Assessing efficacy and students' perception on the use of augmented reality sandbox in secondary geography in Hong Kong /

Open in iSearch

Student Theses

2024

Tse, To Fun

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

Information and communication technologies have been rapidly developing and are currently adopted in many aspects of people's contemporary lives. With the goals to enhance students' interest and motivation in learning as well as their academic performance, the field of education has also been attempting to utilize various forms of modern technologies in and outside of classrooms. Among different forms of technology, interactive technologies, such as AR technology, have been one of the fastest growing and most popular forms, owing to the high level of interaction and the brand-new experiences that can be provided. AR technologies provide the feature of 3D visualization of virtual objects which is highly applicable to high school education in geology and geography.This study explores using an AR sandbox, an AR technology device designed to help create topography models with sand. In real-time, augmentation can be done to visualize contour lines, simulated water, and elevations to help create physical features within the device. Current studies that explore the use of AR sandbox have focused mainly on the practical applications of the device in terms of design, execution, and implementation, and the effectiveness of the device in enhancing students' learning performance and outcomes has rarely been studied. To measure students' performance, a pre-test and post-test assessment analysis, a questionnaire survey, and a semi-structured group interview were conducted to collect the relevant data. A total of 126 students from 7 local secondary schools were recruited to participate in the study. Students were randomly allocated to classes in two formats and two geographical topics, including a traditional class and an AR sandbox class to compare the traditional and interactive technology approaches in teaching. The two geographical topics were map reading and farming. To further understand how the device may improve students' performance in class, the potential determinants of the enhancement in students' learning outcomes, the learning attitude, learning motivations, and sociodemographic characteristics were also explored by drawing links between these determinants and students' learning outcomes. An in-depth interview was also conducted with geography teachers of the seven schools to glean the perception of the geography teachers' interests, intentions, barriers, and difficulties in adopting AR sandbox in their classroom teaching.The comparisons of students' pre-test and post-test assessment performance in the traditional and AR sandbox classes showed that 1) AR sandbox was effective in enhancing students' learning outcome, particularly in the map reading, 2) students generally performed better in the AR sandbox class than the traditional classes in terms of mean scores, and 3) the effectiveness of AR sandbox varies with topics, where AR sandbox was found only to be partly effective in enhancing students' performance for the farming topic. The findings implied that AR sandbox could be an effective technology in teaching. However, it is also essential to take into account its application in terms of the geographical topics to be taught.In the analysis of the impacts of potential determinants on students' learning outcomes, findings generally indicated that students with more active learning attitudes and motivations by satisfaction and interest performed better in terms of their perceived learning efficacy. It was also found that students with greater motivation for attaining good grades in exams were performing more poorly. Findings in this part implied that the AR sandbox could have bridged the gap between students with varying learning attitudes and motivations. Both students and teachers agreed that the AR sandbox could be a useful tool for the enhancement of geography lessons. However, teachers highlighted a number of barriers and challenges to the implementation of such new technology in classroom teaching. Finally, the current study's limitations were discussed, and relevant recommendations were given for future research

LG51.H48 Dr 2024eb Tsetf

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/c5qzyNKd