Measuring the Effects of Usability Issues Affecting an Enjoyable Learning Experience – a Path Analysis Approach

Educational applications based on augmented reality (AR) are integrating real objects into a computer environment thus creating a more engaging and enjoyable learning environment for students. The interaction with real objects in an AR setting may lead to usability problem that affect the extent to which the user learning experience is perceived as enjoyable. The objective of this paper is to measure and analyze the negative influence of usability issues on the perceived enjoyment of using a Chemistry AR-based application. In order to better understand and explain students’ perceptions by measuring both direct and indirect effects a two-step approach was taken. During the first step a prediction model is developed based on multi-level multiple linear regression. In the second step the model is refined and estimated using path analysis. The results revealed four factors having a significant influence: quality of the seethrough screen, ease of reading the information on the screen, ease of Chemical elements selection, and fatigue.