Proposal Introduction
The ZooWise global audience research initiative aims to enhance social and environmental impacts of zoos, aquariums and botanic gardens by increasing overall standards for audience research and impact evaluation within the sector.
This research project enables research and evaluation practice with provisions for zoos and aquariums to more effectively target their improvement initiatives while using real-time feedback from visitors about the impacts of such initiatives.
The ZooWise initiative aims to bring cooperative and supportive institutions towards common goals into an improvement-oriented ecosystem. It is envisioned that collaboration and sharing among zoo and aquarium stakeholders will encourage institutions to collectively improve to meet or raise to the overall quality of visitor experiences and education globally.
Community
Facilitate sharing information community.
Evaluation
Improve community with good information.
Publication
Report findings through publications.
ZooWise Stakeholders
The tools provided through this initiative offer individual institutions the ability to monitor their visitor experiences and impacts in real-time, with relevant benchmarks based on aggregate results from other participating institutions and prior research.
The ongoing evaluation results will provide insights of immediate value across zoo and aquarium operations.
Education
Fundraising
Retail
Membership
Marketing
Catering
Services
Events
Project and System Features
What is included?
Participation in the ZooWise audience research initiative includes the following features:
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more_vertMethods design
The ZooWise initiative team ensures fit between audience research and evaluation methods and your institution’s unique requirements.
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more_vertSurvey design
Design for up to 25 questions with response options (more can be included but we would advise caution in exceeding this number for the sake of respondents’ satisfaction with the evaluation experience). Research questions will be confirmed through consultation with your institution.
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more_vertSurvey preparation
Preparation of a staff or visitor-facing method to collect email addresses used to enroll visitors into the evaluation. This will include at least one demographic/visitor type variable (e.g. visit type: Family, individual, couple, other) and one impact-related variable.
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more_vertSurvey build
The online survey is built and provided to your institution with embed code which allows the survey to be integrated with the your institution’s web page and/or booking systems (optional add-on). This part of the survey system delivery process is guided by Qualia Analytics’ technical team.
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more_vertAutomatic email invitations
Visitors are sent automated invitations at the close of business on the visit day. The invitations ask visitors to complete the online survey “housed” on your institution's website.
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more_vertDashboard access with data analysis & reporting
The system provides a flexible platform for evaluation and a basic level of analysis. Your institution stakeholders will be provided access to the Dashboard with pre-configured graphs that will generate automatically and in real-time when surveys are completed, with benchmarking against other institutions on an aggregate level where applicable. The statistical analysis of data can be modified upon request, as well as implementing more advanced statistics when required for reporting. Your institution will also have access to publications from the overall ZooWise initiative relating to the zoo and aquarium sector.
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more_vertData & Server maintenance
Data are collected and stored on a server with automatic back-up. Data are always available for download and owned by your institution.
About the survey platform
What is the tool used for the project?
The survey system used in this initiative has been built to enable best practice for research and impact evaluation. Therefore, participation in this initiative includes impact evaluation as a standard feature, allowing pre-visit and post-visit data collection at a minimum. As well, long-term follow-up surveys are possible with additional consideration that, for example, are sent to visitors three, six, or nine months after their initial visit. The system is fully user-friendly and accessible to institutional users with no previous research expertise.
Survey Design and Methods
What is the research approach?
The cornerstone of ZooWise research is its benchmarking capabilities, which is made possible through expert-designed questions and survey methodology. The Question Bank used for this initiative is available to participating zoos and aquariums at sign up, and includes items from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) ‘Biodiversity is Us’ survey.
Support for survey design
Support is provided for developing the methods and survey design to best meet your institution’s research and evaluation needs. Initiative advisors help to provide practical expertise and the ZooWise delivery team implements the survey and technical systems.
Collaboration
Your institution's stakeholders should collaborate on the survey design and provide measurement objectives to help guide data collection in areas of interest.
Survey and question coverage
The survey design can address a range of interests including visitor experiences, service quality, and educational impacts. If impact evaluation has been communicated as the central concern of your institution's stakeholders, then items may be exchanged to include emphasis on emotional, attitudinal, learning or behavioral impacts pertaining to conservation and biodiversity education. In particular, these impacts may include the following:
- Emotional impact from a visit
- Impact regarding pro-conservation attitudes and actions post-visit.
Survey elements focusing on marketing and service elements (e.g. food and facilities) would be included in this survey design to the extent it is relevant to potential educational impacts.
