Self-Paced Learning Modules

Watch individual sessions and workshops or check out an entire module of recordings. Each module includes four webinar recordings, with beginner to advanced level instruction.

 

 

 

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Learning Modules for Museums

Explore digital media and technology learning modules for small museums. These are nuts-and-bolts sessions and workshops featuring small museum professionals and skilled museum technologists. Each module includes a free, downloadable resource toolkit!

Stand-alone sessions and modules

You can watch individual sessions or get the full experience by watching the complete module. Each online learning module features an introductory session by small museum professionals, followed by three technical training workshops taught by subject-matter experts. Session transcripts are available on each session’s information page.

Module 1: Digital Accessibility and Inclusion for Museums

 

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Get Inspired: Digital Accessibility and Inclusion

Beginner Level: This introductory session will bring together staff of small museums to share their approach to ensuring that their digital projects are accessible and inclusive of people with disabilities.

Download Module 1 Toolkit

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Intro to Digital Accessibility and Inclusion

Beginner Level: The first workshop in the Digital Accessibility and Inclusion module will be an introduction to best practices for a wide range of digital projects including web and social media.

Ana Lavatelli has long, brown hair and a oversized eyeglasses. She looks at the camera in a three-quarter profile.

Live/Streamed Program Accessibility and Inclusion

Intermediate Level: The second workshop will focus on the ways that small museums can ensure that live-streamed and video programming are accessible to and inclusive of individuals of all abilities. 

Accessibility in Digital Museum Collections

Advanced Level: The final workshop will focus on digital collections. From the time an object is acquired, cataloged, entered in the database, to when and how it is published online

Module 2: Live Streaming for Museums

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Get Inspired: Live Streaming for Museums

Beginner Level:  Join this introductory session to hear from museum staff who successfully developed live virtual programs, tours, and events with small budgets and basic technology tools. 

Download Module 2 Toolkit

Introduction to Live Streaming for Museums

Beginner Level: This session focuses on tools, technologies, and tips for one-way, live broadcasts and lays the groundwork for more complicated streaming needs and audience interaction.

Alex Freeman of the Texas Association of Museums has a beard and short cropped hair. He wears a dark blazer and a bright blue shirt.

 Audience Participation in Live Streaming

Intermediate Level: The second workshop in Module 2 will address technologies and tools that enhance audience participation and interaction in live streamed programming. 

Live Streaming with Multi-Source Content

Advanced Level: Learn tools to manage multi-layered presentations using live production studio software to combine pre-recorded media and live presenters, including sign language interpreters.

Module 3: Managing Digitization Projects for Museums

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Get Inspired: Managing Digitization Projects

Beginner Level: Join this introductory session to hear from museum staff who successfully conceptualized, planned and implemented projects to expand the online presence of collections. 

Download Module 3 Toolkit

 

Dr. Rhonda Jones wears a pink blazer and a colorful necklace. She stands in front of a cream-colored background and looks off to the side as she smiles.

Digitization Strategy and Purposes

Beginner Level: The first technical workshop in our June series will address the “why” and “who” of collections digitization projects – why your digitization project matters.

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 How to Manage a Digitization Project

Intermediate Level:  How do you plan a successful project, where do you start, how do you identify priorities? What should you include? Should you digitize in-house or use a vendor?

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Imaging Standards in Digitization Projects

Advanced Level: Let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of how to work with the resources you have to achieve your digitization goals. We’ll take a look at equipment and space setups, etc. 

Module 4: Managing Website Projects for Museums

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  Get Inspired: Managing Websites

Beginner Level: Join this session to hear from museum professionals who have managed website projects through times of great change using teams of volunteers, in-house staff and community partners. 

Download Module 4 Toolkit

 

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Plan for Success with Website Projects

Beginner Level: What do you need to get started with a website project? Access easy-to-follow, step-by-step processes that include helpful guides and checklists for goal setting.

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Setting Content Priorities for Websites

Intermediate Level: Join this session to learn about methods to streamline content planning with helpful tracking tools. Plus, we’ll practice ways to identify content gaps, find creative ways to fill them.

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Managing the Entire Website Project

Advanced Level: Join us this week to get the inside scoop on how to manage technical resources with confidence. We’ll identify common pitfalls that derail web projects and how to prevent or solve them. 

Module 5: Creating Virtual Exhibitions for Museums

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   Get Inspired: For Creating Virtual Exhibitions

Beginner Level: Join this introductory session to hear from museum staff who successfully created online exhibitions. Get inspired by the curatorial possibilities of limitless virtual space and access!

Download Module 5 Toolkit

 

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Strategies, Project Workflow and Efficient Design

Beginner Level: Join this technical session to better understand the methodological framework required to create a virtual exhibition as well as the philosophical challenges involved.

Web-Based Curatorial Approaches

Intermediate Level: Join this workshop to learn strategies for ensuring online curatorial practice is not lost in a myriad of technical issues. Experience demonstrations on WordPress and Squarespace.

