Augmented Reality in Higher Education: The New Reality of Teaching and Learning during and Post-COVID-19

The impressive development of augmented reality (AR) tools in higher education is instructive. AR applications and activities have not yet been reviewed in their entirety. Lecturers need to take full advantage of AR. The critical questions of this study include whether university lecturers are ready to use AR to drive and complement their teaching and social and cognitive presence with online and hybrid or blended learning, as well as the challenges of AR in teaching and learning. The structure is based on a broad literature review, and the presentation is domesticated. First, COVID-19 and higher education background and associated crisis response and management are discussed. Then the existing challenges of online and blended learning are outlined. AR and associated projections are unpacked, followed by an illumination of AR teaching and activities and challenges. A review of existing literature frames a high fragmentation among various tools, software, and AR apps, leading to increased complexity for adapting the systems to teaching and learning. The discussion illuminates the shortcomings of AR. There is a need for a well-thought-out approach to integrating AR apps into online and blended learning in higher education, addressing stakeholder needs, diversity, and inclusion and expanding a critical discussion on transformative AR teaching and learning. This article outlines the associations between subsets of this body of work on AR activities in teaching and learning in higher education and highlights existing challenges for a multidisciplinary higher education community.