In recent years, we have seen dramatic changes in global education, specifically in E-learning due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, students and people in many countries who have been in lockdown were forced to learn and work from home.
In E-learning, this has resulted in triggering off the concerns of applying sought-after technologies in learning online. Augmented Reality (AR), which is one of the most powerful and potential educational technologies, is transforming the way we study online.
In this article, we will get into more details about Augmented Reality technology, its roles in E-learning, and its potential development in this domain in the next years.
What is Augmented Reality (AR) technology?
Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that allows people to have interactive experiences of the real world thanks to digital content like sounds, images, or other computer-generated perceptual information.
So we can apply AR technology in many aspects of our life like interior designs, car mechanics, medical training, games like "Pokemon Go!", online learning, and more.
How is AR technology leveraged in online learning?
In the field of online education, there are three major ways that Augmented Reality has been revolutionizing E-learning.
First and foremost, learners have a great opportunity to be immersed in a real atmosphere and in turn, they are stimulated to be proactive in approaching knowledge they concern.
Furthermore, AR contributes to creating a wide range of knowledge and information in such vivid and creative ways through animation videos. Learning materials and lessons become more visual and easier for learners to understand and excited about using these things for improving their knowledge in any certain objects.
Last but not least, learners can feel they’re truly involved in a physical atmosphere even though they are studying at home and probably sit in front of the screens. Instilling this sense into learners will help them avoid distractions and boredom during an online lesson.
Overall, leveraging AR in online learning places students in an immersive virtual environment and visualizes complex objects or abstract topics in order to increase their engagement levels and transform their performance as well.
The future of AR in E-learning
It is believed that modern educational technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) will allow learners from every corner of the world to have equitable access to optimum technologies in distance learning. Indeed, they have considerably recalibrated our perception about E-learning, especially during lockdowns attributable to the COVID-19 pandemics.
However, learners will need more time to get used to leveraging these technologies in their online learning. In the following years, the combination of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will be applied more in online courses and become more prevalent among learners as an imperative change to improve the quality of E-learning.