Benefits to your institution
The audience intelligence generated can be used to inform internal improvement efforts at your institution and help support claims of educational impact in response to public request for evidence of impact and relevance in relation to biodiversity and conservation education. It may also provide a means to demonstrate particular standards in relation to zoo associations and licensing agreements.
Proposed Data Collection Approach
All data, analytics and reporting are accessible at all times through an integrated dashboard provided to stakeholders. Where applicable, elements are also benchmarked against other institutions participating in the ZooWise initiative on an aggregate level. The following methods are standardized, but can be adjusted based on specific request from your institution's stakeholders.
Three different surveys are used for the data collection:
Enrollment Survey (pre-visit survey)
The enrollment survey is designed to gather a few details quickly from visitors, including name, e-mail and visitor type. This is also an opportunity for asking impact items pertaining to a key concept, such as ‘conservation’. Options to enroll visitors include:
| Entry Point Data Collection | |
|---|---|
| Option 1 | Visitors are invited to participate upon entering the facilities, either at a ticket desk or just past the entry gate. |
| Option 2 | Systematic sampling should be used. Examples include selecting every other visiting group or every 5th visitor. |
| Option 3 | Data can be entered by either visitor or staff, using an iPad or Android tablet to register data. A wide range of low cost devices can be used. |
| Booking/Ticketing System Integration | |
|---|---|
| Option 1 | An integration (“hook point”) can be set up between the enrolment survey and your institution’s booking system to gather visitor Name and Email. |
| Option 2 | Other information can be gathered at your institution’s discretion (e.g. ticket type or purchase amount). |
| Option 3 | This add-on can run parallel to other collection methods, such as face-to-face (may incur an additional setup). |
Main Post-visit survey
Your visitors can access the main survey after their visit to your institution. Invitation e-mails for the main survey are batched at the end of the day (EoD) and sent by the survey system automatically to visitors’ e-mail accounts, inviting them to participate. Visitors can use their preferred electronic devices, such as personal computer, tablet or smartphone.
Delayed post-visit survey three months after visit
We enable longitudinal impact evaluation with the survey system, whereby a third and final survey invitation is sent to visitors up to 9 months after their visit (this timeframe should be discussed).
This survey asks visitors to answer parallel impact questions and, in accordance with your evaluation requirements, focuses on the de-facto impact regarding pro-conservation actions that visitors have taken after their visit (e.g., visiting other zoos, joining wildlife protection organisations, or reading up on conservation issues).
Cost Structure for Design, Set up and Services
What are participation costs?
Data collection and analytics are provided as part of the survey system. The proposed costs include all consultation, project management, and system implementation.
Initial Set-up and Design
The initial setup and design includes all costs for project management, business analysis and consultation to ensure methods and survey design fit your institutions needs, as well as the build and delivery of the survey system for visitor impact evaluation, real-time analytics via online Dashboard and other features noted in this proposal. The initial set-up includes services and support for one year from system ‘go-live’ and support for Entry Point data collection option with tablet(s) and offline data collection capabilities.
Ongoing Annual Services Cost
Once the digital system is in place, data collection from visitors, analysis and reporting are included under the ongoing service costs. The service costs are included for the first year as part of the initial design and set-up costs. From Year 2 of the system’s operation onwards, continued services, automated data collection, storage and analysis through the Dashboard are covered through service costs charged either monthly or yearly at the same rate as setup.
From Year 2 and beyond of core service, the on-going services cost is based on up to 5 changes to survey questions each year (there may be a small additional fee for further support).
Quote for setup and ongoing services
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Yearly
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Using the calculator:
The tool above will estimate participation costs for your instituion. Simply select your institution type and an estimated annual number of visitors per year that visit. A quote will be prepared for you.
These costs are per site of data collection. Proposed costs are valid for up to 30 days.
Estimated Timeline for Design, Setup and Delivery
What is the timeline for delivery?
The timeline for this work is estimated based on feedback and consultation through five stages of design, setup, and delivery. Estimated durations for these stages can be completed more promptly with institutional feedback through the delivery and implementation can be expedited.
| Project Stage | Estimated Duration | Stage Requirements | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Project Initiation & Proposal | 2 weeks | Review participation provisions, identify costs, sign proposal & delivery agreement. |
| Stage 2 | Survey Design | 2 weeks | Communicate any specific inquires and collaborate on survey design. |
| Stage 3 | Build Survey System | 2 weeks | Review of survey & system “draft” handover. |
| Stage 4 | System handover and project launch. | 1 week | Collaboration on implementing within institution. |
| Stage 5 | Project involvement and ongoing maintenance. | Ongoing | Ongoing participation to review results, contribute feedback and collaborate with ZooWise research and community. |