TAM DRAW (Digital Readiness and Advancement on the Web)

Project Title

Texas Association of Museums DRAW Program: Digital Readiness and Advancement on the Web

Project Description

TAM will develop a catalog of varied online learning experiences for museum professionals to increase knowledge of, and improve skills in, digital processes and experiences central to museum operations. The topics of these online courses will be identified from our needs assessments and in conjunction with known digital thought leaders and practitioners. DRAW participants will receive digital badges acknowledging their accomplishments and become part of the DRAW online support community, where colleagues help each other to further their digital skills and thereby increase the capacities of their institutions to transform into digital-savvy organizations, at whatever budget level. 

Project Overview

The project is planned in three phases in response to TAM’s extensive front-end evaluation results, including a 2020 assessment that identified professional development in creating and delivering virtual programs as an urgent need for small to museum-sized museums across the state. 

In the first phase (April - June 2021), the course design, technical learning infrastructure, badging program, and social media promotion plan will be activated. In parallel, an Advisory Board will review past and current needs assessments, to and create a prioritized list of DRAW learning program topics. TAM will solicit proposals for course instructors from professionals who demonstrate specialize knowledge and skills, The successful instructors will be assisted in their work by TAM Fellows who will receive development grants for their assistance in developing, testing, and refining the DRAW courses during Phase 2. 

In the second phase (July 2021 - April 2022) the primary focus will be on executing the initial group of courses with a small cohort of participants. These “beta” online learning sessions, mostly experienced “live” via videoconference, will be recorded and edited into the final course materials (offered in Phase 3). Through its promotional efforts, TAM will continue to build awareness of the DRAW program and attract a much larger number of registrations for the second round of DRAW programming offered in Phase 3. 

Phase 3 (May 2022 - March 2023) Working closely with evaluators, assessment results, and feedback from participants, the TAM project team will refine and re-present the first set of DRAW topics for a wider set of participants. We will re-engage an Advisory Board to revisit the community assessments and identify additional areas of study and practice in new digital topics. Note that these courses will be experienced in a more self-paced or asynchronous way, allowing much more flexibility to the participants in when and how they engage with the materials, thus becoming much more accessible to a wider range of participants who may experience learning or scheduling challenges. Graduates who receive badges will be invited to join the DRAW support community for fellow learners.