University creative shops are exploring whether they can get into the game of producing AR-enhanced experiences: campus tours, interactive gaming, virtual laboratories, exploratory art spaces, simulations, design labs, online / offline / blended teaching and learning modules, and other AR applications. This work offers a basic environmental scan of the AR space for online teaching and learning, and it includes pedagogical design leads from the current research, technological knowhow, hands-on design / development / deployment of learning objects, and online teaching and learning methods.

1. Getting Started with Augmented Reality
(AR) in Online Teaching and Learning in
Higher Education:
An Extended Environmental Scan for Pedagogical Design Leads
Shalin Hai-Jew
Kansas State University

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3. Overview
• University creative shops are exploring whether they can get into the
game of producing AR-enhanced experiences: campus tours,
interactive gaming, virtual laboratories, exploratory art spaces,
simulations, design labs, online / offline / blended teaching and
learning modules, and other AR applications.
• This work offers a basic environmental scan of the AR space for
online teaching and learning, and it includes pedagogical design leads
from the current research, technological knowhow, hands-on design /
development / deployment of learning objects, and online teaching and
learning methods.
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5. Where the Information Comes From
• The presenter / author conducted a systematic review of the
literature in late 2022 - early 2023 in order to capture the state-of-
the-art of AR in higher education.
• From the review, she wrote a chapter for an edited text summarizing
the findings.
• This slideshow shares some of the acquired insights.
• Note: This slideshow is not about specific technologies or builds but
is a more generalist approach.
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6. What Mix of Realities?
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8. Mixes of Realities and Imaginaries
Fully Real
Environment
(unaugmented,
undiminished, or
unmediated by the
virtual)
Augmented (or
Enriched) Reality,
Diminished Reality (+
or -, or mixture of +
and -)
(multimodal and
multimedia)
Augmented Reality,
Diminished Reality,
Augmented Virtuality,
Diminished Virtuality,
Mixed Modalities
Augmented Virtuality,
Diminished Virtuality
(+ or -, or mixture of +
and -)
(multimodal and
multimedia)
Fully Virtual
Environment
(unaugmented,
undiminished, or
unmediated from the
real)
Full-surround real
world without inputs
from digital or
computational systems
(becoming rarer)
Virtual objects
emplaced on real
scenes; perceptual
inputs from both the
real-world surround
and digital and
computational systems
simultaneously
Cobbled AR, VR, MR, in
a coherent and
cohesive experience
Real-informed objects
placed in virtual
scenes; perceptual
inputs from both the
virtual world surround
and real-world inputs
such as data,
visualizations, and
other often real-time
and automated
streams
Full-surround virtual
world without inputs
from the real-world
except for human-
embodied avatar-
based characters
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9. A Basic Definition
• Augmented reality meets three requirements.
1. It combines the real and the virtual.
2. It is interactive in real time.
3. It registers in three dimensions.
• This is from R.T. Azuma in 1997.
• Note that particular technologies are not specified in terms of AR. A
wide range of technologies are used in this space.
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10. Some Cases…to Get Started
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12. Case #1: Object Assembly
• “AR” as a term originated in the 1990s and is credited to an employee
at the Boeing Company. Their initial use case was to enable the
superimposing of visuals to enable workers to lay cable exactly as
needed.
• This industrial application applies now to a range of fields.
• In augmented reality learning, students may use head-mounted
displays (HMDs), immersive virtual worlds, mobile-device-based
holograms…to assemble objects or to troubleshoot issues.
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13. Case #2: AR Labs and AR Fieldwork
• In institutions of higher education, AR is used for dedicated lab
experiments (with particular focal topics and defined steps).
• There are also general labs that enable a range of simulated
experiments that enable learners to go through particular ranges of
procedures and see certain results and acquire learning feedback.
• Similarly, AR fieldwork may be simulated, too, for learners to capture
AR-based virtual samples, virtual measurements, virtual photos,
virtual field notes, and so on.
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14. Case #2: AR Labs and AR Fieldwork(cont.)
• The labs and fieldwork may be set up for individual experiences
(including with some non-playable characters or pedagogical
agents)…or the engagement of multiple learners simultaneously
(including in a hybrid format).
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15. Case #2: AR Labs and AR Fieldwork(cont.)
• Such AR labs and AR fieldwork can enable safe learning when the
similar labs and fieldwork may be much more risky.
• These AR labs and fieldwork save on costs.
• These AR labs and fieldwork ensure the repeatability of experiences.
