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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Intangible cultural heritage
• augmented reality
• Chinese lantern culture
• technology enhanced learning
• cultural awareness
• Human-Computer Interaction

Disclosure statement

Jian Kang is employed by Shandong Jianzhu University Design Group Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the study was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflicts of interest.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Taipei City Government and Ministry of Education of the Republic of China [PHA1101038].

Notes on contributors

Chun-Ching Chen

Xin-Zhu Li is a PhD Candidate at College of Design, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan. His research scope is User Experience, Chinese traditional lantern craft, Technology Education, and human-computer system applications.

Xin Kang

Xin Kang is an assistant professor at the School of Design, NingboTech University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China. Her research interests focus on digital art, design thinking, user experience, and human-computer interface design.

Xin-Zhu Li

Chun-Ching Chen is an associate professor at the Department of Interaction Design, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan. His research interests focus on human–computer interaction, user interface design, user behavior, and human–computer system applications.

Jian Kang

Jian Kang is a Project Chief Engineer at the Department of Energy Design, Shandong Jianzhu University Design Group Co., Ltd. His research interest is human-computer Interaction.