Educational Web Applications
The Virtual Museum web application was a specialized content management system designed for the development of fully self-administered, interactive virtual museums and exhibits. The project was inspired by the success of the Build Your Own Website™ system and an opportunity to support the University of Toledo's award-winning Toledo's Attic website.
Overview of
While working with the Department of Engineering at the University of Toledo, WGTE was approached about using Build Your Own Website™ to manage the Toledo's Attic website. At the time, the site was a very simple collection of pages and photos put together by a dedicated professor in University of Toledo's History Department and hosted on an old computer that was set up in a spare closet. Having worked with museums before (such as the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center) we already knew that there was unmet interest in a virtual museum web application, and this seemed like the ideal development project.
The Virutal Museum was built as a specialized version of the WGTE Content Management System and included the following functions:
- Create and manage an unlimited number of exhibits
- Add a variety of digital media
- Update general site information
- Assign "related" exhibits to each exhibit
- Discussion boards for each exhibit
- Offer customizable virutal postcards from historic exhibit photos
- A library of pre-designed templates for building exhibits
- Ability to administer exhibit and site sponsors (a variation of standard ad manager)
- Membership and e-commerce tools
- Connection to the Strategic Partner Library and Build Your Own Website™ networks
Crystal Award for Excellence
Invitation to PBS Academy
