Digital-Museum-Supported Intangible Cultural Heritage Education: Innovation Pathways and Learning Outcomes From the Xiping Leizu Case

This study evaluates a pedagogically orchestrated model of digital-museum–supported intangible cultural heritage (ICH) education using the Xiping Leizu Digital Museum. A design-based, mixed-methods design across two 3–5-week cycles combined curriculum co-design with teachers and bearers; measures included pre/post tests, rubric-scored artifacts, platform analytics (time-on-artifact, path diversity, revisit ratio, collaboration events), surveys, observations, and interviews. Results show significant gains in cultural knowledge, authentic task performance, and cultural identity/inheritance willingness, strongest when VR/AR immersion was paired with community-linkage tasks and scaffolded critique. Analytics linked greater time-on-artifact and path diversity to larger gains; completing full ritual sequences predicted richer identity statements. Three innovation pathways emerged—narrative-guided inquiry, community linkage, and scaffolded interpretation/reflection. A dual-axis framework—social-memory stabilization (provenance cues) plus constructivist activation (age-segmented, AIGC-supported scaffolds)—explains effects. Implications include unit-level integration, practice-centered teacher development, visible provenance/AIGC governance, and age-sensitive resources.