The Educational Potential of Augmented Reality Technology: Experiences of Instructional Designers and Practitioners

Abstract

In this study, the educational potential of the augmented reality (AR) technology was investigated in the context of the instructional designers and practitioners' experiences. Within this scope, intrinsic case study design was used in this study. 42 instructional designers and 10 practitioners participated in the research. The data were collected using open-ended questionnaire from instructional designers. Interviews were held with the practitioners through the semi-structured interview form created from the open-ended questionnaire. The qualitative data were analyzed with the content analysis method, using Nvivo 8.0 software. The participants suggested that AR would be more influential in the educational fields of science education, social studies, and health education. Among the most important instructional materials to be developed with AR technology are 3D materials, videos, and animations. The participants suggested that AR could be useful in the development of special applications for other fields of education. For example, AR could be used to create magic books, 3D demonstrations related to different subjects, and experimental simulations in the field of science education. Moreover, the participants suggested that AR could provide system design enhancements to better attract users’ attention, to improve retention, to increase user motivation, and to “concretize” virtually presented information by creating a fuller sense of reality in terms of educational. Lastly, in order to develop an AR application, several points must be considered in the stages of analysis, design, development, and implementation. We present these points for consideration in detail. The results obtained in this study can be used to guide future research studies on AR technology.