT ON

THE TRAINING CURRICULUM FOR

MUSEUM COMMUNICATOR

Leonardo Da Vinci Programme

Responsible author:

UNIV. LA SAPIENZA, EURO INNOVANET

Project MU.COM.
LLP-LDV-TOI-10-IT- 489

Printed on: 30/05/2012

Project Partnership:
1. Sapienza University of Rome Dip. European, American and Intercultural Studies
2. Regional History Museum "Academician Jordan Ivanov" in Kyustendil
3. EURO INNOVANET SRL
4. Province of Ragusa
5. The International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza
6. The University Lucian Blaga, Sibiu
7. The Brukenthal National Museum
8. OAKE Associates

TITLE: SYNTHESIS EVALUATION REPORT ON THE TRAINING CURRICULUM FOR

MUSEUM COMMUNICATOR.
Status
[ ] Draft

[ ] Public for public use

[ ] Deliverable

[ ] IST for IST programme participants only

[X] Report

[ ] Restricted

PREMISES
This evaluation report has been based on the results of several reports, written by all
the partners of the project having launched the course for Museum Communicator
in their countries.
The reports have been provided by partners between mid May 2012 (at the mid of
the training path); they describe in detaild the participation to the course in each
partner countries, analysing the implementation of the curriculum path from the point
of view of quality of materials provided, possible problems and criticalities faced by
students, and solutions found in order to make the training path more appropriate
and usable for each student.

1. COURSE IMPLEMENTATION
1.1. Overview
The self-learning course for Museum Communicator started in April 2012; at the
end of May 2012, the whole number of course participants has been equal to 161,
more than double of the number foreseen and expected in the beginning, according
to the approved project form.
The course materials, created by the researchers from the University La Sapienza,
from EURO INNOVANET and from the Lucian Blaga University, have been tested
and validated, before the beginning of the course, by a team of 130 experts
selected in Italy, Bulgaria, Romania as well as United Kingdom (university teachers,
curators and museum operators, representatives of touristic offices in each
participating country and also students). Such materials have been made available in
4 languages (English, Italian, Bulgarian and Romanian) both as power point lessons,
and as lecture notes (in .pdf format).
The intense dissemination activities carried out since the beginning of the course,
has rapidly generated in each participating country, a third-level network, made of
Museums and Institution devoted to education and training. More in detail, the
following Institutions joined the project course:
- in Italy, the Ravenna Antica Foundation, the Palazzo Milzetti Museum, the Carlo
Zauli Museum, the MAR Museum of Art in Ravenna, the AICC City of Faenza, the
Faenza Proloco, the University od Siena Faculty of Art History, the University of
Ravenna, Faculty of Cultural heritage, the University Ca Foscari in Venice,
Management of Cultural Activities, the University ISIA in Faenza, the Tourist of the
Faenza city, the Universities of Pisa and Bologna, several Museums in Lucca, the
City of Viareggio;
- in Bulgaria, the National Polytechnic Museum in Sofia, the Regional History
Museum in the town of Blagoevgrad, the Archaeological Museum in the town of

Sandanski, the Regional History Museum in Kyustendil, the History Museum in the
town of Dupnitsa, the State University of Library Studies and Information
Technologies in Sofia, the South-West University Neofit Rilski in Blagoevgrad;
- in the United Kingdom, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, the Yorkshire and Sheffield
Museums, the Cupola Gallery, the Woodend Studios, the Rotherham Open Arts
Renaissance, the Arts Council England (a national agency for the arts development
in England), the Cultural Industries Quarter (CiQ), as well as the KR Consulting
society;
- in Romania, the Astra Museum, the Sf. Gheorghe Museum, the Castelul Corvinilor
Museum, the Aiud Museum, the National Complex of Moldova Iasi, the Iasi municipal
Museum, the AIOS association.

1.2. Course users profile

The course is having a great success among students asw ell as museum operators.
The operators concerned are mainly curators, directors and responisble of Museums,
but there are also many collaborators employed as press officers, photographers,
designers, Art historians, archeologists, tuorist guides, as well as several volunteers.
The average age of the course participants is about 34.

