Exploring the Educational Use of an Augmented Reality Books

This study aims at exploring and promoting the availability of AR books to augment real and physical books with virtual content for education. Above all, previously developed cases as well as literature review relating to AR books provide an introduction to what an AR book is and its educational effects and technical characteristics. To achieve this goal, we analyzed 13 research cases of developed AR books according to criteria of both educational and technical uses and examined needs of 42 education professionals via an online survey. Based on case analysis, AR books increase the educational effects on affordance, reading comprehension, memory, concentration, interactivity, problem solving, and imagination. It is found that they also enable students to engage in self-paced and level-differentiated learning. In terms of technical uses, AR books utilize mainly a tangible user interface while having various displays and markers owing to their unique technical features. Based on needs analysis, education professionals express the willingness to utilize AR books for educational purposes in spite of their low awareness of them. So in a nutshell, the results of the case and needs analyses suggest the potential of AR books to be applied to and used in educational environments. Therefore, successive studies on the instructional design and development of AR books along with empirical research on their multilateral learning effects are required. Introduction The rapid development of new digital devices and technology has offered both innovative opportunities and challenges for instructional designers and teachers. Among the newer types of digital media, Augmented Reality (AR) will become common. This type has been applied to numerous disciplines, including medicine, the military, engineering maintenance and repair, and entertainment. AR is an emerging technology tool that could afford a variety of learning opportunities to expand new interactive constructivist learning environments. Research in the field of AR is essentially technology-driven, which means that the needs and effectiveness of the educational applications remain undiscovered and a minor concern. Over the last two decades there have been numerous efforts and much prediction regarding the replacement of real books with digital equivalents such as electronic books (Grasset, Dunser, & Billinghurst, 2008). Along with the development of a variety of software content, the rapid growth of hardware such as e-Book readers, tablet PCs, netBooks, electronic ink (e-Link), and electronic paper (ePaper) transcend the limitations of paper books, which have the difficulty of updating the information with knowledge-centered, and one-sided, linear learning materials. However, not everyone welcomes the coming loss of paper-based books, which have the strengths of transportability, flexibility and robustness (Back, Cohen, Gold, Harrison, & Minneman, 2001; Marshall, 2005), as an electronic book is clearly not equivalent to a real book with real paper pages. With the help of the release of augmented reality books which combine digital content with physical analogue books, we don’t have to make an effort to choose e-Books or paper based books. Recently there are increasing numbers of cases of the research development of AR books by Korean and international computer science labs. However, the researchers tend to focus on the technical aspects of AR books, not educational ones. Thanks to the rapid development of information and communication equipment, not only handheld device, head mounted devices, and PCs but also smartphones include the display, marker, and camera features required for AR books. Therefore, it is becoming easier for AR books to be used for educational purposes. The aim of this study is to explore the potential effects of AR books in education. To achieve this goal, we examined works related to reviews on technological features and educational use and conducted a needs analysis to assess educators’ needs. A collective review of the study results, including a literature review and needs analysis, indicated that AR books have positive learning effects on both cognitive and affective domains, demonstrating their potential for use in classroom environments.