Measuring Learning Outcomes in Museums, Archives and Libraries: The Learning Impact Research Project (LIRP)

Abstract

Museums, archives and libraries in Britain operate within an outcomes‐driven political climate, as do cultural institutions elsewhere. The need to demonstrate accountability and social value has led to a demand to measure the impact and outcome of learning. How can the complex and unpredictable character of learning be ‘measured’? This paper sets out the policy context and the conceptual framework that underpins the development of a new approach to the measurement of the outcomes of cultural learning. It has been developed by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) at the University of Leicester for the Museums, Archives and Libraries Council (formerly Resource). The use of five generic learning outcomes (GLOs) enables both the quantification and the in‐depth ­analysis and description of the results of learning.