Museum
operators

Students

Other
(unemployed, or
people not
working inside
museums)
Course for Museum Communicator: percentage of students/museum
operators/other

2. THE IMPLEMENTED TRAINING PATH

The training of the 161 course participants is beingimplementd as a self-learning
study, even if the educational tools provided are meant also for an in-presence
fruiton.
The corse is made available through a dedicated web platform, accessible by dialing
personal

userids

and

passwords,

http://www.museumcommunicator.eu/it/corso.asp

at

the

address

Course access page on dedicated web platform

Inside the web platform hosting the course, users have the possibility to study the
course materials, available as mentioned in 4 languages and both as power point
lessons and .pdf lecture notes.
In order to evaluate the learning outcomes, it has been realised a specific telematic
system to track the students access to the course modules (e.g. number of
accesses for each user, average duration of the on-line study, number and
frequence of educational materials downloaded, etc.).

Course introduction page

The course structure made available is the following:

MODULE I - PREPARATORY DISCIPLINES, aimed at acquiring the following

competence: Ability to master the general context

of reference in which the

Museum Communicator is operating.

MODULE II PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL AND
TOURISTIC-CULTURAL INTERVENTIONS, aimed at acquiring the following
competences:

Ability to analise the potentials of the socio-cultural and economic

territorial system; Ability to evaluate the potentials of the existing Cultural Heritage
inside the territory; Ability to establish cooperative relationships for initiatives and
projects with the territorial actors (public, private, no profit); Ability to cooperate with
the Museum staff for the definition of projects and cultural initiatives aimed at
valorising the Museum inside its territory (Tourism).

MODULE III PROMOTION AND VALORISATION OF TOURISTIC-CULTURAL

GOODS/PRODUCTS, aimed at acquiring the following competences: Ability to
participate into the planning, the design and the development of the Museum
through promotional activities in cooperation with the social, economic and touristic
territorial actors; Ability to point out specific projects and cultural initiatives aimed at
valorising the Museum contents;

Ability to point out strategies for an ample

Communication; Ability to master the elements of Cultural Marketing in order to

promote the Museum; Ability to use the Communication techniques for promoting
both the ordinary and the extraordinary activity of the Museum with the large
audience.
MODULE IV MUSEUM LEGISLATION, aimed at acquiring the following
competence:

Ability to master the rules for the valorisation of the territory as well

as of the environmental and Cultural Goods .

At the end of each Module, students have the chance to do a self-evaluation test
(answering to 10 true/false questions). In this phase, tests are only a simple selfevaluation tool, so it is not mandatory to pass such tests to access the next Module.
At the end of the course, in order to get a final declaration of course attendance,
students will have to pass a final test based on 30 true/false questions. Passing
grade is a minimum of 20 correct answers (out of 30 total questions).

It is important to stress that a sevice of technical help desk for the management of
any possible problem, has been made available since the beginning of the course.

2. PARTICIPANTS EVALUATION
According to the participants evaluation, the course helps in acquiring high-level
standard competences, along with effective strategies and techniques to make

communication with the audience as well as with the media and the networks of local
actors, productive.
The quality and quantity of teaching materials was evaluated very positively.
A slight criticality has been represented by some sporadic cases of difficulty in
accessing the web platform (due to poor familiarity with the use of the PC); such an
obstacle has been rapidly overcome thanks to the technical mentoring made
available by the project coordinators.
Another minor criticism is found to be the narrowness of times to complete the
enjoyment of the course; however, it is reported by only a couple of people.
On the whole, we can state that the very high degree of appreciation of the initiative
is demonstrated, in this phase, by the process of self-expansion of the users network:
in fact, in several cases the new users adhesions has been due to word of mouth
advertisement among operators museums.

