Museum Blended Learning Through Digital Learning Platform: The Case of Smithsonian Learning Lab

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to public cultural institutions, including museums. The museums gradually recognize the significant potential of digital technology in assisting museums to enhance their accessibility. Accordingly, the necessity and urgency of digital change is becoming increasingly prominent. How to ensure that the collection starts a new life cycle after entering the digital museum space and stimulates the educational potential of the collection. This has become one of the key issues that need to be explored in the post-pandemic era when museums utilize digital learning platforms to carry out blended education and expand their educational functions. As a forerunner, the Smithsonian Institution has created an interactive museum digital learning platform named Smithsonian Learning Lab, which has carried out pioneering exploration in three aspects, including digital educational resources, interactive digital tools, and learning outputs. It has constructed a new model of museum blended learning in the digital ecosystem, which provides significant enlightenment and a reference for Chinese museums to develop digital learning platforms and expand their educational functions in the future.