As museum educators and managers, our goal is to create impactful and memorable experiences for our visitors. Whether we’re designing tours, exhibitions, programs, or events, it’s crucial to start with clear and measurable learning outcomes. “Verbs for Significant Learning Outcomes” can guide us in articulating what we want our visitors to know, feel, or do as a result of their experience. Here’s how you can use this taxonomy to develop effective learning outcomes for your museum or historic site.
1. Start with the End in Mind
Before diving into the content, consider the ultimate goals of your tour, exhibition, or school program. What do you want your visitors to know, feel, or do? Are you aiming to increase their knowledge, change their attitudes, or develop new skills? By defining these goals upfront, you can ensure that your entire project aligns with your desired outcomes.
2. Choose the Right Category
“Verbs for Significant Learning Outcomes” is divided into six categories: Foundational Knowledge, Application, Integration, Human Dimension, Caring, and Learning How to Learn. Each category addresses different aspects of learning in ever-deepening levels:
Foundational Knowledge: Focuses on understanding and remembering essential information.
Application: Involves using knowledge and skills in practical situations.
Integration: Encourages connecting and synthesizing ideas across disciplines.
Human Dimension: Emphasizes personal growth, empathy, and interpersonal skills.
Caring: Involves developing new feelings, interests, and values.
Learning How to Learn: Focuses on developing self-directed learning skills.
Select the category that best aligns with your goals. For instance, if you want to deepen visitors’ understanding of a historical period, you might focus on Foundational Knowledge. If you want to encourage visitors to apply what they’ve learned, consider the Application category. Most museums confine their outcomes to the most basic levels (the “green” experiences) so take a risk and try to add one from the more ambitious levels (the “yellow” experiences).
When it comes to developing tours, exhibitions, events, school programs, or publications, the most important concept is to start with the goal in mind or to “design backwards.” Goals are usually defined as products, services, or deliverables, but museums are educational institutions, so our goals should shift from being about the museum or historic site produces or creates to being about what the visitor learns. In other words, what do you want visitors to know, feel, or do as a result of your tour, exhibition, or program?
“Appreciate” and “understand” are often typical outcomes, but they’re hopelessly vague and amorphous. It’s too easy for us to have different definitions of what it means to “appreciate history” or “understand the Constitution.” Thankfully, educators, psychologists, and neuroscientists have been working on the science and practice of learning for decades, providing us with frameworks and methodologies to craft more precise and actionable learning goals.
The Popular but Incomplete Bloom’s Taxonomy (skip to next section if too nerdy)
Let’s start with a brief history of the development of educational taxonomies, which systematically classify learning goals and objectives. Bloom’s Taxonomy is perhaps the most well-known framework in this area. However, users often overlook that it was originally published in 1956 as part of a broader work titled Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. This foundational text was actually the first of three planned volumes.
The first volume, authored by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues, focused on the cognitive domain (knowledge). The second volume, which addressed the affective domain (emotion), was published in 1964 by David Krathwohl. Unfortunately, the third volume, intended to cover the psychomotor domain (action), was never completed, leaving Bloom’s Taxonomy somewhat incomplete despite its significant influence on educational theory and practice.
ChatGPT-4o created this image in less than a minute.
The highly anticipated release of ChatGPT-4o has once again thrust artificial intelligence (AI) into the spotlight. So how can historic sites and house museums harness the power of ChatGPT to craft thought-provoking mission statements, an essential element of effective management?
The American Alliance of Museums states that excellence requires that, “all aspects of the museum’s operations are integrated and focused on meeting its mission.” And yet, crafting mission statements is among the most difficult tasks for an organization. Writing and revising as a board or staff committee can result in circular arguments, the infinite parsing of words, or resignation to a milk-toast statement that offends no one. So how can you take a mission statement that’s weak or mild and turn it into something stronger and more meaningful?
My typical response is that a small committee of diverse leaders within the organization discuss the purpose and role of the museum in the community, and then appoint one person to draft a mission statement for approval. Although that’s much more effective than writing-by-committee, it can also result in a tremendous commitment of time and frustrations during the review as members defend their ideas. Instead, I’ve found ChatGPT to be much more efficient and less frustrating. You can revise frequently and quickly, try out variants and new ideas easily, and even better, criticize the “robot” and it won’t care.
The mission of The Gamble House is to inspire the public’s appreciation and understanding of architecture as a fine art through the example of The Gamble House, the most complete and best-preserved work of American Arts and Crafts architects Charles and Henry Greene.
Using a simple prompt, “Create a mission statement for the Gamble House in Pasadena, California,” ChatGPT-3’s version was:
Our mission at the Gamble House is to preserve and celebrate the legacy of this iconic American Arts and Crafts masterpiece. As a cultural destination and community resource, we aim to inspire and educate visitors about the significance of the Gamble House’s architecture and design, and its enduring influence on American culture.
The first sentence is the usual celebratory mission statement but notice that the next sentence goes further to explain why it matters today (“its enduring influence on American culture”). That’s a significant improvement that can improve the mission statement’s ability to guide decisions and establish priorities—which is the core function of a mission statement.
