Design and Evaluation for Improving Lantern Culture Learning Experience with Augmented Reality

Many forms of Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH) are fast disappearing. The Lantern Festival is an important part of Chinese tradition and a critical ICH of Taiwan. However, few young people attend ICH activities. Given the importance of ICH education, this study describes what participants learned after lantern exhibitions that combined Augmented Reality (AR), mobile websites, and Paper-based Exhibition Brochures. This study evaluated what a cohort of college students (n = 115) learned about ICH through experiments and questionnaires. The results show that the public understood ICH better through digital technology. All participants thought that applying AR to ICH was good for the public to gain more information on lantern culture, although it took a lot of time to learn the new technology. The results also encouraged the application of AR to engage in ICH education. Therefore, a large number of digital technologies that are popular among young people should be used as part of ICH education in order to improve their cultural awareness and learning motivation.

Automated summary

Many forms of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) are disappearing, but the Lantern Festival is an important part of Chinese tradition and a crucial ICH of Taiwan. This study combines augmented reality, mobile websites, and paper-based exhibition brochures to educate participants about ICH, and found that the public understood ICH better through digital technology. Participants recognized the benefits of applying augmented reality to ICH, despite the learning curve of the new technology, and encouraged its use in ICH education to improve cultural awareness and learning motivation.