AREL – Augmented Reality–based enriched learning experience

Abstract

In the present era, teaching can occur either on a chalkboard or on a projected powerpoint presentation on the wall. Traditional teaching methods such as blackboards and powerpoint presentations are being phased out in favor of enriched learning experiences provided by emerging edtech. With the closure of schools due to COVID-19, the demand for online educational platforms has also increased. Furthermore, some of the recent trends in edtech include personalized learning, gamification and immersive learning with eXtended Reality (XR) technologies. Due to its immersive experience, XR is a pioneering technology in education, with multiple benefits including greater motivation, a positive attitude toward learning, concrete learning of abstract concepts, and so on. Existing Augmented Reality (AR) based education applications often rely on unimodal input such as marker-based trigger to launch the educational content. Hence, this work proposes a multi-modal interface to enable the content delivery through marker and speech recognition-based content delivery. Additionally, the proposed work is designed as mobile based AR platform with the regional language support to increase the ubiquitous accessibility of the AR content. Thus, the proposed mobile AR based enriched learning (AREL) platform provides a multi-modal mobile based educational AR platform for primary students. Based on the feedback received after the usage, it is observed that AREL improves the learning experience of the students.