Evaluating Visitor Engagement in Mixed Reality Digital Heritage Narratives via Structural Equation Modeling

Summary

This protocol details a quantitative methodology using structural equation modeling to evaluate how the quality of mixed reality cultural narratives influences visitor immersion, perceived authenticity, emotional connection, and subsequent learning outcomes in digital heritage environments.

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive protocol for evaluating the impact of mixed reality (MR) cultural narrative quality on visitor engagement and learning outcomes in digital heritage environments. While MR technologies offer novel platforms for cultural expression, a standardized method for quantifying their experiential and educational effectiveness remains limited. The protocol details a scenario-based, quantitative empirical research design utilizing a unified MR heritage prototype. Participants (N = 261) engage with the MR system, which integrates historical content, spatial narratives, and interactive information. Following the experience, data are collected using a structured questionnaire measuring core constructs: narrative quality, immersion, perceived authenticity, emotional connection, visitor engagement, and learning outcomes. The data are subsequently analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to map the structural relationships and mediating effects among these variables. Serving as representative results to validate this protocol, the findings confirm that high-quality MR narratives significantly enhance immersion and perceived authenticity, which subsequently drive emotional resonance and deeper visitor engagement. Ultimately, this heightened engagement translates into improved learning outcomes. By systematically capturing and analyzing these multilayered psychological and behavioral responses, this methodology provides a reliable framework for researchers and designers to assess and optimize the educational value of digital heritage experiences.

Introduction

Under the profound adjustment of the international paradigm for cultural heritage dissemination, exhibition logic has fundamentally transitioned from an object-centric approach to one that emphasizes the visitor experience¹. Historically, museums and heritage sites relied predominantly on physical display cabinets and static textual plaques to present historical information in a unidirectional manner. Consequently, these traditional configurations are generally considered to be uninvolved in visitors’ active cognitive processes, rendering the audience mere spectators. However, the emergence and rapid evolution of Digital Humanities resear....

Protocol

All methods involving human participants were performed in accordance with relevant institutional guidelines and were approved by the Ethics Committee on Human Research Protection of Shanghai Daji Education Technology Co., Ltd. (Approval No. 4500AL0512). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before participation.

1. System Development and Experimental Design

1. Develop the MR digital heritage prototype
   1. Construct the MR prototype
      1. Construct a MR digital heritage prototype using Unity 2022.3 LTS.
      2. Deploy the application through a Microsoft HoloLens 2 head-moun....

Results

The following empirical findings are presented as representative results to illustrate the practical application, statistical rigor, and analytical capability of the proposed protocol. By executing the procedures outlined above, this section demonstrates how the methodology effectively captures and models visitor experiences.

Participant Profile and Group Distribution
A total of 261 valid samples were collected, demonstrating a relatively balanced demographic distribution .......

Discussion

This study proposes a reproducible methodological protocol utilizing a comprehensive structural model to evaluate how MR cultural narratives influence visitor engagement and learning outcomes across different levels of the experiential mechanism¹⁵. The empirical testing of the hypotheses is presented to validate the efficacy and reliability of this evaluation framework. By systematically establishing and verifying this integrated path model, the results demonstrate that MR cultural narrative quali.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Computer workstation	Dell	Precision 3650 Tower; Intel Core i7 processor; 32 GB RAM; NVIDIA graphics card; Windows 11 Pro 64-bit	To operate the mixed reality environment, deploy the application, and process research data
IBM SPSS Statistics	IBM Corp.	Version 26.0	To perform descriptive statistical analyses and analysis of variance (ANOVA)
Mixed reality headset	Microsoft	HoloLens 2; Windows Holographic operating system	To deliver the mixed reality cultural heritage experience
SmartPLS software	SmartPLS GmbH	Version 4.0	To perform Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), reliability assessment, validity testing, and mediation analysis
Unity development platform	Unity Technologies	Unity 2022.3 LTS	To develop, deploy, and manage the mixed reality cultural heritage application
Visitor experience survey instrument	Developed by the research team based on previous digital heritage and immersive experience studies	Final 30-item post-experience questionnaire; provided as Supplementary File 1	To collect self-reported data on narrative quality, immersion, perceived authenticity, emotional connection, visitor engagement, and learning outcomes