This has been a busy couple of weeks! I mentioned last week that I was able to finish putting together the drafts for my Clio entries to create the “proof of concept” tour and since that post, all six entries have been uploaded and linked together into a tour! You can view it for yourself here.
In addition to creating the tour itself on the Clio platform, I also made a survey for beta testers to provide some feedback about the effectiveness of the tour and the entries themselves. So far, I’ve gotten results from about half a dozen individual testers, though I have been told by a few more that they were willing to complete a test run, so I hope to have a few additional responses by next week for a more complete data set. The great thing about using a Google form-style survey for this is that I can see the feedback immediately and make changes based on suggestions in real time! For example, originally, the tour entry about the history of the cemetery was at location three, because that’s where my supervisor usually discusses that topic when she guides visitors on in-person tours. However, I received feedback that this was a bit confusing, and would make more sense in the opinion of visitors to be the first stop. After a little consideration, I decided that the reviewer was right so I made that change (which was fairly easy thanks to the user-friendly nature of the Clio system).
Here are some other highlights from the proof of concept tour beta test survey so far: The majority of those surveyed felt fairly confident in their knowledge of Orlando’s history, however, 100% said they felt more knowledgeable after taking the tour. SUCCESS!
This survey will also let me see what types of entries visitors enjoy most and what components of the entries are the most effective. In addition, I also asked some questions to try to gauge whether the entries were suited to the target audience, which is the general public, and that the writing is consistent with an 8th-grade reading level. This is the one component I was a bit nervous about, as I don’t have as much experience with writing at this reading level. While most reviewers agreed that the entries were appropriate for high school age ranges, only one said that they were suitable for middle schoolers and several more said they were appropriate for adults only. This result may be the result of the wording I chose for the question, however, so I will be reformulating that soon. I think asking more specifically about reading levels might be better than asking about appropriateness since that is a more subjective concept.
In other big news, since I will be continuing on this internship for the grant, Dr. French suggested finding an undergraduate intern to work under my supervision in the fall! I’m very excited by this idea and thrilled that I’ll have the ability to get even more done with the assistance of an intern! Additionally, I spoke yesterday with my supervisor who is very happy with the proof of concept tour and she also informed me that we will be meeting soon with the rest of the grant team and the community partners involved. Exciting!
Since next week is the internship showcase, I will be turning my focus on my presentation and my methodology/historiography paper, but I will hopefully continue to receive useful feedback on the proof of concept tour.
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