Experimenting with electromagnetism using augmented reality: Impact on flow student experience and educational effectiveness

Abstract

Educational researchers have recognized Augmented Reality (AR) as a technology with great potential to impact affective and cognitive learning outcomes. However, very little work has been carried out to substantiate these claims. The purpose of this study was to assess to which extent an AR learning application affects learners' level of enjoyment and learning effectiveness. The study followed an experimental/control group design using the type of the application (AR-based, web-based) as inde-pendent variable. 64 high school students were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group to learn the basic principles of electromagnetism. The participants' knowledge acquisition was evaluated by comparing pre-and post-tests. The participants' level overall-state perception on flow was measured with the Flow State Scale and their flow states were monitored throughout the learning activity. Finally, participants' perceptions of benefits and difficulties of using the augmented reality application in this study were qualitatively identified. The results showed that the augmented reality approach was more effective in promoting students' knowledge of electromagnetic concepts and phenomena. The analysis also indicated that the augmented reality application led participants to reach higher flow experience levels than those achieved by users of the web-based application. However, not all the factors seem to have influence on learners' flow state, this study found that they were limited to: concentration, dis-torted sense of time, sense of control, clearer direct feedback, and autotelic experience. A deeper analysis of the flow process showed that neither of the groups reported being in flow in those tasks that were very easy or too difficult. However, for those tasks that were not perceived as difficult and included visualization clues, the experimental group showed higher levels of flow that the control group. The study suggests that augmented reality can be exploited as an effective learning environment for learning the basic principles of electromagnetism at high school provided that learning designers strike a careful balance between AR support and task difficulty.

Artırılmış Gerçekliğin Fen Eğitiminde Kullanımının Tutum ve Motivasyona Etkisi

“…Ayrıca yapılan araştırmalarda AG'nin yaparak yaşayarak öğrenmeyi (Singhal, Bagga, Goyal ve Saxena, 2012) ve sorgulayarak öğrenmeyi (Chiang, Yang ve Hwang, 2014;Squire ve Jan, 2007;Wang, Duh, Li, Lin ve Tsai, 2014) desteklediği belirtilmektedir. Öğrencilerin derse katılım-larını (Delello, 2014;Dunleavy, Dede ve Mitchell, 2009) ve motivasyonlarını artırmak (Chiang vd., 2014;Furió, Juan, Segui ve Vivó, 2015;Perez-Lopez ve Contero, 2013;Solak ve Cakir, 2015) gibi önemli avantajları olan AG, dersleri daha eğlenceli hale getirmektedir (Chiang vd., 2014;Ibáñez, Di Serio, Villarán ve Kloos, 2014). Kavramsal öğrenmeyi desteklerken (Abdüsselam, 2014;Enyedy, Danish, Delacruz ve Kumar, 2012;Kerawalla vd., 2006) öğrencilerin kavram yanılgılarında azalma sağladığı da (Rosenbaum, Klopfer ve Perry, 2006;Sırakaya, 2015;Tian, Endo, Urata, Mouri ve Yasuda, 2014) yapılan çalışmalarda elde edilen sonuçlar arasındadır.…”

“…Educational use of augmented reality improves student achievement (Cai et al, 2014;Chen & Wang, 2015;Hsiao et al, 2012;Hwang et al, 2016;Shelton & Hedley, 2002;Vilkoniene, 2009;Zhang et al, 2014). Augmented reality has the advantages of increasing student participation (Delello, 2014;Dunleavy, Dede & Mitchell, 2009) and motivation Furió et al, 2015;Perez-Lopez & Contero, 2013;Solak & Cakir, 2015) and making classes more enjoyable Ibáñez et al, 2014). The examination of literature shows that it appears augmented reality is often used in science education.…”

Posibilidades educativas de la Realidad Aumentada

“…Experiences have also been carried out with the aim of promoting students' positive attitudes towards science (Bressler & Bodzin, 2013;Ibáñez et al, 2014;Kamarainen et al, 2013), in training oriented to the acquisition of healthy habits (Acosta, Catalá, Esteve, Mocholí, & Jaén, 2006), as well as in the development of games meant to favor school coexistence (Pérez-Fuentes, Álvarez-Bermejo, Molero, Gázquez, & López, 2011).…”

Augmented and Mixed Reality Features and Tools for Remote Laboratory Experiments

“…For example, magnetic fields that attract magnetic materials generated and studied by using different electromagnets [18]. This entities which are part of the experiment, may be embedded into correct positions by using animations.…”