Digital Action Research and Transformation (Year 1)
About
The intention of the full DART program is to allow participating organisations to undertake a digital project over the course of 6-7 months, mentored by experts in the field of digital technologies in cultural institutions, and with the support and encouragement of fellow participants.
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Each of our participant institutions (with 2-3 participants each) learned unique digital skills during this program. These were tailored specifically to their projects. At the core of the program, was learning an agile project management style called “Iterative Design” which is quite popular in the digital sector but not common in the cultural sector. Iterative design is an important facet in supporting sustainable digital development which at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was critical for art galleries and museums. This iterative style encourages experimentation, allowing projects to evolve throughout their lifecycle and supports easy adaptation to benefit stakeholders, works around changes in resourcing or funding, and evolves to adapte to changing circumstances (like the pandemic!). Digital has to be flexible as it is constantly influx and changing, even in things like basic website development. Following this sort of project management style encourages those involved to try new things, learn new skills, adapt as they go, and ultimately serve their visitors/stakeholders better.
This type of training programming is something that has not previously been widely available within the Canadian cultural and arts sector. Though professional development is frequent, it focuses on more concrete training, like conservation of art, and less on skills development for managing projects and digital development. If this pandemic has taught our sector anything, it is that digital is a requirement for our continued existence, and that means learning how to engage in and undertake a vast array of digital projects, when many in the arts sector lack the skills and knowledge. Training programs like DART can fill a need, as we go forward and adapt to this post-digital world where our audiences now expect us to continue to engage online, virtually, and through digital media.
Process
Workshops continued to form a core component of the program going into this fully realised course. In Year 1, we built upon our understanding from the pilot and planned six workshops, to give participants more time together and in a group setting to learn and explore. As with the pilot, these continued to be held virtually, because this allowed participants from across Canada to join the program. Running throughout the DART timeframe, participants defined, ran and evaluated a digital media experiment that supported the goals of their organizations, following some key steps during their experiment.
1. Define the action research question
Participants set out a question that encapsulated an organisational goal, or something they wanted to learn / gain experience with.
2. Generate ideas
Using grids, sticky notes and other workshop techniques. For example an “audience-led” approach could use ABC – Attention, Behaviour & Circulation.
3. Control scope
Working with mentors, participants shaped their ideas so that they were achievable, measurable and could be undertaken and evaluated within the timespan of the initiative. This involved reducing an approach to specific parts of the original idea – with the aim to be finding the “minimal viable experiment” that could answer the action research question.
4. Prototype and iterate experiments
Supported by mentors / industry experts, the participants put together prototypes for their digital media experiments. Participants were encouraged to make prototypes as simple and quick as possible – for example using prototyping software (eg Adobe XD or Figma) to explore and test user experience, rather than building a functioning interactive application. These were iterated rapidly throughout the project.
5. Evaluate
All experiments were designed to be measurable, providing quantitative a qualitative data to the participant, their mentors and the wider group. A key part of the project was skills development in interpreting and analysing results to inform further development and learning throughout each iteration.
6. Reflect and Share
The focused nature of their experiments helped participants to better understand a medium, an audience, a communication technique or other identified factors. As well as generating experience and results to help answer their research questions, the initiative helped inform the macrocosm of the organization’s wider goals and development. Participants reflected upon how the learning from the experiment could be scaled to an organizational level, and what changes in policy, infrastructure, skills or strategies would be required to support further digital development.
Projects
Partners
