Studies on Learning Effects of AR-Assisted and PPT-Based Lectures

While common, computer presentations given during classroom lectures do not always improve learning effects; thus, this study incorporated three elements into technology-assisted classroom lectures: emphasis, augmentation, and integration. These three elements cannot be implemented simultaneously when using PowerPoint (PPT) presentations during classroom lectures. Therefore, the virtual and physical integration of augmented reality (AR) was employed to establish an assisted course lecturing tool for implementing these three elements. Teachers can refer to important content from textbooks (emphasis) while lecturing, and students can then use an AR device to scan the content and to call out related supplementary materials (augmentation) in facilitating their learning. These scanning and calling out functions of AR enable teachers to integrate technology-assisted tools with textbooks to enhance the effectiveness of classroom lectures. The pre- and posttest quasi-experimental research design was used to determine differences in the learning outcomes of two groups of AR-assisted and PPT-based course lectures. The experimental results indicate that the AR-assisted lecture was significantly more effective than the PPT-based lecture, and a similar result was obtained from a delayed test. According to interviews held with students, during the AR-assisted lecture, the students tended to focus on only one teaching medium and on the textbook content. By contrast, students of the PPT-based lecture became distracted while focusing on two different media sources simultaneously, resulting in the textbook content often being neglected.