Abstract

This paper emphasizes creating a digital media-rich learning environment that encourages students to learn a specific topic. It is found that creating a fun learning environment for students to participate in the exhibition design can arouse students’ intrinsic interests, thereby motivating them to learn even the “boring stuff” (such as the history of computers). Participating in exhibition design using the concept of learning-by-design (LBD) helps students think about their own learning throughout the whole design process. The most important criterion for the design environment is to promote the intrinsic motivation so that they remain engaged throughout the design process. Stimulating students to gain knowledge about a specific topic titled “Evolution and History of Computers” through designing their own exhibitions is the key focus. A “3D-animated design tool” is set up and students can use these exhibit objects, with corresponding text label information, to design their own exhibitions. Two-dimensional (2D) pictures and text label information on each exhibit object are given to students. They can extract, summarize, modify or copy the text into their exhibition designs. Students can also seek further information about the exhibit objects by accessing guided Internet resources that are provided. The result shows that, in comparison with the Control group that used other learning aids, the groups that utilized exhibition design as a key learning support obtained higher test scores in both factual content and conceptual structural knowledge. Focus group discussions have also shown positive results in relation to the use of exhibition design as a learning activity.