Abstract:

Museums are confronted with a huge pressure to be competitive in the education market, attract visitors and generate streams of revenue. Over the past decade, museum education offerings have been increasing due to the rapid technological developments. Technology-enabled museums are replacing traditional museums for inspiration of individual growth, promotion of culture exchange and society enrichment. Recent studies have shown that physical activities, in combination with new technologies, such as Mixed Reality (MR) experiences, can be a key stimulant for promoting active learning and learner engagement.

The overall rising interest in MR drove the purpose of this paper to systematically review the literature relevant to this topic. Two researchers collaborated to apply a qualitative method, coding and synthesizing the results using multiple criteria. Their main objective was to study the impact of Mixed Reality in museum education by detecting and discussing research trends and gaps.

The research, which was conducted between September and November 2019, used Google Scholar and ProQuest data bases. The reviewed papers were selected with prior chosen keywords: Mixed Reality, Museum and Education. The keywords were combined while operating the Boolean operator “AND”. The selected papers were published in peer-reviewed journals, in English, between 2012 and 2019. The selection process consisted of four phases: identification round, first round of exclusion, second round of exclusion, and final inclusion round. This process was carried out separately for each database. The identified articles were collected in a shared RefWorks project.

The results of this systematic review revealed that MR systems launch users into a completely different world within a real context. However, the success of a learning experience through MR is highly impacted by both users’ expertise on the context they are exposed and the nature of the MR system – in terms of the sensorial feedback from the visuals, audio and proprioception. In a museum setting, MR could provide better exhibition interfaces for intangible collections, as well as opportunities for collaborative learning.

As a final step, the authors consolidated evidence for the benefit of academics and practitioners in the field of museum education interested in the efficient use of MR to promote active learning. Such evidence also provided potential options and pathways for future research.

Keywords:

Mixed reality, museum education, modern technologies, MR.