Three Types of Student Engagement in Virtual Educational Programs of Art Museums

Abstract

To promote public education and reach a broader range of visitors outside the galleries, museums have developed various virtual educational programs by taking advantage of technology. During the COVID 19 pandemic, many art museums temporarily closed their galleries. Different types of virtual educational programs became the main methods of delivering educational resources to virtual visitors and students. However, virtual educational programs struggled to provide highly engaging learning experiences to online learners at the same level as the galleries’ in-person educational programs. Although, prior to the pandemic, museums strived to provide informative and enjoyable learning experiences to online, there was a lack of focus on online learners in previous research on online engagement (Redmon et al., 2018). This study redresses this gap by conducting qualitative research to understand what elements (including online teaching pedagogy, design of the learning material, learning activities, and usability of technology tools) adopted by virtual educational programs of art museums are relevant to three types of student engagement: emotional, behavioral, and cognitive (Fredricks et al., 2004). The research results will benefit art museums and universities in structuring and developing virtual educational programs and art education-relevant online courses to promote student engagement of online learners in the future.