Going further, you can use ChatGPT to create mission statements inspired by the ideas of influential thinkers. English designer and writer William Morris inspired the Arts and Crafts Movement, so he’s an ideal choice for the Gamble House. By changing the prompt to, “Create a mission statement for the Gamble House in Pasadena, California in style of William Morris,” the result is:
“Our mission at the Gamble House is to preserve the beauty and integrity of this magnificent home, which is a masterpiece of American craftsmanship and design. Through our efforts to maintain the house and its surroundings in a state of harmony and balance, we seek to embody the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, which holds that art and beauty should be an integral part of everyday life. By promoting the values of craftsmanship, simplicity, and authenticity, we aim to create a more just and equitable society, one in which the arts and culture are accessible to all, and the beauty of the natural world is cherished and protected.”
Far too long to be a modern mission statement for a museum, it does offer some intriguing ideas, particularly in the last sentence. By mentioning “craftsmanship,” “equitable society,” and “accessible to all,” it addresses values that could be meaningful to modern visitors and supporters of the Gamble House and inspire innovative programming.
In the year that followed, I’ve continued to explore how ChatGPT can help historic sites and house museum improve their mission statements, as well as create a vision and values. Lest anyone think that ChatGPT is a simple mindless hack to the usual hard work of crafting a mission statement, the use of AI requires a thoughtful human hand on the computer keyboard. ChatGPT can be biased, inaccurate, and hallucinate, so you need to know the organization and theories of management strategy. A weak or poor mission statement can harm a nonprofit organization, whether created by humans or AI.
ChatGPT-4o created this image of the Gamble House, demonstrating the need for the human expert—there’s very little that is correct in this image.
Getting Started
If you’re interested in the best explanation and practices of AI and ChatCPT, read Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI (2024) or listen to an interview with him on the HBR IdeaCast, “Tech at Work: What GenAI Means for Companies Right Now.” If you’re interested in practical applications with lots of examples, read AI and the Future of Education (2023) by Priten Shah. AI is being incorporated into an increasing number of applications, including Microsoft Word, Evernote, Notion, and WordPress, but if you want to explore ChatGPT, it is available free with registration at OpenAI.
If you want to use ChatGPT to craft a mission statement, be aware that it relies on the information that is available to it. If your organization has a very small presence on the Internet or in publications (unlike the Gamble House), a simple prompt will be ineffective. You’ll need to take an additional step to provide it with information, such as the museum’s goals, primary audiences, collection strengths, historical background, and what makes it unique or distinctive. If you’re unsure how to do this in ChatGPT, start with the prompt, “I need help writing a mission statement for [your museum name]. Here are the details: [insert information].” You can follow up with additional instructions, such as “”Give me three different mission statement options,” “Can you make this mission statement more engaging for a younger audience?”, or “I like the direction of this mission statement, but can you make it shorter?”
If ChatGPT has helped your organization improve or rethink its mission statement, please share your experiences in the comments.
The Bethesda Historical Society, established in 2020 in Maryland, has made a commendable stride by crafting a collections management policy ahead of their growing collection of 400 artifacts and documents. Thanks to a local foundation grant, the Historical Society enlisted Mary van Balgooy from Engaging Places to develop a policy that aligns with professional standards and is manageable by a small organization using PastPerfect.
We’re thrilled to share this policy as a benchmark for small museums and historical societies. It succinctly addresses mission; roles of board, staff, and volunteers; ethical and legal aspects; collection scope, definitions, acquisitions, loans, documentation, appraisals, intellectual property, and policy reviews—all within a concise 15 pages!
In the world of small museums, location and audience significantly influence expenses, rendering a one-size-fits-all approach ineffective. However, gaining insight into the various types of expenses museums incur can shed light on common challenges and their causes. The non-profit financial Form 990 categorizes expenses into five areas, providing a framework for understanding spending patterns. Our goal is to simplify the concept of museum spending and guide museums toward prudent budget management by exploring these key expense categories.
It’s been several years since I attended an AASLH annual meeting due to the pandemic and conflicts with my teaching schedule, but I plan to be in Mobile, Alabama in September 2024 (I’m hoping to see the Clotilda–National Geographic called it the best museum that opened in 2023!). Professional conferences are one of the best ways to mentally stand above your daily work and compare what you’re doing with the rest of the field. You can compare experiences, solve problems, share solutions, and be inspired. Plus I can share meals with some of my colleagues (and meet new ones!).
I’ll not only be attending but hope to lead a session or two to support the good work happening at history organizations around the country. It’s a terrific way to work with others to address a hot topic, provide different perspectives on a common issue, and yes, shape the future of the field–so I hope you’ll join me in proposing a session to support your colleagues.
AASLH has moved beyond the traditional three-panelists-and-a-moderator format to include roundtable discussions, in-depth workshops, debates, and a series of quick presentations to allow more variety, so if you have an idea for an educational session, there’s probably an interesting way to present it. I’m having a hard time choosing!