• When designed correctly, these AR labs and fieldwork are more
broadly accessible than some in-world experiences.
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16. Case #3: Skills Acquisition with AR
• AR enables various types of skills acquisition, such as learning musical
instruments (guitar, piano, and others), using workplace equipment,
painting, dancing, and others.
• Some AR apps provide feedback to the learners on their learning and
performance.
• AR enables embodied and kinesthetic learning.
• AR is about 2d, 3d, and 4d, as well as other dimensions.
• AR enables the harnessing of audiovisual (textual, still imagery,
motion imagery, video, sound, and various combinations) and data
(dynamic data feeds), and other contents.
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17. Case #4: Wayfinding and Navigation
• AR enables various forms of wayfinding, both indoors (such as in
buildings, in built spaces) and outdoors (such as in various small
through terra-scale locations).
• The navigation may be for pedestrians and for drivers (and for pilots,
and others).
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18. Case #5: Charming Potential Learners
• AR helps drive learner attention.
• AR charms learners into learning the new technologies, so that
learning can be achieved.
• AR sometimes enables immersion and deeper learner engagement.
• AR has long had usage in entertainment in games, in virtual worlds, in
museum installations, in art installations, in personal expression, and
others.
• Aesthetics are important in AR since visuals are such a core part of the related
technologies.
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19. Case #6: High-Touch Instructor-Led Teaching
• Various courses are held using augmented reality (AR), with the
instructor seen as a 3d personage and conducting the course with
students live as 3d personages (representations).
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20. Case #7: Social Foreign Language Learning
and Practice
• AR spaces have been designed to enable learners to immerse in
environments depicting different cultural settings for language
learning and practice.
• In some cases, scripted or synthetic agents interact with them…and
there may be feedback based on the learner’s voice responses, for
example.
• In some cases, multiple learners and teachers may be in the
environment simultaneously. Their “telepresence” may be
communicated in different ways in AR.
• There may be dynamic or static labeling of various objects and
phenomena in the environment for textual language learning.
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21. Case #7: Social Foreign Language Learning
and Practice (cont.)
• Proper pronunciations may be made available for various
terminology.
• Various scenarios may be portrayed to offer up variety of contexts (in-
situ learning) for the learning.
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22. Case #8: Place- and Space-Based Learning
• On terra-scale, learners may use various mobile devices (smart
phones) and apps in order to see what others have “educached” in
different physical locations around the world. (These are educational
contents that are “geocached” in various locations around the world
and available using particular apps and devices.)
• AR is not just about formal (accredited), nonformal (unaccredited)
learning…but is also about informal (incidental) learning, which
occurs in normal life interactions (outside of courses).
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23. Case #9: AR in E-books and E-textbooks
• AR objects (animations mostly, some interactive elements) have been
built into both print and electronic books.
• These are also built into handouts, posters, flyers, and other traditionally print
materials.
• The animations highlight important points for storytelling (narration)
and for learning.
• These are in children’s books as well as adult ones. They are in books
read for entertainment and textbooks read for learning.
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25. Case #9: Built Learning Spaces
• Some types of AR learning may be built to scale, such as having a
physical room built out with projectors, speakers, and other content
that may be experienced with the unaided eyes and ears.
• Some are tactual spaces, with tangibles and built-ins to the physical
space that also harness touch.
• Built installations may come in various forms: art installations,
dioramas, and others.
• Some AR may not only augment and enrich a physical space, but it
may hide or diminish or occlude physical objects (in a form of
mediated reality).
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26. Case #9: Built Learning Spaces(cont.)
• Built AR spaces may be explored in sequence (with directed
navigation)…or they may be explored in a self-discovery-based way, or
both.
• AR spaces may involve contents for different parts of the population,
such as including both adults and children in some AR-powered
museum exhibits.
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27. State of AR in Higher Education
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29. Lower-Cost and Easier-to-Use Tools
• Costs of some of the common commercial AR technologies have
come down.
• Authoring tools include digital image editing tools, motion design tools, video
editing tools, AR scene building tools, game engines, software development
kits (SDKs), dedicated platforms, and others.
• Users of AR may engage with head-mounted displays; mobile devices;
tangibles; tactual tools; virtual keyboards;
• hand gestures, voice, body motions, and others.
• The tools to build the AR have become simpler, including the ability
for visual programming. There are some pre-built objects. There are
scripted motions. There are scripted behaviors for 3d objects.
