Use of Augmented Reality to Enhance the Student Experience.

As part of an Undergraduate Degree Course, the course team have been working to integrate the use of Augmented Reality (AR) into mainstream lectures to enhance the student learning experience. The work presented here details the process undertaken, the successes and problems encountered along the way and an evaluation of the impact it has had to date on engagement and understanding. Two main pieces of AR Software have been utilised in undertaking this work, Aurasma and colAR, both of which were chosen as they are available for all users free of charge in a basic form and they are accessible on most standard platforms. To date a variety of activities have been undertaken using these technologies and they have been proven to enhance the student experience in a variety of different ways. Examples include the ability to bring to life things which can only be taught and demonstrated in a virtual environment without the need for specialist tools and equipment. This work should be seen as the first piece in a sequence of events and studies to investigate how best AR Technologies can be used to support students in their studies, and subsequently the impact using it has on their own practice.