Online exhibitions and archives: a collaborative project for teaching and learning in design

Abstract

This paper discusses the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning through Design (CETLD) Online Exhibitions Project, a collaboration between the University of Brighton, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art. The project entailed creating a virtual exhibition drawn from the archives of the partner institutions, with the goal of encouraging students to use archives for practice-based inquiry and in historical/theoretical research. Designing an exhibition that incorporates student involvement through the use of Web 2.0 technologies has presnted various challenges: technical, conceptual and pedagogical. The paer is thus a case study of how virtual access to archives can contribute to teaching and learning in the design disciplines.