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30. High-End Tools Exist, Too
• There are various high-end AR tools that enable mid-air imaging in
outdoor spaces.
• High-end tools enable automated adjustments based on light-
sampling from various devices.
• High-end tools enable scans of physical spaces to create 3d point
clouds…but some other high-end tools also enable the capture of
actual editable entire real-world light fields.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (data pattern
identification) have been integrated in various AR setups.
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31. Accessibility and AR
• AR learning itself is considered “assistive” since it provides a range of
supports to learners (when designed correctly).
• Work on accessibility in AR is advancing.
• All the basic understandings for universal design apply to the AR
space.
• Information should be conveyed in multiple ways.
• People should be able to engage the interactive AR in multiple ways.
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32. Accessibility and AR(cont.)
• Then, there are additional considerations given the limits of human
vision (in AR spaces), the limits of human hearing (in AR spaces)…and
given the limits of technologies to convey the “light field” (AR tends
to be low-res, transparent; digital visuals in natural light may not
show up well), etc.
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33. AR Efficacy for Teaching and
Learning
It depends…
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34. Secret Box
…in a virtual room…
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35. AR Efficacy for Teaching and Learning
• Some researchers have tested whether AR enhances learning. AR
requires higher cognitive load to engage and often requires more
mental processing time.
• In some cases, AR enhances learning; in others it does not.
• There are a variety of research methods in this space: controlled
experiments, psychophysiological measures, qualitative research, and
others. Trace data in some AR systems are also used.
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36. Some Tailwinds Pro-AR for Learning
• There is a lot of superb research on human perception and sensory
processing.
• There is a lot of superb research on human learning.
• Practitioners have already started exploring this space from about
2010 onwards…although the earliest research is from 1990s.
• There are some quality checklists for AR objects for learning in the
research literature (Derby & Chaparro, 2022 especially).
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37. Some Headwinds Anti-AR for Learning
• AR sometimes evokes “cybersickness” or “simulation sickness” in
users.
• There are some mitigations, such as keeping such experiences short…and
controlling for flicker rates…and aligning motions, among others.
• Costs are prohibitive. Third-party companies charge in the six figures
for various objects. Setting up an AR shop in a university will require
hiring skilled staff, dedicating space, purchasing equipment and
software, and other investments.
• Expertise is in short supply in this space. The literature also suggests
that there are few university programs to train up designers,
developers and deployers of AR.
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38. Some Headwinds Anti-AR for Learning (cont.)
• All legal requirements for educational materials—intellectual property
(incl. copyright), privacy protections, publication and media laws,
accessibility requirements, and others—apply to AR learning
materials.
• AR may experience the “fast fires” of digital materials given the quick
changes in technologies.
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39. Applied Learning Theories
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40. Applied Learning Theories
• The academic literature lists various applied learning theories:
• Experiential learning (incl. Kolb’s experiential learning cycle)
• Kinesthetic and embodied learning
• Inquiry learning
• Exploratory learning
• Active learning
• Action research
• Learning-by-doing
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41. Relevant Models
• Two models apply particularly to the technology and learning:
• Cognitive theory of multimedia learning
• Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP)
• Perhaps the multiple intelligences model may also be applied.
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42. Core Identified Role-Based Functions
Required in Cross-Functional Teams
to Design-Develop-Deploy AR for
Learning
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43. Role-Based Functions Required
• Subject matter expert(s)/ content
expert(s)
• Grant writer(s) Researcher
• Researcher(s)
• Scout(s)
• Instructional designer(s)
(stylebook, sketching,
storyboarding, prototyping)
• Photographer(s)
• Scanner(s)
• Writer(s), documenter(s)
• 3d designer(s) / programmer(s) /
art director(s)
• Character designer(s)
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44. Role-Based Functions Required (cont.)
• Digital artist(s) / wireframer(s)
• Sound engineer(s) / designer(s)
• Motion (animation) designer(s)
• Multimedia / audiovisual
designer(s)
• Interface designer(s)
• Location scout(s) (location design,
spatial design, scene design)
• Experience designer(s)
• Alpha (α) tester(s)
• Accessibility expertise
• Beta (β) tester(s)
• Usability expertise
• Legal counsel (for reference)
• And others…
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46. Conclusion and Contact
• Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew
• ITS
• Kansas State University
• 785-532-5262
• shalin@ksu.edu
• The chapter is under review currently. For more information, please
look around for the chapter, or reach out to the author. Thanks!
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