Evaluating Produser Experiences in Learning

The question was recently presented to our class - when it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of produsage is it more about the process, or the final result? But wait, let's back up a second...what do we mean by this?

If you're unfamiliar with the term "produsage" you're maybe not alone. After all, it's sort of a term that's industry specific. In the learning/training community it's a concept which explains how people interact with the web. The word itself combines two terms - "producer" and "user" and helps explain how people in Web 2.0 environments both act as producers and consumers of content. 

For example, on a Facebook post about some event in your community you can read the comment (user) and supply your own feedback to the discussion (producer). In a broader learning context produsers might be a group of high school students who work on a group project, sourcing/sharing material with one another. The main idea is that there's a collaborative nature of both sharing/consuming information.

When teachers use this method of learning in their classrooms, organizations, and other environments they will no doubt want to evaluate the effectiveness of the exercise. Was the exercise useful, were the learning outcomes met, and so on. And when thinking bigger picture about this evaluation process there are two potential lines of thought - should we evaluate based on the process (the collaborative nature of the exercise) or the outcome (what was actually produced)? 

If thinking about the overall concept behind produsage, it seems somewhat intuitive that the process might be a good focus point. After all, the intent behind the collaborative nature of the exercise is to promote thought/dialogue of the group. Sourcing content, sharing those ideas, and allowing for an exchange of thoughts could likely promote a deeper level of understanding than simply focusing on the end product.

As an example, let's say a high school class is issued an assignment to work in groups to present a report on some aspect of American history. They are each responsible for sourcing content to ultimately write a standard report. Through their research they visit various website, engage in discussions in forums, perhaps post questions to their social media groups, etc. Through this process of discovery they're learning - actively curating information for their group, and then sharing this acquired information. Yes, the end result is the report. However, if you were the teacher of that class what would you consider to be more important - that they wrote a report synthesizing ideas, or that they achieved a more meaningful learning experience by becoming active learners in their experience to obtain the information? Likely the latter.