Module B: Plan
Understanding audience needs
Most programs don’t confirm audience needs with formal research.
They rely on program developers’ beliefs or assumptions about the audience’s needs. Assumptions can be drawn from:
Your experiences - Conversations with parents or teachers
A program partner’s experience - School Department bulletins
Informal research or inference from formal research done in other situations: An article you see in a professional journal or find on a reputable website
Then add in what you know about the situation: how does the need relate to your institutional mission? What resources are available? What partners can help?
Finally, combine what you know about the situation and audience needs into a list of audience considerations – what you must take into account as you plan your solution to those needs.
Audience considerations
When designing a solution to fit your audience’s needs and produce the intended results, you need to tailor the program to characteristics of your audience.
What are the people like in your target audience? (Hint: “The public” is usually too broad.)
- What characteristics might influence your target audience’s willingness or ability to use your program? Will any of the following affect your planning: age of your audience, gender, education level, interests, learning style, schedule, economics, mobility or access to transportation or language?
- How should you consider the target audience’s attitudes or experiences, habits, values, belief systems or customs in your planning?
What characteristics might create a barrier to the experience you want them to have or the changes you hope to see in this group? Let’s look at some examples to see how a consideration affects planning:
Many senior citizens prefer not to drive at night: Schedule classes at the library during the daytime hours.
Target audience members depend on busses for transportation: Provide a shuttle from the usual bus route or from schools to the museum or back.
Parents in the area often work a variety of shifts: Plan on several options for both registration and program attendance.
Science teachers have relatively large class sizes: Ensure that lesson plans allow for group work and inexpensive materials.
Audience members are from several different ethnic groups: Provide materials in several languages.
Let’s look at an example of the audience considerations at work in designing a program.
Museum example
Library example
Museum example: Audience considerations about need and audience
Explore the audience considerations underlying a program of the Museum of Northwest Art to help elementary school teachers integrate art into their curriculum.
Examine assumptions behind project planning.
Project Planner: Teachers often feel inadequately prepared to teach hands-on art-making, do not know how to talk with students about art and are uncomfortable visiting a museum with or without their students. Many teachers will need training to meet the anticipated formal assessment in the arts mandated by the Washington State Essential Academic Learning Requirements in 2008.
School Administrator: Most teachers have had little pre-service training in teaching critical thinking, one of Washington State’s Four Learning Goals, infused in all curricular areas of the state’s learning standards. When knowledge and data are easily accessible, educators need to help students locate and analyze information, make reasoned judgments, think creatively, communicate clearly and solve problems- all skills employers seek.
Teacher: Teachers enjoy learning from each other and sharing ideas but are usually overloaded with demands on their time. Teachers often feel underpaid, under pressure to “teacher to test” to meet standards in reading, writing and math with “no time” to teach art. Teachers usually have very little art background and may feel uncomfortable on museum visits. Teachers work with limited funding for “extras” such as field trips, and art supplies.
Research: Although (elementary school) teachers are positive about art, less than half are comfortable teaching it, perhaps due to a lack of materials and time and adequate training in art.
Paraphrased from Karen Apple, “Is Art a Frill? Elementary Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Art” (1993) ERIC Document 361 272
Library example: Audience considerations about need and audience
Explore the audience considerations underlying a program of the River County Public Library to help residents improve their writing and feel part of a community of writers.
Examine assumptions behind project planning.
Audience: Library patrons ask for a writing class for adults, both those who work and those who are retired.
Program Planner: Feedback questionnaires show that people want a regular meeting time and a facilitator for discussion.
Research: Older adults like programs with autobiographical writing because it aids in reviewing their life, passing on family incidents and preserving their memories.
Paraphrase from Marsha Rossiter, “Narrative and Stories in Adult Teaching and Learning,” 2002, ERIC Digest #241, Clearinghourse of Adult, Career and Vocational Education.