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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Hi, Catherine. I am happy to answer these questions for you, but would be happy to visit with you about it more in depth. Feel free to give me a call.
- How many different programs do you offer?
We have 10-12 standard programs that we offer all year, but also offer special programs based on experts we might have in the building.
- Is there a 'user fee' and if so, what do you charge? Is this offering cost effective for your organization?
We charge between $125 and $140 for our programs, but also offer a free program at least one a month. It has been cost effective at this point in the game-we are six years into the program and we recover all our staff and materials costs.
- What is your delivery volume (annually or monthly) and how does this compare to your original goal?
We offered about 500 programs on our calendar and about 300 filled. We tend to really value point-to-point connections so that we are really interacting with one class of students. Many other institutions tend to value volume over depth. That is an important decision point at the outset of the program-are you looking for educational impact or volume or monetary gain.
- How do you market your programs?
There is a network of museums in the state of Texas. A educational service center that created the network manages all our marketing and registration (it is a dream for us-they handle all technical issues, manage the registration database, do all test calls-all for less than 5K a year).
- What technology are you using? Are teachers comfortable with the technology and if not, what assistance to you provide to them?
We use a Tandberg C60, but do not help teachers at all with technology.
- What is your staffing model/who delivers your programs?
We have chosen a route of asking our science staff to lead programs; During the first 3 years of the program, I led all other programs, created new programs and handled creating all the kits that were sent out. As the program grew, I have added 1 part time person to run the equipment, 1 part time person to lead programs and we have an administrative assistant who spends about 50% of her time during the school year handling all the admin stuff.
- If you were launching the program/offering again, would you do it differently? And if so, how?
Would be happy to visit about this over the phone-pretty hard to write as well as I babble : )
- Do you also offer on-site programs and if so, have there been any issues with cannibalization?
We like to cannibalize. Our first two DL programs were based on in-house programs. Since our audience is mainly outside the driving range of museum guests, there is no problem with program crossover.
Best,
Anne
Anne Herndon
Director, School and Group Programs
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
1600 Gendy Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
817-255-9521
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-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Catherine Paisley
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 12:29 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Video Conferencing
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Hi,
Offering video conferencing (VC) programming to school groups/classes seems a great way to expand reach, but is it cost effective and worth the effort? If you are currently offering, or planning to offer VC programs, we would like to hear from you about your experience.
Specifically such things as:
- How many different programs do you offer?
- Is there a 'user fee' and if so, what do you charge? Is this offering cost effective for your organization?
- What is your delivery volume (annually or monthly) and how does this compare to your original goal?
- How do you market your programs?
- What technology are you using? Are teachers comfortable with the technology and if not, what assistance to you provide to them?
- What is your staffing model/who delivers your programs?
- If you were launching the program/offering again, would you do it differently? And if so, how?
- Do you also offer on-site programs and if so, have there been any issues with cannibalization?
If you considered school offering programs via video conferencing and decided against it, why?
thanks!
Catherine Paisley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Catherine Paisley
Vice-President, Science Education
Ontario Science Centre
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www.ontariosciencecentre.ca
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
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To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
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