Unit 3: Bringing AR to Your Classroom
In this Unit we will take the necessary steps for your to start experimenting with Augmented Reality in your college classroom.
- Identifying a learning outcome and activity that could benefit from an AR experience and assessing your situation
- Identifying an app that has the necessary features to create the AR experience
- Tips on how to get started with using AR in teaching
Assessing your situation
Opportunity to create a meaningful experience? As we have seen from the use cases in previous units, AR experiences add the most value when they provide a spatial and "below the surface" view of reality that is otherwise not easily visible in real life in the same place and time as the learning is happening either remotely or in person. For example: going beneath the surface of the skin to study anatomy or the working of the various bodily systems; studying the positions and movement of stellar objects, or visualizing physics phenomena such as electromagnetics, linear and angular movement, adding depth to historical events to better understand the context and reality in that period of time.
Another meaningful application of AR could be to teach students how to develop an AR experience in an area in which AR technology is an integral part. For example, in marketing, real estate, architecture, interior design, fashion and other such service oriented industries, AR is being used extensively to enhance the customer experience. In these fields, it might be useful for the student to not only know how to use the AR app, but also build or modify it, assess it and develop implementation scenarios.
Can you identify such a need in your course? Are you able to meet that need using traditional methods? If yes, will AR enhance the experience?
Are your students ready? How tech savvy are your students? will introducing AR in the lesson plan cause stress and anxiety and distract from learning or will it be viewed as an interesting and fun addition? Will your students will have access to mobile devices with sufficient CPU and other sensors needed to experience AR? Reliable wifi or data with sufficient bandwidth to experience the AR activities in their personal spaces?
Are you ready? Do you have the support structure needed to devote the time needed to implement AR in your lesson? Incorporating a new tech in your course will take time to discover, learn, experiment, test, and develop appropriate activities. It is likely that you will need technical help from someone who might know about coding and app development, and from those who can help and support students as they learn how to use the AR. If some programming is required, do you have the skills or do you have access to someone who does?
Is your administration supportive? Making a change like this could mean that the first attempt is not as successful as you would like. Students might get frustrated, there might be cost overruns and delays in the lesson; course evaluation might go down. Is your administration supportive of you taking this risk? Cost is an important consideration. Most apps have free versions but with limited functionality. Your students will either need to purchase the full version of the app or the institution will need to pay for it. Make sure that this is communicated and arranged in advance.
Identifying an AR Application/Software to Meet your Need
This is probably the most difficult part of the whole effort.
There are an overwhelming number of AR toolkits, either proprietary or open-sourced, in the market, providing different feature sets under various licenses, of varying quality. You will need to fully evaluate those licenses before publishing the course especially when the product is intended to be published publicly.
With open-sourced toolkits the challenge can be to find sufficient resources and support of the toolkit, e.g., the completeness of documentation, tech support, user base support, upgrade support, etc.
If you plan to use AR applications on smartphones, it will be important to make sure that the AR works equally well on the new as well as older versions of iOS and Android systems; it will be necessary to conduct UAT on various phones with various specifications.
If you are teaching biology, chances are that you will find an AR app that comes with full functionality, as the life sciences field has been the first adopter of AR in education, and the content in this discipline is quite good. For most other disciplines it is likely that you will need to start with a AR Software Development Kit (SDK) which can help you develop the AR experience. A Software development kit is a collection of software tools that assist developers to write software programs. It has many application development components such as an editor, a compiler, a linker, a visual screen builder and many more. Most SDKs do not require sophisticated computer programming skills; but some level of tech savviness will help to learn the software and use it effectively.
We will list only a few of the most popular SDKs here. Some are open source and some need to be licensed. There are many lists and recommendations out there. You can visit https://www.g2.com/categories/ar-sdk or https://www.thevrara.com/blog2/2021/10/26/9-desktop-ar-platforms-to-bring-ar-content-in-the-classroom for some recommendations.
