Public engagement with AI and data research (Part 3): Change for Good!

Here be dragons (or perhaps a velociraptor). It skulks and stalks the institutional corridors and whispers "impact case study" in your ear. Surely it's the public engagement bubble car to the rescue?

Not so fast.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this course, we talk about the purpose of public engagement and challenge you to articulate what success looks like. But whose success should we measure. Remember all that talk about ethics in Part 1? Should institutional priorities and drive public engagement or do we have to let go of the reins and see where we go?

The is the essence of co-production: empowering others to shape and get involved with research activity and processes.

This session take your through impact logic models and gets you thinking about evaluation and indicators of success. We'll also task you (yay, homework!) to develop a theory of change, but not sat at your desk: involve the publics with whom you work in the process too.

You'll discover that this deep and purposeful engagement take patience, humility and time. And you'll come to appreciate what impact means in multiple dimensions. Perhaps there's a case study in it after all!

This course is designed specifically for data scientists and AI researchers who want to work more closely with the people and communities their work may one day affect. It draws on training developed for the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's flagship institute for data science and AI research. Participants rated the course very highly for the knowledge of the trainers, the content and its interactivity.

Testimonials

“Useful transferable skills, for example related to engagement and evaluation techniques.”

"A reminder of the importance of learning from the public(s) as well as them learning from you.”

Expected outcomes

• Increased knowledge about different evaluation techniques and methods
• Readiness to embed evaluation from the outset of a project, not just at the end
• Increased confidence to find consensus with co-production team regarding measures and indicators of short-term outcomes and longer-term impacts
• A more nuanced understanding of the challenges around evidencing impact from pubic engagement

Course details

Part 3 focuses on outcomes and impacts from your public engagement activity. How will you and your co-producers know that you've achieved your shared goals?

You will learn about different evaluation approaches and methods, test them out in scenarios and discover more about what works (and what doesn't)! You will also learn that co-production adds complexity to the picture of success - you can't impose your vision on others, but must learn to revise and adapt.

• This is Part 3 of a three-part course. If you book Parts 1 & 2, look out for two halves of a discount code in your order confirmation email. Put them together and get this session FREE when you apply it as a promo code on the ticket purchase page!.
• Online course. A link will be emailed a few days before the scheduled event and made available on the session's Eventbrite page.
• Delivered by the team from Scientia Scripta. Edwin Colyer and Holly Cave are highly experienced practitioners with a portfolio of award-winning public engagement projects from higher education and experiential science centres.

Awesome photos by Daniel K Cheung on Unsplash