ANNEX I
PARTNERS EVALUATION REPORTS (ALPHABETIC ORDER)

A. REPORT FROM BULGARIA

COURSE IMPLEMENTATION
The number of Mu.Com. course participants in Bulgaria is 48. They are students and
museum operators. The percentage of students is about 25% and about 75% is the
percentage of museum operators (or 10 students, 2 PhD students and 36 museum
operators). The course started up on the 2nd of April 2012 and there has been no
problem registered so far.

EVALUATION
All course participants are aware about the dates each of the modules are available
online and strictly observed for their uploading. Up to now they have no questions
concerning the course disciplines.
Both students and museum operators think that the course materials are useful and
interesting to them. They help them to enrich their knowledge and to improve their
skills. Some of the students are apprentices in the specialty of Informal Education
and for them some of the disciplines and the themes are extremely useful and
important, especially the one concerning volunteers, museum education and
museum promotion.

B. REPORTS FROM ITALY

B.1. THE MIC FOUNDATION
COURSE IMPLEMENTATION
13 participants have been appointed in Faenza to follow the on-line course.
Percentage of students/museum operators: all operators working in Museums,
Universities, Cultural Town Departments.
- Start up of the course: from 2nd April, following the schedule of the course.
EVALUATION
The International Museum of Ceramics involved museums and public institutions to
collaborate with the museum communicator online course. All of them found the
material relevant for the innovative contents supplied to the students.
The first module presented, for some operators, some elements to deepen (for
example the museology concept and the ICT tecnology) because the basilar
knowledgements sometimes are not supplied by the University training.
The successive modules are considered interesting and well done by all the
operators: the formative models and trainings are in general considered very useful
and well arranged.
The methods and the contents are innovative and the objectives of the course may
cover an empty space in the cultural heritage training field.
B.2. LA SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY
COURSE IMPLEMENTATION
14 students have been appointed by the University La Sapienza to follow the course
(Faculty of Tourist Sciences, Communication Sciences).
The course start up for such students has been on April 2012.

EVALUATION
All the students concerned found the material relevant due to its innovative contents
and for the volume and clearness of the educational tools supplied.

B.3. MUSEUMS FROM LUCCA AND VIAREGGIO

COURSE IMPLEMENTATION
10 Museum operators from the Museums of Lucca and Viareggio have been
appointed to follow the course.
They started to follow the course with a slight delay respect to the other participants,
but were successful in study in a short time all the materials provided.
EVALUATION
The evaluation has been very positive. Some criticalities have been found in
accessing the web platform, mainly due to a lack of familiarity with such kind of
telematic study.

C. REPORT FROM ROMANIA

COURSE IMPLEMENTATION
Number of participants in the country: 44
There are 22 students, 18 museum operators and 4 unemployed in museums who
want to have a job inside museums
- Percentage of students/museum operators 50 % students/40,1 museum operators/
4 looking for a job
- Start up of the course in your country 44
EVALUATION
There have been no problems. A technical issue at the start of the course, one
account was not worked but the problem was solved by technical team in time.

D. REPORT FROM THE UK

COURSE IMPLEMENTATION
Number of participants in the country

26 (twenty six) number partcicipants in the UK

Percentage of students/museum operators

15% - 4 (four) number Volunteers/Students

81% - 21 (twenty one) number Museum operators/workers

4% - 1 (one) number Advisor

- Start up of the course in the country:

The Course start-up was made in two regions of the UK Shropshire, and Sheffield.
The start-up has been organised in three principal parts:
1.

Briefing of Team Leaders higlighting the Course, access, and objectives plus

the programme
2.

Briefing of Participants highlighting where the Course can be found,

familiarisation, start-up objectives including Feedback collection

3.

Feedback from Participants collation of feedback from Participants following

an initial Course Viewing. The following section highlights the Feedback.

EVALUATION
There were 3 main points made by Participants:

1.

The Lecture notes on the course were generally extensive and in some cases

too long for on-line users to continue without making print outs which ran to many
pages. Generally lots of type script.
2.

Use of English and use of accepted English terminology was a challenge for

most and would benefit from a revision.

3.

Respondents were generally very positive but a overfaced with the volume of

written material.