The Challenge of Digital Learning (eLearning) in Interpretation for Museum Visitors Ross Loomis

The Challenge of Digital Learning (eLearning) in Interpretation for Museum Visitors1

Ross J. Loomis Ph.D. Colorado State University

Change is inevitable. Change is constant. Benjamin Disraeli

Introduction

There is little doubt that we are in an ‘electronic age’ or eLearning culture. This development also applies to what greets visitors when they come to the museum. It can also apply to what kinds of interpretive experiences may be available outside of the museum. Now it must be mentioned that something has happened that calls on the digital museum world even more: The tragic arrival of COVID-19, a worldwide pandemic. Within a very short time period, museums, and other visitor-based venues, are without the physical presence of visitors! What follows in this paper has unexpectedly become much more significant.

One of best indicators of the coming of digital resources to museums is MuseWeb (https://www.museweb.net/) that has held conferences on applications of digital and web learning since 1997. Today, this organization not only does annual conferences, but provides publications, job listings, news about the field and awards. There is now digital advice for many different aspects of museum operation with the Manual of Digital Museum Planning edited by Ali Hossaini and Ngaire Blankenberg (2017). This source is a virtual digital takeover of the work in museums including their outreach to ‘users’.

Interactive learning units are becoming part of museum websites, as Chong and Smith (2017) report writing in The Journal of Museum Education. These authors suggest that online learning opportunities may help to combine formal and informal learning worlds. Using science learning as example, these authors note that adult learners are improving their knowledge of science by combining formal museum opportunities using digital devices with informal eLearning opportunities provided by museum websites. Still, while digital opportunities may be growing, there may be a way to go, as these authors looked at website digital learning especially for science center institutions. In a sample of 225 websites, only 5% offer interactive learning resources as of the time of their article. However, with COVID-19 there may be a major increase in digital learning opportunities on museum websites.

This review will look at visitor learning and electronic media, especially what is called eLearning from three perspectives. First, several different exhibit formats or platforms for eLearning will be mentioned. Second, a summary will be offered of important ideas about how learning in general is changing because of digital developments. Third, eLearning can enhance multimedia presentations that are so basic to implementing ideas about successful interpretation as advocated by leaders like Tilden (2008)._________________________________________________________

1 Readers are welcomed to contact the author at Ross.Loomis@colostate.edu

Formats (Platforms) for Digital Learning in Museums

In this section some contemporary formats provided visitors for digital learning are described. Before doing that, however, it is well to note exhibit designers and interpreters have long tried to involve visitors and enhance their learning experience. Over the years many different interpretive features have been tried to increase visitor involvement and learning. Of course, one of the most basic formats is the object label. Then, there is the docent presentation for a long-used museum interpretation experience. Those who have attended museums for an extended time, may recall the coming of headphones to allow individual interpretive experiences, and the use of slide shows. Today, smart phones are used as interpretive devices for both individual and group tours. Motion picture clips came alone and participatory labels including flip panels. ‘Flip panels’ can engage the visitor by asking a question with the answer found by overturning the panel. Video tape loops and then computer stations also became new interpretation tools for exhibits. Even the simple act of including a box placed near the exhibit exit with pamphlets listing related books at the library can add to visitor experience.

In their excellent book on visitor studies, Practical Evaluation Guide: Tools for Museums and other Informal Educational Settings, Diamond, Horn, and Uttal (2 016) note a number of formats expressly for visitor digital experience and learning. They mention six formats in particular, but also note that others may be available. The six include:

Interactive displays including touch screens of all sizes. Mixed reality that include unobtrusive computer displays through head mounted units or special glasses. Whole body interaction where movements can cause actions within an exhibit. Tangible interaction with tabletop manipulations of objects projected on a screen. Proximity-Aware systems that track visitor movement and can even give feedback to visitors about their movements. Participatory technologies through social media as illustrated by Simon (2010) in The Participatory Museum.

It should also be mentioned that one can visit museums ‘online’ with computer access to existing exhibits or specially prepared online presentations. While these sources can become dated as exhibits change, they offer a unique experience away from the physical museum. These sources can be a catalog of one exhibit or a virtual visit moving the viewer through the exhibit (See for example, the Smithsonian https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/online , The World War I Museum, https://www.theworldwar.org/explore/exhibitions/online-exhibitions , the National Women’s History Museum, https://www.womenshistory.org/womens-history/online-exhibits , Anne Frank House https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/secret-annex/#/house/start/help/ ).

The Many Ways Learning is Changing in a Digital Era

There is little question that the digital era has an influence on how we view learning…learning in all kinds of settings. Two major works are reviewed to introduce a number of ideas about eLearning that museum educators, interpreters, and exhibit designers should know about. First is an extensive list of the many ways of learning now available to students and museum visitors. Second, is the combining of multimedia presentations with interpretation and eLearning.

Trends in Learning

Bonk (2016) provides an extensive list of modern trends in learning influenced, in part, by digital resources. Many of the trends mentioned have direct application to museums and interpretation. The full list is beyond the scope of this paper, but some examples pertinent to visitor learning are mentioned here. Bonk organizes 30 trends into three ‘mega trends. Each mega trend has 10 changes related to it. Changes in the first megatrend relate to how learners engage with learning and includes some applicable to visitor interpretation: That learning is becoming (1) more visual, (2) hands on, (3) increasingly digital and resource rich, and (4), and learning is more mobile. The second set of ten changes involves pervasive access to learning and includes that learning is more online and informal. The final set of ten changes notes customization of learning, that is, learning is more self-directed and involves multimedia. It is significant that Bonk captured in one source so many changes to learning that are happening now! Furthermore, many of the changes listed will be familiar to interpreters.

