On Educational psychology: A cognitive view.

This study presents a systematic review of the literature on the use of augmented reality technology to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning. It synthesizes a set of 28 publications from 2010 to 2017. A qualitative content analysis is used to investigate the general characteristics of augmented reality applications in STEM education, the instructional strategies and techniques deployed in the studies reviewed, and the evaluation approaches followed in the interventions. This review found that most augmented reality applications for STEM learning offered exploration or simulation activities. The applications reviewed offered a number of similar design features based on digital knowledge discovery mechanisms to consume information through the interaction with digital elements. However, few studies provided students with assistance in carrying out learning activities. Most of the studies reviewed evaluated the effects of augmented reality technology in fostering students' conceptual understanding, followed by those that investigated affective learning outcomes. A number of suggestions for future research arose from this review. Researchers need to design features that allow students to acquire basic competences related with STEM disciplines, and future applications need to include metacognitive scaffolding and experimental support for inquiry-based learning activities. Finally, it would be useful to explore how augmented reality learning activities can be part of blended instructional strategies such as the flipped classroom.

Augmented reality for STEM learning: A systematic review

Augmented reality (AR) is an important technology to enhance learning experiences. Many studies have been conducted to establish the tendencies, affordances and challenges of this technology in educational settings. However, these studies have little analyzed important issues such as the special needs of specific users or the impact of AR on education through the quantitative analysis of the data. This paper presents a literature review that covers 61 studies published between 2012 and 2018 in scientific journals and conference proceedings. As a result, it identifies the status and tendencies in the usage of AR in education, the impact of this technology on learning processes, open questions as well as opportunities and challenges for developers and practitioners. The results indicate that AR has a medium effect on learning effectiveness (d = .64, p < .001). The most reported advantages of AR systems in education are “learning gains” and “motivation.” Otherwise, it is also important to mention that only one of the AR systems of the studies includes accessibility features, which represents a setback in terms of social inclusion. Therefore, given the apparent multiple benefits of using AR systems in educational settings, stakeholders have great opportunities to develop new and better systems that benefit all learners. This technology covers a wide range of topics, target groups, academic levels and more. This could be an indicator that AR is achieving maturity and has successfully taken root in educational settings.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of augmented reality in educational settings

The aim of this study was to reveal research trends over the last six years by content analysis and to examine bibliometric results of articles related to the use of augmented reality (AR) in science education. For bibliometric mapping analysis, a total of 147 articles were accessed and for content analysis, a total of 79 articles published between 2013 and 2018 years were included from the Web of Science. From this, a total of 62 articles were selected for analysis. Our results revealed that mobile learning, science education, science learning and e-learning were the most used keywords in articles, while the focus of more recent articles tended to be on mobile learning. The results showed that recent articles have mostly focused on mobile learning and e-learning environments. The most-used words in the abstracts were education, knowledge, science education, experiment and effectiveness. It is evident that recent articles have focused mostly on students' knowledge and achievement. Azuma, Dunleavy and Klopfer are the most cited authors in this field. This is not surprising as they are probably the leading authors on AR in the literature. The most cited journals are Computers & Education, Journal of Science Education & Technology, Educational Technology and Society, Computers in Human Behavior, and British Journal of Educational Technology. These are the most prominent journals on the use of technology in education. Content analysis results showed that “Learning/Academic Achievement”, “Motivation” and “Attitude” have been the most examined variables in the articles. Since academic achievement is highly influenced by motivation and attitude, it is understandable that these variables are considered together in reviewed studies. It was found that mobile applications and marker-based materials on paper have been the most-favored types of materials for AR because these types of materials are easy to use and they can be developed easily and practically. Quantitative studies were the most used research design type but there have been only a limited number of qualitative studies in the last six years. This may be due to the increased tendency to use quantitative and mixed studies in recent years.

Research trends in the use of augmented reality in science education: Content and bibliometric mapping analysis

Meta-analysis of the impact of Augmented Reality on students’ learning gains

Computer hardware and mobile devices have developed rapidly in recent years, and augmented reality (AR) technology has been increasingly applied in mobile learning. Although instructional AR applications have yielded satisfactory results and prompted students’ curiosity and interest, a number of problems remain. The crucial topic for AR applications is the lack of appropriate instructional scaffolds to help students organize the content to be learned. Moreover, a lack of appropriate instructional activities and scaffolds often results in student confusion and frustration. Therefore, we integrated AR with concept maps to form a concept-mapped AR (CMAR) scaffold. Subsequently, whether CMAR improves learning outcomes, motivation, and attitude in mobile learning activities was determined. An empirical study was conducted on 71 fifth-grade elementary students in Southern Taiwan. The students were divided into CMAR and AR system groups. The results showed that students in the CMAR group performed significantly better than those in the AR group. The student interview results also showed that the CMAR system helped students organize what they wanted to learn.

An Augmented-Reality-Based Concept Map to Support Mobile Learning for Science

In this study, an augmented reality-based multidimensional concept map (ARMCM) learning system is proposed for conducting mobile learning activities. The subjects consisted of 65 students with an average age of 11 years in an elementary school in Taiwan. They were divided into an ARMCM group and a multidimensional concept map (MCM) group. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The experimental results suggested that students in the ARMCM group performed significantly better than those in the MCM group. Moreover, this study also found that the students using the ARMCM learning approach showed significantly higher motivation than those using the MCM learning approach, because ARMCM learning is able to simulate the complex knowledge that they needed to learn. ARMCM learning was easier to understand and easy to use, as it could simplify the content of the learning knowledge. Pedagogical implications, conclusion, and some suggestions based on this study are provided.

Effects of augmented reality-based multidimensional concept maps on students’ learning achievement, motivation and acceptance

Since learning environments have the support of innovational technology, blended learning environments could integrate the physical learning methods with multimedia learning materials, which combines the use of technology with the traditional teaching methods and offers a potential for teachers and students to meet the requirements of learning flexibility and innovation. This study aims to redesign a user-centered Activity System-Based Process Model (ASPM) and integrate the Augmented Reality (AR) into blended learning to implement the Augmented Reality-Based Blended Learning (ARBL) system. There were 57 participants who learned with the ARBL while the control group was made up of 52 students who learned with the Traditional Blended Learning (TBL) approach. Analytical results indicate that the learning outcomes and learning attitude of the ARBL group were better than those of the TBL group. The activity system-based process model could provide a helpful structure in the ARBL to guide course designers, teachers, and researchers for designing the AR learning activity.

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Chun Yen Huang

Papers

An Augmented-Reality-Based Concept Map to Support Mobile Learning for Science

Effects of augmented reality-based multidimensional concept maps on students’ learning achievement, motivation and acceptance

Applying Activity System-Based Process Model in Augmented Reality-Based Learning for Natural Science Course in Elementary School