Museums and heritage sites provide formal and informal learning contexts at all levels, for example through exhibitions, public programs, virtual sites, outreach and schools programs. Designed and taught by academics with specific expertise both in the field of museum and heritage learning and the broader context of educational communication, this course addresses all aspects of the educational and interpretive roles of museums and heritage sites, with particular reference to the diverse nature, contexts and identities of relevant audiences (on-site or virtual). Through an overview of the educational contexts of a wide range of Australian and international museums and heritage sites, students will be guided into developing analytical, synthetic and evaluative skills that allow them to observe, assess, design and implement educational exhibitions/programs in museum and heritage settings. Students will also be guided into experiential investigations of local or virtual museum/heritage settings, and contact with professionals in those settings, supported by the ANU’s professional network.

Students who fully satisfy the assessment requirements of this course will have the knowledge and skills to:

• Describe the scope and characteristics of the different types of learning that occurs in museums and heritage sites (on-site and virtually), including early childhood and school learning, adult learning, lifelong learning, family learning and community learning, and give examples of exemplary exhibitions/programs.
• Evaluate theories of learning relevant to museum and heritage sites and be able to situate those theories within the context of public and school exhibitions/programs.
• Demonstrate the conceptual and analytical skills to engage a variety of audiences in appropriate learning in the museum/heritage context by planning and implementing cost-effective learning/interpretive exhibitions/programs, including with relation to school curricula, open-air sites, indigenous communities and/or using relevant technologies where appropriate  
• Plan and implement a cost-effective evaluation strategy for a learning program

In keeping with the flexible learning and professional development context of this program, assessment tasks will be tailored to suit individual students’ needs and interests. In general, however, assessment is expected to include:

• Online discussion of theoretical concepts (10%; 800-1000 words)
• Learning journal to demonstrate reflective practice in engaging with observed programs/exhibitions (20%; 1000 words).
• Authentic audience observation/interview/survey exercises (institution of student’s choice) (25%; 1500 words, or equivalent as digital presentation)
• Digital presentation demonstrating a creative response to an educational concept (20%; 3-5 minutes finished product)
• Plan for an educational exhibition or program demonstrating the capacity to synthesise and apply theoretical and practical content relevant to the course (25%; 1500 words, or equivalent as digital presentation)

Students are expected to spend approximately 120 hours on this course, working through self-paced modules, contributing to online discussions and completing the assessment tasks.

Students must have a Bachelor degree, or equivalent work experience in a museum, heritage or educational setting. Given the focus on online learning, and the content emphasis on the use of digital media for learning in museums and heritage sites, students are expected to demonstrate an existing high level of digital literacy, or a capacity to gain such during the course. In addition students are expected to travel to at least one major museum or heritage site during the course.

Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. (2007) Museums and education: purpose, pedagogy, performance. Routledge, Oxon & New York.

The teaching will be accomplished using the ANU’s current LMS, Wattle, which can provide the required opportunities for online discussion and rich media use. Students are expected to have the necessary support (usually broadband access as a minimum) to allow them to access large online audiovisual files and the Internet.