Co-designing evaluation criteria for digital technologies in school museum visits: a Delphi-based study

This study presents the 3S Evaluation Framework, which reframes the evaluation of museum digital technologies used with school groups as a form of distributed co-design. Drawing on a four-round Delphi process, museum educators and schoolteachers collaboratively developed evaluative criteria through iterative, anonymous, and feedback-driven dialogue. The process produced 56 validated factors across five facets, which were subsequently interpreted through three interrelated levels: Subjective, Strategic, and Sustainable. The findings suggest that the educational value of museum digital technologies is contingent upon the coordinated interaction of learner experience, pedagogical alignment, and organisational capacity, transcending isolated design features. Methodologically, the study demonstrates how Delphi can function as a distributed co-design process that supports reflexive convergence in multi-stakeholder evaluation. By extending participatory design principles into evaluation and decision-making, the paper contributes a stakeholder-informed interpretive framework for more transparent, context-sensitive, and sustainable digital learning evaluation in museum settings.