AR Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Platforms
ARToolKit ARToolKit is a popular open source SDK used for creating AR apps that overlay virtual imagery on the physical environment. It is fast, intuitive, and cross-platform—you can use it on Linux, iOS, Android, and Windows and various smart glasses. One of the main problems when building AR apps is effectively tracking the user's viewpoint. Before an app can determine the specifics of the viewpoint to draw the virtual imagery, it must establish the user's position in the physical world. To address this issue, ARToolKit uses complex computer vision methodologies, which allow development of an extensive range of AR applications. Other features available in ARToolKit include tracking of planar images, plugins for Unity, support for camera orientation tracking, and simple camera calibration code.
AR.js https://aframe.io/blog/arjs/ AR.js is an open source Augmented Reality solution on the Web. It runs 100% in your web browser, this means no app to install! There is no need for a specific device either. It runs on all mobile platforms: Android, iOS11 and Windows mobile. Open source documentation is all available on github.
Google's AR Core https://arvr.google.com/arcore/ARCore enables developers to build AR apps that utilize the features of the mobile device to sense and augment real world environments transforming them into interactive, creative AR scenes that serve multiple purposes. The three most important capabilities of the ARCore are motion tracking, light estimatio n, and environmental understanding
Wikitude AR SDK [1] Wikitude SDK is an Augmented Reality development kit that supports smartphones, tablets and smart glasses and is compatible with multiple platforms and frameworks such as Android, iOS, Windows, React native, Iconic, Titanium and many more. The location-based feature in Wikitude AR SDK assists developers to create multiple location-based markers and this helps app users to interact with the augmentations overlaying them. The image recognition feature helps in recognizing up to 1000 images without any network connection but for a larger project where there are thousands of such images, Wikitude SDK comes with cloud-based recognition feature. This makes a high recognition rate. Object Recognition feature in Wikitude AR SDK provides app users a holistic real-time AR experience around real-time objects pre-defined by users. And with Scene Recognition feature, developers can even identify, track and augment bigger objects, rooms, and scenes.
Open Space 3D https://www.openspace3d.com/ Source: https://blog.verbat.com/open-source-ar-sdks-2019/
Metaverse (/https://studio.gometa.io/landing) Metaverse is an augmented reality program that allows teachers and students to create their own Metaverse experiences. A Metaverse experience covers a variety of AR activities, from games and quizzes to scavenger hunts and stories. Teachers can gamify their lessons while students can create their own games to show what they’ve learned (plus learn some basic coding along the way). various SDks such as ARCore, ARkit etc can be used in the Metaverse to create experiences.
JigSpace (https://jig.space) JigSpace is like an encyclopedia of AR 3D models. Students can view an exploded view of an engine or cross section of a heart through the free app’s model library. Teachers and more advanced students can also upload their own 3D objects to view as well. With these models, teachers can create AR learning presentations around a certain topic and students can share what they’ve learned with each other.
MERGE Cube (https://mergeedu.com/cube) MERGE cubes are foam cubes that work with AR applications and 3D software so students can “hold” the 3D objects in their hands. It’s a way for students to have hands-on experience using the power of AR to change what they see and interact with, all depending on the lesson. Teachers can use a library of already-made models in combination with the Merge app to augment their lessons but both students and teachers can also hold models that they’ve made. Provided ID could not be validated.
Apple ARKit [2] Th SK will allow the AR mobile app developer to create Augmented Reality solutions for iOS devices and Mac OS. It has a shared Augmented Reality feature, now multiple users can use the iOS device and experience the AR simultaneously. AR experiences can persist between sessions and can be resumed back at a later time. It also offers a full 2D image tracking feature. This helps users to incorporate movable objects like product boxes or magazines into your AR experiences. With the help of this AR SDK, users can detect known 3D objects such as toys, furniture and so on. The Quick Look objects feature helps users to view 3D objects in the real world.
Vuforia AR SDK [3] Vuforia AR SDK is a licensed SDK. It identifies and tracks planar images and 3D objects in real time by the use of computer vision technology. It offers APIs in multiple programming languages such as C++, Java, Objective C++ and .Net languages. This AR SDK has an additional feature named Occlusion which identifies and tracks targets even if the target is partially hidden behind some kind of barrier.
