Evalution report for Understanding Science/Understanding Evolution Modernization

This report summarizes the effectiveness of the Understanding Evolution and Understanding Science website modernization project, funded by IMLS award no. MA-10-19-0539-19. To assess these goals, we conducted several online surveys of website users. We conducted baseline satisfaction surveys of site users before upgrading the sites, and then repeated these surveys after upgrades to gauge the project’s impact on satisfaction. We also conducted more specific online satisfaction surveys targeting the new features we developed for each site. Together, these surveys assessed the opinions of several thousand users of each site. In addition, throughout the project, we collected Google Analytics data on website traffic patterns.

Key findings from these assessments are that:

• Users perceive the sites as contributing to learning/interest
• Teacher users report increased confidence/preparedness as a result of their visits to the sites
• Users perceive the sites as current, appealing, and easy to navigate; upgrades significantly strengthened these perceptions among users
• Users are attracted to the sites and find useful information/tools; upgrades significantly increased overall user satisfaction
• New features developed for the sites are perceived as useful and as supporting learning/interest
• Audiences for the sites are diverse and growing