VIRTUAL MUSEUMS BOOST MOTIVATION AND CULTURAL COMPREHENSION IN PRIMARY STUDENTS

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a PowerPoint-based virtual museum medium in enhancing fourth-grade elementary school students' motivation and understanding of social studies material on cultural diversity. Using a quasi-experimental design with a Non-equivalent Control Group Pretest-Posttest approach, the study involved 38 students divided into an experimental group (using the virtual museum) and a control group (using conventional textbooks). The research instruments included a motivation questionnaire based on the ARCS model and a material comprehension test based on Bloom's taxonomy. Data were analyzed using the Paired Sample t-test and Independent Sample t-test. The results showed that the use of the virtual museum significantly increased students' motivation (p = 0.000) and material comprehension (p = 0.000). The average motivation score for the experimental group (90.47) was significantly higher than that of the control group (72.89). Similarly, the experimental group's comprehension score (80.26) was much higher than the control group's (42.89). These findings prove that the virtual museum is superior to conventional textbooks in creating an immersive, interactive, and student-centered learning experience, aligning with Vygotsky's social constructivism theory and the principles of the Merdeka Curriculum. This medium successfully overcomes the limitations of conventional media and the inaccessibility of physical museums, ultimately fostering students' interest and active engagement.