Virtual Museums as Learning Agents

Virtual solutions for exhibiting museum collections are no longer a novelty, as such experiences already exist in the world, but the remote use of museum collections for learning purposes has so far not been widely used in the educational environment. This article analyzes virtual museum applications by evaluating them from a learning perspective, including 25 criteria in the evaluation rubric divided into three groups: (i) Technical performance; (ii) information architecture; and (iii) educational value. This will enable educators to select the most appropriate material for their specific learning purpose and to plan the most appropriate learning strategies by organizing training sessions to acquire knowledge that can be enhanced by museum information and teaching students digital skills in evaluating information available in the digital environment, analyzing its pros and cons to teach them how to develop new innovative solutions. The research is carried out from a phenomenological perspective; to be more precise, virtual museums are analyzed using the principles of transcendental design and a hermeneutic design is used to interpret the resulting data. A total of 36 applications of virtual museums were analyzed, whereupon the results were compiled using static data analysis software, while 13 applications were used for the hermeneutic data analysis. The results suggest that the strength of virtual museums is in information architecture, but less attention is paid to the educational value of the material, which points to the need to change the principles of virtual museum design and emphasizes the role of teachers in using virtual museums as learning agents.