“On The Spot” Feedback Tactics To Improve Virtual Scientist Engagement With The Public

Abstract:

The NSF-funded “On The Spot Feedback” (OTSF) Project seeks to answer the following question: What if scientists engaged in public communications possessed the knowledge, skills, and tools to monitor what their audiences are thinking feeling, and understanding? The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Oregon State University, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, partnered with researchers at the Institute for Learning Innovation, are testing the following theory of change. If scientists are (1) introduced to embedded assessment tactics, (2) receive training and support on how to interpret feedback to judge whether their audience is interested, engaged, and understanding, and (3) learn to modify public outreach based on that feedback, then scientists will be more effective communicators, feel more positive about their public interactions, and spend more time engaged in outreach. The project focuses on the use of simple assessment tactics embedded seamlessly into public engagement. But as originally conceived, the project focus was on face-to face engagement occurring at science cafes, museums, science festivals, etc. The COVID pandemic and stay-at-home mandates made all of these venues inaccessible to the scientists in our study and forced us to design, develop, and field-test feedback measures embedded into synchronous virtual public outreach. We have developed some on-line assessment tactics that have shown promise – not only for revealing audience beliefs and misconceptions – but also in fostering increased engagement and interaction between scientists and the public. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF DRL AISL #18110222).