Many of the changes presented by Bonk are not new. The arrival of eLearning and various formats listed above have made them more accessible. Furthermore, many of these changes can be used together and open up new interpretive options. For instance, note with Mega trend 1 that the four changes mentioned above have shown up in attraction strategies used in interpretation. Hands-on has long been a tool to draw and engage visitors. Use of vision is also a strong strategy for attracting visitors to a specific exhibit or artifact. Digital opportunities are much of the focus of this paper, and the different formats or platforms mentioned above help to make visitor learning more mobile. To see all three Mega trends and their changes, Bonk’s review is available online: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1120844.pdf .

Multimedia Presentations and Digital Learning

Exhibits usually involve more than one medium including the interpretive label and object interaction. Also, a basic visit experience is looking at objects or displays while listening to a docent. Digital presentations in museum increase multimedia experiences even more. This second line of learning work includes some robust information from cognitive psychology for making learning from multimedia presentations more effective (Clark & Mayer, 2016). This source, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction, is a veritable handbook for creating effective multimedia presentations. While not about interpretation per se, it provides many graphic illustration examples that could be related to designing exhibit interpretation.1

All of this work mentioned above is based on extensive research by Mayer (2009) designed to make multimedia presentations effective learning experiences. This research has provided numerous principles or guidelines such as text on graphics is better than text near graphics, combining words and pictures is better than either alone, or making a presentation more personal rather than using an uninteresting third person narration. All of Mayer’s multimedia principles are displayed in Table 1. Mayer organizes his 12 principles into three groups: Help to reduce extraneous or inappropriate information processing, assistance in doing essential information processing, and aides to facilitate new learning.

Multimedia Presentations and Interpretation

Many readers are familiar with Tilden’s (2008) principles of interpretation and some of those principles work well with Mayer’s ideas. In fact, the multimedia principles mentioned can help apply Tilden’s thinking. For example, take his first principle:

“Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile.”

2 The first two chapters of this book provide especially useful information about the promises and pitfalls of eLearning and how persons learn from interactive units and e-Learning courses.

Clearly, the five multimedia principles for reducing extraneous processing (Table 1) speak to this thought of Tilden and visitor studies in general help plan for the latter part…knowing about the visitor. Or, take the fifth principle:

“Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and must address itself to the whole man [person] rather than any phase.”

Note how the four principles to generative (encouraging new learning) processing (Table 1) speak to presenting the complete message and also are sensitive to the whole person. These two examples suggest combining Tilden’s ideas with the empirical research behind Mayer’s multimedia research can be helpful to interpreters.

Summary and Conclusions

Interpreters have more learning resources available to them thanks to the digital era. There has always been the basic multimedia challenge of relating object, usually experienced visually, to word in some spoken or written format. Modern digital aids have created a new expanded range of interpretive opportunities. Visitors are greeted with a number of exhibit-based media formats such as touch screens, body movement interactive and, of course, cell phone or headphone sources to enliven their visit and provide interpretation. Included in this paper is a review of different formats open to interpreters, changes and expansion of ideas about learning in a digital era, and application of the psychology of multimedia presentations. Now more than ever, digital work in visitor-based venues must be employed and expanded. At this point in time, with it uncertain how long the pandemic will last, museums must look to alternatives to onsite visiting. As mentioned here, the pandemic impact on visitation will also influence digital offerings. Digital based visits are becoming even more important with offerings like digital access to collection and ongoing webinars, and learning units. Even professional organizations, like the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), are announcing virtual annual meetings as an alternative to in-person gatherings.

References

Bonk, C. (2016). Keynote: What is the state of e-learning? Reflections on 30 ways learning is changing. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 20(2), [6–20]. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1120844.pdf Chong, C. & Smith, D. (2017). Interactive learning units on museum websites. Journal of Museum Education,42(2), 169-178.

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-Learning and the Science of Instruction (4th ed). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Diamond, J., Horn, M., & Uttal, D. (2016). Practical Evaluation Guide: Tools for Museums and Other Informal Educational Settings, 3rd Edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Hossain, A., Blankenberg, N. Eds., Lord, G. D., & Lord, B. (2017). Manual of Digital Museum Planning. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Simon N. (2010). The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz, CA: Museum Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia learning, 2nd Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press. Museums and the Web, MuseWeb ( https://www.museweb.net/)

Tilden, F. (2008). Interpreting Our Heritage, 4th edition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.

Table 1: Mayer’s Twelve Principles of Multimedia Learning ____________________________________________________________

Principles Reducing Extraneous Processing

1. Coherence Principle: People learn better when extraneous words, pictures and sounds are excluded rather than included. 2. Signaling Principle: People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added. 3. Redundancy Principle: People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text. 4. Spatial Contiguity Principle: People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen. 5. Temporal Contiguity Principle: People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather that successively.

Principles Managing Essential Processing

6. Segmenting Principle: People learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paces segments rather than as a continuous unit. 7. Pre-training Principle: People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts. 8. Modality Principle: People learn better from graphics and narrations than from animation and on-screen text.

Principles Fostering Generative Processing

9.Multimedia Principle: People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone. 10. Personalization Principle: People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in conversational style rather than formal style. 11. Voice Principle: People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly voice rather than a machine voice. 12. Image Principle: People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen.