Designing an Interactive Learning to Enrich

Children’s Experience in Museum Visit

Zamratul Asyikin Amran1(&) and Novia Admodisastro2

1
Institut Visual Informatik, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
zamratul@gmail.com
2
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology,
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia
novia@upm.edu.my

Abstract. It has long been known that museum education has the ability to
motivate and excite visitors whilst providing them with new insights and
experiences. Nevertheless, activities that learning goal, for example, visiting a
museum is found to disinterest, not appealing and give insignificant impact to
children as compared to visiting the amusement park, playground, or even zoo.
Thus, museums are increasingly being equipped with digital and mobile tech-
nologies. The main goal of using technologies is to improve the museum-going
experience for visitors. In this research, we present a study of a museum
interactive quest based on the proposed interaction design model. The study
involves children in the age of 9 to 11 to visit a museum located in Malaysia.
The findings from the study have highlighted the potential of the proposed
interaction model that has affected the children enjoyment and engagement
during the museum visit.

Keywords: Interaction design model
Museum
Children
Collaboration

User experience

1 Introduction

Nowadays, children have increasing access to television, Internet, video games which
reduce the amount of time they spend on physical and perceptual activities that foster
the children’s cognitive development [1]. In addition, activities that have learning goal,
for example, visiting museum or library is found to disinterest, not appealing and give
insignificant impact to children as compared to visiting the amusement park, play-
ground, or even zoo. Nevertheless, children are often brought by their parents or
teachers to visit the museum to learn about history and artifacts [2]. The museum is an
institution that conserves a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic,
cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through
exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Usually, museums do not allow physical
contact with the associated artifacts which makes the children feel boring and hinder
participation from them.
So far, there are many research attempts to explore the adoption of digital and
mobile technologies in many places including the museum. Nowadays museums were

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017

H. Badioze Zaman et al. (Eds.): IVIC 2017, LNCS 10645, pp. 601–611, 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70010-6_56
602 Z.A. Amran and N. Admodisastro

increasingly equipped with interactive technology to improve the museum visit

experience and learning by providing an active engagement process for children who
come to visit. The Museon in Hague, Netherlands is one example that promotes
interactive and encourages more hands-on approach [3]. The Museon aims to educate
people, in particular children, in such a way that they also enjoy themselves. This is one
way for museums to deal with these challenges to improve the museum-going expe-
rience for children by making children’s visits more dynamic, engaging and enjoyable.
In this work, we describe and demonstrate an interaction design model to enrich
children’s experiences museum visit to promote fun and educational learning. The
model emphases the notion of collaboration, engagement and active participation
between the children throughout the museum tour. The study is conducted in one of the
museums in Malaysia. The remainder of this paper is delivered in six sections. The
Sect. 2 provides a brief literature review of previous works on enriching museum visit.
The Sect. 3 describes the interaction design model and its prototype. The Sect. 4
discusses the experiment procedures and results. The Sect. 5 provides the discussion
and limitations of the research. The Sect. 6 provides concluding remarks.

2 Related Works

The role of museums has shifted from mainly conserve, collect, research, and exhibit
artefacts to institutions that are competitive and popular well compare to the library or
science exhibition [4]. Nowadays, museums strive to make the place more relevant
similar with other activities and cultural centres that focus on both education and
entertainment [5]. Yet, in this increasing technology age, less emphasis has been given
to the roles that museums have as credible sources of information like the history of
war or world heritage [6]. One way for museums to deal with these challenges is to
improve the museum-going experience for children by making the children’s visits
more dynamic, engaging and enjoyable [3]. In addition, social interaction has proven as
an important part of learning [7] and therefore, there are growing interests in museums
to use of technologies to support collaborative interaction between children [2].
Recently, the use of interactive multi-touch tables in museums receives considerable
interest because of it able to facilitates collaborative interactions, open for new tech-
nologies by providing physical space and give access to multiple collocated visitors [8].
For example, Museon has developed PuppyIR a collaborative application using a
multi-touch table that consists of two parts that were used before and after a museum
tour throughout the exhibition space [9]. Touch table interface was found to be suitable
for multi-user simultaneous interaction [10] that promote group interaction and dis-
cussion [11] and facilitate collaboration [12]. The tabletop interface was also found to
be engaging [11] and allowing enjoyable user experience [13] while keeping the
technology in the background. Enjoyment and fun have been found to support and
deepen learning and to facilitate engagement and motivation [14]. The PuppyIR also
developed tools that enable the children to access information about their museum tour
via the internet after their visit at the museum. Another recent work, MuseumScouts
[15] aims to provides learning experiences in different kinds of ways that focused on
knowledge acquisition, transformation, and communication. The work using learner
 Designing an Interactive Learning to Enrich Children’s Experience 603

centred approach in the museum environment such as interactive multimedia presen-

tation using a range of devices.

3 The Interaction Design Model

The proposed interaction design model relies on an electronic quest that encourages the
children to collaborate, engage and participate actively throughout the museum tours
throughout the museum tour (refers Fig. 1). A prototype application is developed based
on the interaction design model. The prototype was developed on the Android platform
to be deployed on mobile devices e.g. tablet, smart phones.

Fig. 1. Interaction design model of museum visit

The prototype is called Museum Quest (MQ). It has three main modules as follows:
a. New Registration. Children need to register before use the system. All the infor-
mation will be kept in the database.
b. Interactive Quest. This module will generate five questions from the database.
c. Check Result. This module shows the result from the quest.

4 The Experiment

The experiment involves pre-test and post-test for one group. A single selected group is
under observation with a careful measurement being done before applying the exper-
imental treatment and then measuring after. The experiment is described in details as
follows:
604 Z.A. Amran and N. Admodisastro

4.1 Location
The Muzium Haiwan dan Mamalia in Putrajaya has been chosen to run the experiment
as it met the criteria of the research where a museum is an educational place that aims
to educate people, in particular children. The museum is a two-storey building with
modern facilities. The ground floor consists of permanent exhibits on mammals of
Malaysia. The first floor has exhibits of insects such as butterflies, stick insects, beetles,
and bats.

4.2 Participants
There were five participants in total, aged between 9 to 11 years old that were in the
same primary school. The participants consist of one female aged 11, and four males
aged 9 to 11 years old. The sample covered the normal range of ability with some of the
children needed help with instructions. All of the children had never used the appli-
cation before but they are a frequent user of tablets or mobile devices with more than
1-year experience. The children have been chosen based on convenience sampling. It is
a non-probability sampling technique where subjects are selected because of their
convenient accessibility and proximity to the researcher. Prior the visit, we have
informed the parents about their children partaking in this study. Letter of consent was
distributed to these parents and submitted to the researcher on the same day of the
educational visit.

4.3 Data Analysis Method

In the experiment, the user experience is measured using the Smileyometer which,
taken from the Fun Toolkit for children by Read and MacFarlane [16]. The Smiley-
ometer was specially designed for children. It is based on a 5-point Likert scale and
uses five smileys (refers Fig. 2). The answers on the Smileyometer were re-coded from
1 (for awful) to 5 (for brilliant). As for the statistical point of view, we are using
Descriptive Statistics describes mean and standard deviation. It can provide simple
summaries about the sample and the measures. The interpretation of mean score is
based on Nunnally and Bernstein [17] as shown in Table 1. For learning effects gained
from the interactive application, we compared the result between before and after
implementation of the application. The results of both quizzes of a paper-based and
mobile device were compared.

Fig. 2. Smileyometer
 Designing an Interactive Learning to Enrich Children’s Experience 605

Table 1. Mean interpretation scale by Nunnaly and Bernstein [17]

Mean score Interpretation
1.00–2.00 Strongly disagree
2.01–3.00 Disagree
3.01–4.00 Agree
4.01–5.00 Strongly agree

4.4 Experiment Procedures

The Pre-test
(i) The pre-test started by buying the entrance ticket and the participants explored
the museum by themselves, monitored by the researcher as shown in Fig. 3(a).
(ii) After the museum tour finished, the participants were given a paper-based pop
quiz as shown in Fig. 3(b), where they need to answer five questions related to
the exhibitions. They were not allowed to discuss the answer among the
participants.
(iii) Finally, pre-questionnaire forms were distributed to the participants. The form
consists of six questions that intend to measures the participants’ enjoyment and
engagement of the museum visit.

(a) (b)

Fig. 3. (a) Children exploring the museum (b) Children answering paper-based pop quiz

The Post-test
(i) The post-test started by distributing the entrance ticket with QRCode that con-
tains a password to access the MQ application. The participants were required to
write their names on the ticket as shown in Fig. 4.
(ii) Next, a mobile device with Internet connection was given to the participants to
access the MQ. They scanned the QRCode from the entrance ticket using the
mobile device and a password was promoted as shown in Fig. 5. Then, they
logged in to the system using the password.
606 Z.A. Amran and N. Admodisastro

Fig. 4. Children write their name on the ticket

Fig. 5. Children scanning the QRcode using mobile device and a password prompted

(iii) They were allowed to explore the exhibition area freely and looked for the
answer for every question generated by MQ. They could answer the questions
either by themselves or collaborate with their friends as shown in Fig. 6. They
have three tries for each question.

Fig. 6. Children collaborating to play the museum quest

 Designing an Interactive Learning to Enrich Children’s Experience 607

(iv) After the participants finished answering all the five questions in MQ, the
post-questionnaire forms were distributed to the participants to measures their
enjoyment and engagement when using the application.

4.5 Experiment Results

User Experience. The pre-test results in Table 2 presents the analysis of the children
museum experience while touring the museum and answering the paper-based pop
quiz. The findings showed that majority of the children is strongly agreed (M = 4.200,
SD = 0.830) that it is easy to find all the answer given in the pop quiz. They also
agreed (M = 3.800, SD = 1.090) that the animal hunt is fun. They also agreed that they
prefer to do other activities besides animal hunt (M = 3.200, SD = 0.440), learn new
things (M = 3.800, SD = 0.830), and the activities capture their attention (M = 3.400,
SD = 0.540). In fact, they also agreed that they will come again to the museum
(M = 3.400, SD = 0.890). From the findings, we can conclude that they did enjoy
exploring the museum in traditional ways. However, during the pop quiz, they did not
score well as shown in Fig. 7. This result showed that conventional tour did not give
high impact to the children on the educational values.

Table 2. Mean analysis for pre-test

No. Questions Mean Std Mean
deviation interpretation
1. Do you think it is easy to find all the answers? 4.200 0.830 Strongly
agree
2. Do you think the animal hunt is fun? 3.800 1.090 Agree
3. Do you prefer to do other activities besides 3.200 0.440 Agree
animal hunt? E.g. coloring or puzzle?
4. Do you learn new things during the animal 3.800 0.830 Agree
hunt?
5. Is the animal hunt capture your attention? 3.400 0.540 Agree
6. Will you come again to the museum and play 3.400 0.890 Agree
the animal hunt again

The post-test results in Table 3 present the analysis of participants’ user experience
using the MQ. The findings showed that majority of the children is strongly agreed
(M = 4.800, SD = 0.440) that it is easy to find all the answer using the application.
They also agreed (M = 3.400, SD = 0.540) that the animal hunt using the application is
fun. They disagreed that they prefer to do other activities besides the animal hunt while
using the application (M = 3.000, SD = 1.580). This result was contrary during the
pre-test, where they preferred to do other activities than animal hunt. It is shown that
MQ can improve engagement and enjoyment during the museum tour. They also
strongly agreed (M = 4.800, SD = 0.440) that they learn new things during the animal
608 Z.A. Amran and N. Admodisastro

