Augmented Reality in Informal Learning Environments: Investigating Short- term and Long-term Effects

While many researchers have qualitatively examined the affordances and constraints of AR in educational settings, only few studies exist that tried to quantify the effect of AR on learning performance. To contribute to filling this research gap, we conducted a pretest-posttest-posttest crossover field experiment with 24 participants at a mathematics exhibition to measure the effect of AR on acquiring and retaining mathematical knowledge in an informal learning environment, both short-term (i.e., directly after visiting the exhibition) and long-term (i.e., two months after the museum visit). Our empirical results show that museum visitors performed significantly better on knowledge acquisition and retention tests related to augmented exhibits than to non-augmented exhibits directly after visiting the exhibition (i.e., short-term), but this positive effect of AR vanished in the long run.