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Exhibition Design in Virtual Environments 

Advanced Level: Dr. Nettrice Gaskins will bring the perspectives of both the digital artist and digital curator to look at exhibition design in virtual environments. 

Module 6: Podcasting for Museums

A man with a blue, collared shirt stands next to a wooden and steel railing in a library or museum setting.

   Get Inspired: Podcasting for Museums

Beginner Level: Join this introductory session to get inspired by the talented museum professionals behind the 5 Plain Questions and Before Your Time podcasts.

Download Module 6 Toolkit

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Introduction to Podcasting for Museums

Beginner Level: This webinar will introduce podcasting for museums with a focus on how podcasts are consumed and what is already being done in the sector. 

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Episode Planning: Writing and Recording Your Podcast

Intermediate Level: This session covers technical and creative aspects of planning podcast episodes including recording interviews (in-person and remote) and writing and recording narration. 

Hannah has a colorful, striped shirt on and short, cropped blonde hair. She sits in an auditorium.

Podcast Editing and Collaborative Production

Advanced Level: The final technical session in Module 6 will introduce attendees to a variety of free and inexpensive tools for podcast editing. Instruction will cover transcription and editing platforms.

Module 7: Video Production for Museums

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   Get Inspired: Video Production for Museums

Beginner Level: Join this session to hear from two museum professionals who have successfully integrated video production and digital storytelling into their education, programming and communication plans.

Download Module 7 Toolkit

 

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Video Production Basics for Museums

Beginner Level: Learn video production basics! This session will address the basic tools needed to produce videos for your museum including cameras, microphones and lighting equipment.

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Video Planning and Distribution

Intermediate Level: This session will cover planning for video production including the use of production templates as well as the different platforms used to distribute videos. 

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Emerging Technology in Video Production  

Advanced Level: Join this session to learn about new and emerging video formats, tools and platforms such as 360, volumetric video and virtual tour services. 

Module 8: Audiences and Analytics for Museums

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 Get Inspired: Audiences and Analytics for Museums and GLAM 

Beginner Level: Hear from two museum professionals who have embraced analytics and taught themselves and others to get excited about the valuable insights that data can provide!

Download Module 8 Toolkit

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Creating An Analytics Toolbox to Evaluate Museum Digital Experiences

Beginner Level: This workshop will share examples of the application of different methods and a case study about how to develop a user segmentation. 

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Building Digital Strategies and Interpreting Social Media Analytics

Intermediate Level: In this session, we will learn the fundamentals of building or reanalyzing digital strategies while considering the tools needed to execute and interpret the results for each social channel.

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Using Analytics to Understand Audiences and Optimize Your Efforts

Advanced Level: Beginning with web analytics, we will discuss the importance of a research question in guiding your analysis of user behavior data. 

Module 9: Social Media for Museums

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 Get Inspired: Intro to Social Media for Social Museums

Beginner Level: Join the Module 9 introductory session for social media to hear from two museum professionals (representing truly small museums) who have learned to harness the power of social media. 

Download Module 9 Toolkit

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Build a Simple Social Media Strategy

Beginner Level: Social media is essential to remain connected with your audiences. This session will help you streamline your social media plan so you can go from surviving to thriving in your social media channels. 

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Time-Saving Social Tools & Cross-Channel Integration

Intermediate Level: Learn about inexpensive tools for managing multiple types of social media platforms and actionable tips for integrating social media with common audience channels including your website, newsletter, and advertising. 

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Creating Engaging Social Media Campaigns

Advanced Level: Building on our social media strategy and social media tools workshops, we’ll explore how to ideate, create, and launch campaigns that are creative, engaging, efficient, and effective no matter your team’s size.

Module 10: Digitizing 3D Collections for Museums

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INTRO SESSION

 Intro Session: Get Inspired for Digitizing 3D Collections

Beginner Level: Tune in for the Module 10 introductory session to hear how one small museum (with an equally small staff) tackled digitization of its collections in a big way! 

Presenters: Daniela Larsen, Executive Director, Hutchings Museum Institute, Utah

download Module 10 Toolkit

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TEch Workshop 1

How to Use Digital Assets for Documentation, Promotion, and Programs

Beginner Level: Learn how you can use digital assets in multiple ways for promotion, documentation and even schooling. 

Presenter: Roz McNulty, CLO 3D Designer, Consultant and Online course teacher, MOTIF.org, Vancouver, Canada

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Tech Workshop 2

Image-based Approaches to 3D Collections

Intermediate Level: This session will provide an overview of photography- based approaches to documenting, sharing, and digitally archiving 3D collections. 

Presenter: Carla Schroer and Marlin Lum, Cultural Heritage Imaging, San Francisco, California

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TEch Workshop 3

3D Data Applications in Cultural Heritage

Advanced Level: This webinar will review projects that cover a broad range of Cultural Heritage applications for 3D data. 3D Digitization offers a myriad of uses and technical choices. 

Presenter: Harry Abramson, Direct Dimensions, Owings Mills, Maryland