Fostering Performance in Hands-On Laboratory Work with the Use of Mobile Augmented Reality (AR) Glasses

Abstract

The learning of laboratory skills is essential in science education, but students often get too little individual guidance in this area. Augmented reality (AR) technologies are a promising tool to tackle this challenge and promote students’ high-level learning and performance in science laboratories. Thus, the purpose of this study was (1) to design an AR-assisted learning environment to support individual knowledge construction, (2) to investigate students’ learning processes and learning outcomes and (3) to examine the usability of the system. Pharmacy students (n = 16) were assigned to experimental (n = 10) and control (n = 6) groups and performed the same laboratory work together with pre- and post-tests. The experimental group worked with AR glasses that provided additional support and timely guidance during the work with additional info-screens, questions related to choosing correct reagents and laboratory tools and think-aloud questions, whereas the control group worked in a traditional laboratory context. The results showed that AR was more effective in fostering performance in the science laboratory compared to traditional laboratory instruction and prevented most of the mistakes. The AR group considered the guidance and feedback provided by AR to be beneficial for their learning. However, no apparent differences were found in tasks measuring students’ understanding of the content knowledge. Thus, an AR environment embedded with supportive tools could partly replace the teacher in science teaching laboratories by providing individual and timely guidance for the students.

Design and Usability Testing of an Augmented Reality (AR) Environment in Pharmacy Education—Presenting a Pilot Study on Comparison between AR Smart Glasses and a Mobile Device in a Laboratory Course

“…To visualize the user's interface with the AR smart glasses, please find the screen shot of the AR work flow concept, provided by Sciar Company Ltd., in the Supplementary Material Figure S1. For the AR environment, please see also Södervik et al [52]. In the beginning, each student identified his-/herself with an identifier code that generates individual digital log.…”

“…The respondents specified their level of agreement on a five-point Likert scale with the descriptors: (1) Strongly disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Neither agree nor disagree; (4) Agree; (5) Strongly agree. * See also Ref [52]…”

Fostering complex professional skills with interactive simulation technology: A virtual reality‐based flipped learning approach

“…On the contrary, situated learning applied in simulations has its limitation of scenario building, including construction cost, time, reproducing events (Li et al, 2022), and providing individual guidance and immediate feedback (Anderson et al, 2017; Ding et al, 2021). Technology‐assisted learning applied in simulation situations has been proved to enhance students' cognitive and learning motivation, increase their engagement, and offers them individual guidance and instant feedback (Reilly et al, 2019; Södervik et al, 2021). With the increasing popularity of virtual reality (VR) in educational applications, VR technology always brings users a strong sense of immersion and rich interactivity.…”

The Integration of Augmented Reality and Virtual Laboratory based on the 5E Model and Vark Assessment: A Conceptual Framework

“…Furthermore, the 3D image is combined with the 3D Blender application to create a virtual object whose format follows the application on the game engine. This design used Unity 3D (Hernández-Chávez et al, 2021), a game engine, to create applications for this AR application based on android mobile (Södervik et al, 2021). Next is the marker on Vuforia.…”