Interacting online: A content analysis of museum education websites

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to assess the degree of viewer interaction capabilities of features found on the education portion of museum websites. A content analysis was completed where features were categorized by learning levels including: narrative (the learner is a passive recipient), interactive (the learner chooses what he/she views), communicative (the learner engages in discussion), adaptive (the learner discusses with instructor feedback), and productive (the learner expresses what was learned). From the 153 websites analysed 69 (45.1%) had narrative and 51 (33.3%) had interactivity functionality. There were 55 (35.9%) websites that had communicative, 38 (n=24.8%) had adaptive, and 34 (22.2%) had productive features. Features found at the adaptive and productive levels tended to incorporate offline activity. The results contribute to an understanding of the adoption of technology to educate and can be used as baseline data to assess future changes in online education by museums.