Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Gerald D. Bailey / The role and function of museums in education has been debated along several lines of inquiry. For the majority of museum institutions, the most vital, consistent audience they have comes from the public and private schools in their communities. This is critical for museums trying to maintain relevancy in the national education climate that has increased emphasis on curriculum and testing standards. Founded in 1990, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) in Kansas City, Missouri has preserved and taught African American baseball history from the late 1800s through the 1960s. Although the museum had received positive commentary from visitors, and well received attention from the international press, it had not undergone any major changes to its design since it opened its permanent facility in 1997. Of chief concern to the museum was its ability to attract school age learners with their teachers to the institution. The museum had a number of layers by which it presented historical information and each layer needed some level of evaluation. There were a number of informative examples of museum evaluation and assessment available for review, but no tool or model existed specifically designed to assist museums in evaluating exhibition content for educational value. This study reports on methods by which the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) could improve and enhance exhibitions. It explored the current trends and scholarship involving museums and education, museum exhibition evaluation, and Negro Leagues historical scholarship. A multi-step research processed evolved for use in the study, featuring detailed literature reviews and interviews from educators, historians, museum professionals, and a grant awarding foundation expert. This study targets museum professionals responsible for interpretation and creation of exhibitions, including curatorial staff and museum educators. The study also informs other museum leaders regarding the process by which high quality educational material is created for the museum environment. A set of important themes and evaluation questions were formed as a result of the interviews and literature review. The study offered critical thinking questions for the evaluation process and suggests recommendations for implementation. The study also implies action plan strategies for implementation of an evaluation process.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Gerald D. Bailey / The purpose of this study was to create a handbook that would support museum professionals through the stages of planning, creating, and evaluating a user-centered eMuseum. Planning, Creating, and Evaluating eMuseums: A Step by Step Handbook for Museum Professionals was developed using the research and development methodology (R&D) developed by Borg and Gall (1989). The seven steps in the R&D cycle used in this study included: 1) research analysis and proof of concept, 2) product planning and design, 3) preliminary product development, 4) preliminary field testing, 5) revision of the prototype, 6) main field testing, and 7) revision of the final product. A prototype of the handbook was developed and then evaluated by experts in digital libraries or museum informatics in the preliminary field test. Revisions were made to the handbook based on their feedback. The handbook was then distributed to museum professionals for the main field test. Feedback from the main field test was used to create the final product. Major conclusions from the study were: 1. There was a need for a handbook to guide museum professionals through the steps of developing an eMuseum. Museum leaders indicated a desire to create a stronger online presence for their museums, but did not know how to begin the process. 2.The handbook was most useful to museum professionals. Originally, the handbook was intended for an audience broadly defined as "information professionals", which included both library and museum professionals. 3.Museum leaders and community stakeholders could partner to create eMuseums. Stakeholders included educators who wanted to use eMuseums to incorporate standards-based curriculum into their classroom or graduate students in education looking for collaborative projects to advance their study. 4.Finding new ways to reach audiences was important to museum leaders. Museum leaders were aware that the majority of their visitors expected to find information about their museum on the Internet and wanted to find ways to reach these audience members. 5.Museum professionals found resources listed in the book to be useful. The handbook worked effectively as a reference guide for creating an eMuseum.