Finding the Muse: Lessons from Partnering with University Students to Build a Museum Educational Site

The idea of linking up with computing science students on the lookout for projects is not in itself exclusive to the Hunterian. However, an undergraduate operating independently, with limited resources is not likely to be able to produce a product of sufficiently high quality to meet the requirements of most museums. (We all know what most student home pages look like!) The Hunterian Museum in Glasgow has developed a close cooperation with the honors program course coordinators in the Department of Computing Science. Students receive full academic recognition for their team efforts in developing the Museum's site as the Department of Computing Science ensure that the tasks given are sufficiently technically difficult to meet the curricular demands of the honors program. They appreciate having a "real world" client for the students, and the success of the collaboration has meant we always receive the very best students for the projects. This doesn't come without a museum contribution, however. Museum curators must make time available and allow access to collections for the students. The students also need a lot of direction and supervision in order to ensure the final product meets museum requirements for design and corporate image, and is effective for the educational end user.