New museum online learning content strategy - your thoughts please

Update 25 July - I should just add a bit of a disclaimer/explanation here:
1. This thinking isn't related to the work I do in my paid work, more just me rolling ideas around in my head about museum online learning generally
2. This isn't particularly the start of a strategy document, more just some ideas about a modus operandi/working principles (maybe strategy with a small 's'?) for museum online learning.
 
Original post:
I was part of the workshop to critically evaluate the National Musuems Online Learning Project webquests yesterday and as ever, when I step away from my desk, the curtain opened in my brain and I was able to think more broadly then I ever can normally about my job and how I go about it.

Some thoughts developed which I want to expand upon about what a museum online learning strategy should be about and this germ of an idea is brewing in my head that I'd like to hear people's thoughts and comments on.  It's very much a germ of an idea at the moment and I'm sure it has lots of disadvantages so I'd really appreciate your feedback.

What would you think of a museum online learning strategy that set out the following:

1. Online learning resources for schools and colleges that sit on the Museum's website should be in the following forms:

A) A bank of object images with contextual information about them that teachers/tutors/students can download and use for educational use

B) A set of short introductions to the topics that the museum is an authority on

C) A set of short films with schools/colleges as the target audience where a curator talks about particular objects and what you can learn from them

D) A set of relatively light-touch/low-tech pre-visit (and possibly post-visit) resources that support the school/college sessions run by the Museum.  These might be in PPT or SMART notebook or something and would simply serve to introduce key concepts and objects that relate to the session.
In other words the stuff on a museum websites is relatively unprescriptive and is about opening up our 'stuff' and making it available to educators to do what they want with it.

2) All material where the primary aim is to provide a learning experience online that is independent to a face-to-face museum session (and I think this particularly applies to informal learning material online, and to more prescriptive and structured formal learning which does a lot of the teaching for the teacher) e.g. an online game, or an interactive story should do the following :

A) If it is for schools/colleges, pick on particular topic or area of a topic and create a resource to support that area of the curriculum

B) Be developed in partnership with other organisations who have authority on that subject

C) Be developed in partnership with commercial and other big organisations who are already providing this kind of content or where the target audience are already spending time. The idea would be for an equal partnership where funds and resources were put in from both parties

D) Emphasis is put on the findability of the resource from the start

E) Significant budget/resources are set aside for marketing the resource

F) Potentially sit on an independent URL or a place where the target audience are already spending time rather than on the museum's website (Update: 25 July - this is an addition that I meant to put in and realised I'd omitted)

These ideas are based on the following assumptions/observations/thoughts:

• There's no point in museums trying to compete for people's attention and leisure time with online activities which are much better funded than museums are ever likely to be.
• People will only come to museum websites either if they know that there is material there or if they find it by accident in Google.
• We have limited resources both in terms of budget and staff time and it's vital that we channel our energies wisely.

Please please feel free to use the comments to let me know what you think. I'd really value some discussion on this and so I hope it gets people thinking and chatting. Over to you!

Interviewing a museum/archive director

Last Tuesday I took an afternoon out of work and went back to my old work: The British Postal Museum & Archive. I had an appointment with Director Adrian Steel to further some aspects of my AMA.

I wanted to talk to Adrian because, in his role as director, and in his previous senior management roles, I know that he has a lot of experience and is very skilled in various areas of work that I'm interested in. As I've blogged about previously, I'm always looking to continue to improve my project management skills. In addition to this, however, I'm also aware that there are many areas of the work of senior managers which I could do with gaining a better understanding of at this point of my career if I want to continue to move up. These include areas like people management and strategic development.  Adrian seemed like the ideal person to talk to about his role, and what skills he thinks he requires, and what he thinks are the best ways to go about it.

Adrian and I had a long, detailed and productive chat which helped put a lot of things into perspective in a way that sometimes only talking to someone objective can do.  I thought I'd share some of the key advice that I took away with me:

1. Always have a mentor in another organisation, even if you are at a senior level.  Talking to someone objective with experience of your situation can put a different perspective on things and help you clarify your own thoughts on something you're working on.
2. You have a responsibility not only to yourself, but to your organisation to keep yourself sane.  Do this by ensuring that you do some things that you enjoy doing - both at work and in your life outside work.  This will help you to continue to work effectively.
3. Regularly agree priorities with your boss - be it weekly or monthly.  You can't possibly do everything all of the time, and as long as you and your boss have acknowledged this, then you can prioritise sensibly and do your job well whilst still keeping a balance and hopefully mostly going home on time.
4. There are two aspects which are equally important to a planning process, be it for a project, or for a broader strategic plan. One is the more practical ABC approach of considering where you are now, where you want to be, and how to get there.  The second (which is an extension of the first) is to think creatively about this endpoint and draw pictures and diagrams about what it will look like that will help you to get a clearer understanding of your own priorities for this endpoint.
5. There are several strategies to ensuring that you have buy-in to your project and that everyone involved in it is clear about, and has the same understanding and priorities as you as project manager do about it:

• Ensure senior management buy-in, as senior as you think you need to go.  Understand what senior management think the organisation wants and needs from a project/area of work before taking it any further because this will cascade through the organisation if what you are doing is on senior management's radar and is going the way they think is important.
• I've talked already in previous posts about getting buy-in from members of your project team by getting them to help you make all of the important decisions from the start. An alternative  to this, either with a team or with senior managers, is to 'build a straw man' of how you think the endpoint should look or how you think something should happen and ask them to either knock it down or accept it.
• Ensure that you have a good understanding of the people working with you on a project, how they work, and how they perceive you, and work with it.  Different people will respond differently to different information and instructions and, as project manager, it's your job to understand how they will react and act accordingly.

6.      Before asking someone to perform a task, ensure that you have a good understanding of that task, what is involved and how long it will take, and be able to show them your workings.  If the task is one that you have no previous experience of doing, then observe it being done, or do it yourself, and time it rather than guessing how long it should take.  It means that what you are asking for is realistic but also demonstrates that you have an understanding of the process.

7.      Always treat staff time as an asset.  If you were given £40,000 per year to spend, you would spend it wisely and carefully.  An individual on a salary of £30,000 may well cost the organisation in the region of £40,000 per year and their time should therefore be valued accordingly.