Affordances and Constraints of Online Museum Experiences for at-Home Science Engagement During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Online museum experiences, or OMEs, expand access to museums beyond physical buildings. With limited visitation during the COVID-19 pandemic, many museums increased OME offerings, including those marketed toward families. However, as most OMEs are developed for K-12 audiences, we have yet to understand how OMEs support–or fail to support– families’ engagement with science. To investigate how OMEs facilitated or constrained families’ engagement with at-home science learning, we conducted semi-structured interviews with parents and used quantitative discourse analysis to identify emergent affordances and constraints. These findings can inform the design of OMEs that effectively support families’ athome engagement with science.