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Augmented Reality (AR) technology offers the possibility of experiencing virtual images with physical objects and provides high quality hands-on experiences in an engineering lab environment. However, students still need help navigating the educational content in AR environments due to a mismatch problem between computer-generated 3D images and actual physical objects. This limitation could significantly influence their learning processes and workload in AR learning. In addition, a lack of student awareness of their learning process in AR environments could negatively impact their performance improvement. To overcome those challenges, we introduced a virtual instructor in each AR module and asked a metacognitive question to improve students’ metacognitive skills. The results showed that student workload was significantly reduced when a virtual instructor guided students during AR learning. Also, there is a significant correlation between student learning performance and workload when they are overconfident. The outcome of this study will provide knowledge to improve the AR learning environment in higher education settings.
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The Effects of a Virtual Instructor with Realistic Lip Sync in an Augmented Reality Environment
In this study, we explore the impact of incorporating a virtual instructor with realistic lip-syncing in an augmented reality (AR) learning environment. The study is particularly focused on understanding if this enhancement can reduce students’ mental workload and improve system usability and performance in AR learning. The research stems from previous feedback indicating that a virtual instructor without facial movements was perceived as “creepy” and “distracting.” The updated virtual instructor includes facial animations, such as blinking and synchronized lip movements, especially during lecture explanations. The study aims to determine if there are significant changes in mental workload and usability differences between the AR systems with and without the enhanced virtual instructor. The study found significant differences in the usability scores in some questions. However, there was no significant difference in the mental workload between them.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2202108
- PAR ID:
- 10643765
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Nature Switzerland
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 978-3-031-61041-7
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 3 to 12
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Book Chapter:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61041-7_1