Fig. 7. Test scores for pre-test and post-test

Table 3. Mean analysis for post-test

No. Questions Mean Std Mean
deviation interpretation
1. Do you think it is easy to find all the answers 4.800 0.440 Strongly
using the application? agree
2. Do you think the animal hunt using the 3.400 0.540 Agree
application is fun?
3. Do you prefer to do other activities besides 3.00 1.580 Disagree
animal hunt while using the application? E.g.
coloring or puzzle?
4. Do you learn new things during the animal 4.80 0.440 Strongly
hunt? agree
5. Is the animal hunt using the application 4.000 1.000 Agree
capture your attention?
6. Will you come again to the museum and play 3.000 2.000 Disagree
the animal hunt again

hunt and agreed (M = 4.000, SD = 1.000) using the application capture their attention.
However, they disagreed that they will come again to the museum. (M = 3.000,
SD = 2.000). This happened because we conducted the pre- and post- tests at the same
day that caused the smaller children (aged 8 and 9) to get detached. But significant
changes for older children (aged 10 to 11) as they had been repeating the MQ several
 Designing an Interactive Learning to Enrich Children’s Experience 609

times to improve their marks. From the finding, we can conclude that the engagement
and enjoyment during the museum tour have increased significantly.
Learning Effect. The learning effect was calculated based on the difference between
the pre-test and post-test scores (refers Fig. 7). The results have shown that the edu-
cational values using the MQ have significantly increase compared to the traditional
tour.

5 Discussion and Limitations

From the experiment conducted, we have identified several limitations of the developed
prototype. We discovered that the children aged below 10 are easily distracted and
impatience when using the MQ. From our observation, these happened due to the
following reasons:
Too many words to read from the museum exhibition. Children are attracted to
interactive stuff, but museum contains permanent exhibits that required them to read the
information on the exhibits. They were easily distracted by something else like playing
with their friends around the exhibition areas. Thus, the important of the museum visit
has not been fulfilling.
The museum quiz is in question and answer format (A, B, C and D). The inter-
active quest is designed in objectives format where the children need to read the
question and choose one of the four possible answers. Therefore, children need to read
all the information related to the question around the exhibition areas where comes to
the problem (a).
They don’t feel the importance of answering all the questions. There was no
motivation for them to complete the task. If there was a reward, the motivation will be
escalated. Furthermore, there is no involvement of parents and schools in the museum
visit, children do not feel it is essential to answer the questions. They took the museum
quest slightly, therefore adult supervision throughout the museum visit are necessary.
Therefore, for future enhancement we would recommend as the following:
a. The Interactive Quest
i. Improve the application by incorporating with various modality such as sight,
hearing, touch, smell and taste.
ii. Collaborate the prototype with other several museums in Malaysia. When the
entrance ticket is scanned, it will download the questions from the cloud
database for the respective museums.
iii. Develop a set of questions based on age groups. Children aged below 9 years
old can have a puzzle like questions like jigsaw puzzles.
b. Parent, Teacher and Museum Involvement
i. Incorporate parents and schools in the museum activities. They can review the
results and give comments.
ii. Collaborate with museum institute to provide a monthly incentive such as a free
ticket or a small token for those who achieve remarkable marks for motivation.
610 Z.A. Amran and N. Admodisastro

6 Conclusion

In this paper, we present a study of an interactive museum quest that involves children
aged between 9 to 11. The museum quest carried out by the children using a prototype
application called MQ that was being developed based on the proposed interaction
design model. The aims of this work are to promote better interactivity, collaboration
and engagement among children with the information exhibits in museums. Findings
from the study indicate the proposed solution has effected the children enjoyment and
engagement during the museum visit. We compared the experiments results between
pre-test and post-test, and found the interaction model is comparable and gives
promising results. Nevertheless, we highlighted some limitations and suggestions for
work the enhancement.

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