Current Challenges and Future Research Directions in Augmented Reality for Education

Abstract

The progression and adoption of innovative learning methodologies signify that a respective part of society is open to new technologies and ideas and thus is advancing. The latest innovation in teaching is the use of Augmented Reality (AR). Applications using this technology have been deployed successfully in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education for delivering the practical and creative parts of teaching. Since AR technology already has a large volume of published studies about education that reports advantages, limitations, effectiveness, and challenges, classifying these projects will allow for a review of the success in the different educational settings and discover current challenges and future research areas. Due to COVID-19, the landscape of technology-enhanced learning has shifted more toward blended learning, personalized learning spaces and user-centered approach with safety measures. The main findings of this paper include a review of the current literature, investigating the challenges, identifying future research areas, and finally, reporting on the development of two case studies that can highlight the first steps needed to address these research areas. The result of this research ultimately details the research gap required to facilitate real-time touchless hand interaction, kinesthetic learning, and machine learning agents with a remote learning pedagogy.

A Comprehensive Survey on the Investigation of Machine-Learning-Powered Augmented Reality Applications in Education

“…Ref. [31] includes a review of the present literature, an investigation of the problems, the identification of prospective study areas, and lastly, reports on the construction of two case studies that can highlight the initial steps needed to address these research areas. The findings of this study, finally, reveal the research gap needed to enable real-time touchless hand interaction, kinesthetic learning, and ML agents using a remote learning methodology.…”

AR Coupled With a Virtual Agent for Educating Towards a Sus-Tainable Way of Living

“…Virtual agents and bots have emerged to assist end-users in performing tasks supported by AR and also improve social interactions and motivation [11]. In children's education, virtual agents have proven to help a participant in a learning task and promote collaborative learning by enhancing emotional abilities [12]. As Iqbal et al [12] demonstrated in their latest systematic review, AR agents are new and have not been effectively implemented in any AR studies for education, as discussed in detail.…”

Bibliometric mapping of theme and trends of augmented reality in the field of education

“…For this reason, various studies have rightly documented the potential of using AR in various ‘hands‐on’ educational and learning practices (Akdeniz, 2016; Yeh & Tseng, 2020). On the other side, it will also have a great impact on the industrial growth and economy of a developing country (Iqbal et al, 2022).…”

“…For this reason, various studies have rightly documented the potential of using AR in various 'hands-on' educational and learning practices (Akdeniz, 2016;Yeh & Tseng, 2020). On the other side, it will also have a great impact on the industrial growth and economy of a developing country (Iqbal et al, 2022). Thus, based upon the studies and the findings of different researchers, the biggest potential of AR is mainly due to visually attractive and engaging graphics with rich multimedia features that provide multiple possibilities for interaction and engagement in response to feedback received by users as a result of their actions in real-time (Saltan & Arslan, 2016).…”