Educational Mobile Augmented Reality Edupark Game: Does It Improve Students Learning?

Abstract

Mobile devices are being intensively used by the Portuguese youth in their daily life, but not in school activities. Despite this gap, research shows that technology can promote student learning in non-high education contexts. This paper comprises a survey study where mobile learning is analyzed through the eyes of 244 students attending the 2 nd or 3 rd Cycles of Basic Education (CBE). The acknowledged advantages and difficulties of the use of mobile devices for learning, as well as the educational value and usability of a specific mobile learning strategy, using the EduPARK app and game, were analyzed. Results revealed that most students owned a mobile device and were able to use them to learn. They had a positive perspective regarding mobile learning and valued the advantages of being easy to find up-to-date information, motivating for learning and easy to carry along. Nevertheless, students acknowledged difficulties in the use of mobile devices to learn, such as requiring an internet connection, its slowness, not being allowed to use mobile devices in schools as they facilitate access to distractions. The EduPARK game achieved an average Educational Value Scale of 83.8 and an average System Usability Scale of 80.2, indicating its high educational value and usability for students. This paper presents empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of the integration of mobile game-based AR approaches in 2 nd and 3 rd CBE to promote students learning. It also includes an example of excellent interdisciplinary educational materials that comprises a very useful tool for teachers and students to explore scientific knowledge by accessing appealing information on biological and historical references of a local urban park.

Exploring the role of mobile game-based apps towards a smart learning city environment – the innovation of EduCITY

“…Results from other studies (Pombo and Marques, 2018, 2019) show that, according to students and teachers of different educational levels, the EduPARK app is easy to use and reached high usability and a strong educational value. The potential for promoting conservation and sustainability habits is widely recognized by app users, although they mention that this aspect can be further explored, which legitimates the relevance of the EduCITY project.…”

“…For example, AR 3D models can be used to support visualization and comprehension of phenomena or concepts outdoors, in ways that are not possible with traditional books (Akçayır and Akçayır, 2017). This technology combination can effectively engage and motivate students for learning in several school levels and contexts (Akçayır and Akçayır, 2017;Pombo and Marques, 2018;Sousa Santos et al, 2015). EduPARK is augmenting the Infante D. Pedro Park to support authentic and cross-subject learning.…”

“…(6) Community-based participatory approach Concerning collaborative learning linked to a community-based participatory approach, graduating students valued the EduPARK activity's ability to promote team work for learning, as the game educational challenges can promote collaborative discussion of ideas among group members (Pombo and Marques, 2018). In fact, the project's recommendation is to play the EduPARK game in small teams, although it is perfectly playable individually.…”

“…The project team employed a design-based methodology, with four cycles of development, integrating users' feedback, to create and improve one of its main products, the EduPARK AR app (Pombo and Marques, 2018).…”

Design of a Mixed Reality Application for STEM Distance Education Laboratories

“…The usability can be evaluated through subjective questionnaires such as the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire [33], the questionnaire of User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS) [34], and the Smart Glasses User Satisfaction (SGUS) [35]. Compared to other subjective questionnaires for usability evaluation, we used the SUS because it is the most suitable for our application and was widely used in similar studies before concerning the educational field such as health [36], language [37], chemistry [38], and environmental education [39]. At this point of our research, we asked if the usability evaluation should be conducted by students who had previous experience or not with MR applications and DE tools.…”