Zappar https://www.g2.com/products/zapworks/reviews provides SDKs, computer vision libraries, AR creative tools, CMS and data dashboards and, like many other licensed products, provides end to end design and creative services (mainly for corporations!). Its authoring and developer tools are considered to be user friendly and effective.
The Unity game engine: One of the ways in which AR experiences can be particularly engaging is by gamifying the experience, as we saw in one of the case studies earlier. This can also be a way to build in assessment into the lesson. Several gaming platforms are available to create engaging games in 2D and 3D. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_(game_engine) The engine can be used to create three-dimensional (3D) and two-dimensional (2D) games, as well as interactive simulations and other experiences. The engine has been adopted by industries outside video gaming, such as film, automotive, architecture, engineering, construction, and the United States Armed Forces. It is sometimes used with other AR SDKs such as Vuforia.
How to get started?
It can be overwhelming to figure out how to start. Online help and advice is plentiful! Here are some ways in which you can get started. Read the references below for more detailed advice.
- Reach out for inspiration: Research applications of AR in your discipline and reach out to them to learn about their experience, tips and dos and don'ts. Most faculty will be very willing to share their experience and even share lesson plans or have you participate as a student to learn about the experience.
- Seek help from the Teaching Innovation Center and other departments: most universities have staff in a Teaching Support Center who are knowledgeable about learning technologies and can help you in your lesson planning, researching the apps and partnering with you in building solutions or piloting. In some cases, the Computer science department or digital media department faculty or graduate students might be interested in partnering with you to implement AR in your teaching. Seek out faculty at your institution who have expertise in a related area and reach out to them for collaboration.
- Students as Collaborators: Students can be excellent collaborators in this type of effort. Start by introducing the technology to students. They can participate in discussing the importance of this technology for their learning, and on the best ways to use the tools in lessons. Student collaboration can be a powerful engagement motivator, transforming basic lessons into a supercharged classroom. Plus, you might find that some of your students might be excellent coders or designers and can help to develop or enhance the AR experience. It might also be helpful to have students from another class who have used AR come and talk to your students about their experience.
- Get buy in from your department/college: It is always good to make sure that you have the support of your leadership when you embark on a new teaching method, so that they can provide the physical, financial and professional support should you need it. Plus, it might inspire others to try it! Do it once you know what you want to do,
- Pick the Right Tools: Described in the section above
- Play with it: Download several AR apps and play with them to understand the ins and outs of how they work. Try your hand at building simple AR experiences in Meta.
- Start small: If possible, start small by introducing a simple activity in your classroom to warm up the students and your teaching staff and to gauge the level of engagement and the learning curve for you and your students.
- Plan for feedback: As you implement the AR, continue to get feedback from your students to determine whether they perceive the AR experience as an enhancement in their learning. Plan formative assessments to gauge the attainment of learning objectives, so that you can see if the effort and technology are yielding the results you seek.
- Be Patient: Jumping into immersive technology can be exciting, but despite all planning, there are no guarantees that any planning will avoid potential problems. Be patient of yourself and your students and be willing to adjust the lesson plans or use of technology as your situation requires.
- Have a Plan B: If possible, have a Plan B in case the AR experience starts to go south because of unexpected difficulties.
Reflection
GO back to the Jamboard that you started at the beginning of this lesson and record the following:
- The lesson or lessons that you are planning to use with AR
- Learning outcomes for the lesson, assessment planned and the high level plan for learning activities
- Challenges and questions that are coming up in your mind as you plan
In a separate planning sheet,
- Identify the educators who haves used AR similarly in their teaching. reach out to them and set up time to discuss. Note the questions you will ask
- Set up time with the Teaching Center and Technology Support teams and record what you learn from them about collaboration.
- Download apps and SDKs that seem relevant to your discipline and start playing with them to get first hand experience of good and clunky AR experiences.
⇐ Unit 2: All about Augmented Reality
Resources
Everything You Need to Know to Get Started With AR/VR in the Classroom | EdSurge News