A Case Study of Performance Assessment in High School Korean History through Online Exhibition Planning — Focusing on the Japanese Colonial Period Unit —

This study examines a case of performance assessment in a high school Korean history class in which students planned online exhibitions on the Japanese colonial period, and explores the educational possibilities of using digital exhibition environments in history education. As digital technologies have transformed how museums present their collections, online exhibitions have emerged as a viable means of bringing museum-based learning into the classroom. While previous research has primarily focused on the effects of museum visits or exhibition-based instruction, relatively few studies have analyzed cases in which students themselves design and curate exhibitions as an interpretive activity. The lesson was conducted over three class periods with 10th-grade students at a general high school in Seoul. In the first session, students explored actual online exhibitions and analyzed the characteristics, strengths, and limitations of digital exhibitions in comparison with physical museum visits. In the second session, students assumed the role of exhibition planners and developed exhibition proposals on the Japanese colonial period that included a theme, curatorial intent, selected artifacts with descriptions, and ideas for visitor engagement. In the third session, students reviewed and evaluated their peers’ exhibition plans through a structured peer assessment activity. The analysis of student responses and exhibition plans revealed several notable findings. First, students recognized online exhibitions not merely as convenient digital reproductions of physical museums but as an independent medium that reconfigures the conditions and modes of viewing. They positively evaluated the accessibility and convenience of online exhibitions while also clearly identifying their limitations in terms of the sense of presence and immersive experience that physical museums provide. Second, in developing their exhibition proposals, students organized historical materials according to distinct perspectives—event-centered, figure-centered, and social life-centered narratives—thereby engaging in the interpretive act of selecting what to remember and how to structure historical meaning. Third, during peer assessment, students evaluated exhibitions based on criteria such as factual accuracy, narrative coherence, and the potential for viewer engagement and immersion, demonstrating an emerging capacity to read exhibitions as constructed interpretive structures. These findings suggest that online exhibition planning can serve as a meaningful pedagogical approach in history education, going beyond conventional project-based tasks by requiring students to select, organize, and justify historical materials within a narrative framework. However, this study also acknowledges several limitations, including the constraints of a three-session lesson format, the limited scope of the rubric in capturing the depth of historical interpretation, and the limited number of classes that completed all activities. Despite these limitations, the study demonstrates the potential of digital exhibition planning as an introductory learning experience that enables students to begin recognizing museum exhibitions as constructed spaces of historical interpretation.