Like most conferences, a committee reviews proposals to assemble the program. Because this is a national conference, they’re looking for sessions that address issues that are affecting history organizations nationally, offer a national perspective on a topic through a geographically diverse session, or relate to the conference theme. Avoid “show and tell” sessions about a program or event that’s unique to your organization and can’t be easily duplicated by others (plus they tend to be really boring self-congratulatory panels). Finally, the attendees want results to justify the time and money they’ve spent at the conference. What will they learn? It’s got to be more than “understand” and “appreciate”–that’s far too vague. By the end of the session, what will they specifically know, what will they be able to do, and how will they feel (e.g., more confident, less confused)?
AASLH is accepting proposals until December 20, 2023. Because proposals are prepared online, it may be difficult to know what information they are seeking, so I’ve attached a one-page summary of the core questions to answer.
In the colorful tapestry of history-focused organizations, every thread of revenue has a role to play in the success of the organization. Perhaps the most unique collection of these threads is the “Other” revenue category. This singular “Other” thread houses a miscellany of revenue sources that don’t fit into the categories of “Investment Income”, “Program Service Revenue”, and “Contributions and Grants”. At first glance, this classification may appear insignificant, yet it often proves to be a silent contributor that underpins the fiscal health of History-Focused Organizations [Museums (NTEE A50), History Museums (A54), History Organizations (A80), and Historical Societies & Historic Preservation (A82)].
Understanding this “Other” revenue can be like deciphering an ancient dialect. It is made no easier by the fact that IRS Form 990 at times uses the terms revenue and income interchangeably. While some categories of this revenue such as royalties and inventory sales may be familiar, “miscellaneous” often contains difficult to parse odds and ends such as third-party events, insurance proceeds, ATM fees, and revenue from hosting satellite towers. Most often this miscellaneous revenue is unspecified and simply named “miscellaneous” or “other” which can make it difficult to get the full picture of a particular institution’s revenue sources. We advise limiting the classification of your total revenue as “miscellaneous” to no more than 1%. While judicious use of this category can help define your other revenue streams more clearly, overuse could lead to a lack of clarity about a significant portion of your revenue. It is crucial to maintain a comprehensive understanding of your financial situation.
For small non-profit organizations operating on less than a million dollars annually, programs are often the beating heart of the operation. The best programs balance mission and financial sustainability to serve their audiences. Program revenue (admissions, events, and membership dues) can be a vital means of maintaining financial stability and growth. For History-Focused Organizations [Museums (NTEE A50), History Museums (A54), History Organizations (A80), and Historical Societies & Historic Preservation (A82)] as overall revenue grows, so does the share of program revenue. This means as your organization grows, so should the prominence of your programs as a true revenue driver (see figure 1 below).
As small history-focused organizations expand, it’s crucial to manage their programs wisely to increase income while keeping the mission in mind. For small groups, program decisions can be very personal, often influenced by board or staff interests. Taking a strategic approach to these decisions can boost the organization’s growth and success.
If a well-managed museum has robust programming, a large endowment, and a profitable gift shop, should they still rely on contributions and grants? Often regarded as a fundraising burden to reduce or eliminate, instead we might want to consider these revenue sources as one of the best ways to sustain and expand an institution. Sixty-six percent of History-Focused Organizations [Museums (NTEE A50), History Museums (A54), History Organizations (A80), and Historical Societies & Historic Preservation (A82)] depend on contributions and grants for at least half of their annual revenue and nearly forty percent rely on contributions and grants for more than three-quarters of their revenue (see Figure 1 below).
To maximize revenue, museums must navigate fundraising in the present and future. Understanding the donor and engagement pyramids simplifies fundraising and ensures focus. Small history-focused organizations, in particular, must invest their limited bandwidth strategically to achieve success.
Figure 1. History-Focused Organizations command large portions of the museum field’s revenue and institutions. Source: Internal Revenue Services and National Center for Charitable Statistics.
Over the past year, Engaging Places has been looking over individual segments of the museum field. While these segments are unique in specific ways, as demonstrated by the data, several of them do share a common theme and mission: an overall goal to promote history. These four segments are History Museums (A54), History Organizations (A80), Historical Societies & Historic Preservation (A82), as well as the broad Museums (A50) category. By combining these segments we can focus on the history-centric portion of the museum field that makes up close to half of its revenue and consists of a whopping 89% of its institutions (see Figure 1). This block of museums is incredibly dominant within the field and a major focus of Engaging Places’ work. For ease of reference, we will be referring to them as History-Focused Organizations.
It is important to remember that as an aggregate these History-Focused Organizations still trend small. Over 90% operate on less than $1 million in revenue annually, with contributions and grants bringing in over half of that vital revenue. For these smaller museums, financial security is a constant and essential priority. While many of these History-Focused Organizations are unable to achieve large pools of investment to stabilize operations, unlike some of their larger counterparts, they can develop practices to move them in this direction.
Engaging Places 