Design of a Mixed Reality Application for STEM Distance Education Laboratories

Abstract

In this work, we propose a Mixed Reality (MR) application to support laboratory lectures in STEM distance education. It was designed following a methodology extendable to diverse STEM laboratory lectures. We formulated this methodology considering the main issues found in the literature that limit MR’s use in education. Thus, the main design features of the resulting MR application are students’ and teachers’ involvement, use of not distracting graphics, integration of traditional didactic material, and easy scalability to new learning activities. In this work, we present how we applied the design methodology and used the framework for the case study of an engineering course to support students in understanding drawings of complex machines without being physically in the laboratory. We finally evaluated the usability and cognitive load of the implemented MR application through two user studies, involving, respectively, 48 and 36 students. The results reveal that the usability of our application is “excellent” (mean SUS score 84.7), and it is not influenced by familiarity with Mixed Reality and distance education tools. Furthermore, the cognitive load is medium (mean NASA TLX score below 29) for all four learning tasks that students can accomplish through the MR application.

Perceptions on the use of mixed reality in mobile environments in secondary education

“…These studies highlight their importance in teaching and learning processes, and the importance of MR utilized as a resource for the development of learning with the m-modality, given that the combination of a networked society, knowledge and education of subjects leads to changes in the views, beliefs and ways of understanding and educating (Marín-Díaz et al , 2022a). This is why, as pointed out by Marín and Cabero (2018), it is necessary to know the perception of teachers on technologies or digital resources in general, as this opinion will make their presence in the classroom to be real or not. Ultimately, online learning associated with MR has led to the inclusion of a new point of view that is associated to how its inclusion in the classroom methodology is perceived by educators (Miller, 2017; Marín and Cabero (2018)).…”

“…This is why, as pointed out by Marín and Cabero (2018), it is necessary to know the perception of teachers on technologies or digital resources in general, as this opinion will make their presence in the classroom to be real or not. Ultimately, online learning associated with MR has led to the inclusion of a new point of view that is associated to how its inclusion in the classroom methodology is perceived by educators (Miller, 2017; Marín and Cabero (2018)). More specifically, in education stages such as secondary education, it necessary to determine this perspective, given that it tends to be the initial contact with learning using the m-learning format (Loreto-Echevarri et al ., 2021).…”

“…The immersion of emerging technologies in modern teaching cannot be questioned, as shown in studies by Garay et al . (2017), Cabero and Marín (2018), de Morais et al (2021), to cite a few. These studies highlight their importance in teaching and learning processes, and the importance of MR utilized as a resource for the development of learning with the m-modality, given that the combination of a networked society, knowledge and education of subjects leads to changes in the views, beliefs and ways of understanding and educating (Marín-Díaz et al , 2022a).…”

“…Also, it is understood as a tool that transforms 3D technology to 4D. Thus, it can be utilized in many other areas, from health sciences (Adhikari et al ., 2021) to architecture or construction (Hegazy et al ., 2021), and even education (Marín and Vega, 2022).…”

“…In the last thirty years, constant attempts have been made to incorporate MR into different areas, such as education, medicine and industry, among other fields. In spite of this, the everyday use of MR is very low, and it is mainly used in leisure-related applications, such social networks, or television (Gattullo et al , 2022).…”