Research on 'Quality' in Online Experiences for Museum Users

Introduction

Constructivism & Online Museum Experiences

Since the late 1990s, there has been an increasing focus on ‘Constructivism’ by museum educators and audience researchers attempting to discover how museum visitors construct personal meaning during a visit to a physical museum. This concept seems even more important in thinking about the individual and unique ways that museum users explore museum Web sites.

Jeffery-Clay (1998) believes that museums are ideal constructivist environments because they allow visitors to explore freely, move at their own pace, interact and share experiences with groups, and examine and expand their own understanding. Hooper-Greenhill (2000) explains, “Individuals search for meaning, look for patterns, try to invest their experience with significance” (p. 118). Visitors interpret objects in museums through a ‘reading’ or looking, combined with sensory experiences (e.g., touching or smelling), resulting in both spoken and unspoken cognitive and emotional responses. Carr (2003) believes in the importance of “good questions” as part of crafting experiences, memories, and outcomes of museum experiences. “Human beings craft their lives through questions; for all of our lives, questions lead our steps. Questions confirm our alliances. Questions frame our trusts. Questions lead our thoughts” (p. 96).

What are the implications of how people construct meaning from their museum online experiences? Teather and Wilhelm (1999) explore how some museum Web sites are inviting visitors to construct their own knowledge. “These sites work to facilitate and encourage multiple voices and the exchange of stories both outside and inside the institution and between staff and visitors” (p. 138). They argue that the constructivist Web site employs a wide range of active learning approaches, presents a wide range of points of view, and provides many entry points, with no specific path and no identified beginning and end. It enables online visitors to connect with objects and ideas through a range of activities and experiences related to their life experiences.

Frost (2002) believes that technologies make it possible for learners to build on objects to develop new information sources tailored to their needs, creating their own information objects. “The collaborative potential of digital technologies also facilitates sharing and exchange of communication about objects. Together, both real and virtual object-centered learning can contribute to a richer educational experience” (p. 80). Frost finds that digital communities are particularly dynamic because the users can become creators as well as consumers of information objects. However, viewing materials online can be both socially enriching and isolating. “The Internet can foster community, but it can also facilitate individual, one-on-one engagement between people and the information objects found on their computers, leaving out the intermediary. This direct interaction with information makes it easier to connect to resources at our own convenience, providing we have appropriate means of access to computers and connectivity” (p. 85).

Schweibenz (1998) sees the Internet as a knowledge base and communication system. He cites Hoptman’s belief in 1992 that connectedness is the basic feature of the virtual museum, “as it seeks to describe the interrelated and interdisciplinary presentation of museum information with the help of the integrated media. Connectedness is the quality that allows the ‘virtual museum’ to transcend the abilities of the traditional museum in presenting information.” Connectedness gives visitors the opportunity to focus on their special interests “by pursuing them in an interactive dialogue with the museum. This is an important step in the development from the traditional museum to the museum of the future” (Schweibenz, 1998, p. 4).