A major UK museum has partnered with Samsung to expand its e-learning services due to exceptional demand.
Just like many guest experiences across the UK, the British Museum has struggled through forced closures and social distancing measures imposed through the COVID 19 pandemic.
A huge proportion of British Museum visitors are educational trips and with ongoing safety concerns, travel limits and significantly reduced capacities in place it hasn’t been feasible for schools to visit the London-based museum.
Though it might be a while before the leading museum is beaming with school children, a demand for virtual services has gone through the roof – with officials at the British Museum expanding its capacity of its Samsung Virtual Visits platform.
The innovative learning programme was previously launched in 2019, however the rippling impacts of COVID 19 has seen a massive surge in schools showing an interest in the virtual offerings.
The virtual platform is part of the museum’s Samsung Discovery Centre, which in normal times offers on-site education sessions for children
Bookings for the platform increased by 150 per cent for the October half term, with the museum facilitating a huge capacity enhancement to adhere to the demand.
Pre-pandemic, the programme had space for 163 pupils with the popular visitor experience ramping up the space for 900 students in November and December.
The insightful free sessions are broadcasted using Samsung’s cutting-edge technology and includes interactive quizzes, live activities and thought-provoking questions lead by an experienced museum member. The sessions are tailored to the age of the pupils and the respective school’s curriculum, with Indus Valley and Roman Britain topics currently being offered.
A new session based on Ancient Egypt is set to be rolled out for the 2020/21 academic year.
Commenting on British Museum’s collaboration with Samsung and their new e-learning platform Sarah Saunders, Head of Learning and National Programmes at the British Museum said: “We’re seeing huge demand for our innovative Virtual Visits programme.
“We know that the museum is hugely popular with schools, so we’re doing as much as we can to ensure pupils can still experience the wonder that is the British Museum collection during this unprecedented time. If schools can’t come and visit us, then we’ll beam ourselves directly into their classrooms from our Samsung Digital Discovery Centre wherever they are for free.”
In similar news, Science Museum Group and Natural History Museum have collaborated to offer innovative apps for children.
