Visual Environment for Designing Interactive Learning Scenarios with Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) technology allows the inclusion of virtual elements on a vision of actual physical environment for the creation of a mixed reality in real time. This kind of technology can be used in educational settings. However, the current AR authoring tools present several drawbacks, such as, the lack of a mechanism for tracking the students’ activities, the capability of detecting collisions among virtual objects, allowing establish only one-to-one relationships between trackers and virtual objects, etc. In this paper, we present VEDILS, a visual tool based on the MIT App Inventor 2 environment for designing interactive learning scenarios that include Augmented Reality (AR) resources and can be deployed on Android devices. We have extended the App Inventor block language to include AR resources and obtain information about users’ interaction with such resources. Furthermore, a use scenario consisting in the development of an example of learning scenario for Engineering students is included. With this prototype students can visualize 3D models of the mechanical parts with augmented reality in a mobile device, providing a better perception of the model 3D shape and improving the ability of making the 2D orthographic views and perspectives that they study in the first year of mechanical engineer.