engagement levels in astronomy communication

Engagement Levels in Astronomy CommunicationEngagement of Non-scientists with Astronomy

Pedro RussoJos van den Broek@pruss russo@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Type of Activities & Products

Morrow 2000, Christensen 2007

A: Curriculum-driven

B: Educational programmes

C: Museum exhibits , star parties, …

D: Planetariums shows, IMAX movies, public talks, ....

E: TV/radio documentaries, podcasts, magazine articles

F & G: Press releases, press conferences, press kits, Video News Releases, media interviews, media courses for scientists …

H: Exhibition booths, annual reports

I: Merchandise

Motivation

• Criticism of the IYA2009 impact numbers.

• How engaged are non-astronomers with astronomy EPO activities?

• How can we better plan our activities based on specific goals?

Public Engagement with Science

• developing interest in science,• understanding scientific knowledge,• connecting with scientific reasoning,• reflecting on science, • practice science,• identifying with the scientific enterprise.

US National Research Council, 2009

Informal Contact

Informal Contact

Passive Participation

Passive Participation

Active Participation

Active Participation

Active Participation

Eurobarometer 340, 2010

Participation as Data Collectors and Analysts

Participation as Data Collectors and Analysts

Amateur Researcher

Amateur Researcher

Amateur Researcher

A B C D E

Engagement Levels

Developing Understanding Connect Practice Identifying

InformalContact

Passive Participation

ActiveParticipation

Collectors& Analysts

AmateurResearchers

International Year of Astronomy 2009

1%

24%

27%

48%

Informal ContactPassive ParticipationActive ParticipationCollectors & Analysts

Data: http://goo.gl/gAAQIf

Appropriate metrics of evaluation lag [behind] the emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching.

Traditional approaches to scholarly evaluation such as citation-based metrics, for example, are often hard to apply to research that is disseminated or conducted via social media.

in NMC Horizon Project Preview, 2013 Higher Education Edition

Discussion

Discussion

One of the reasons appointed by researchers for not participating in EPO is the lack of recognition of their EPO initiatives for their career development.

EPOindex to measure the effectiveness of EPO activities implemented by researchers :

• Number of hours spent developing and implementing EPO activities• Number of people engaged with activities• Engagement Levels

Pedro Russo

@pruss russo@strw.leidenuniv.nl