In addition to forcing much of the world's work force to stay at home, the coronavirus pandemic has also given rise to a new way of teaching students via remote education. However, this new way of teaching has its obstacles including keeping students focused and engaged. To help with this, Purdue University researchers have developed an app platform called MetaAR, which allows students and teachers to collaborate using augmented reality (AR).
AR uses digital content and presents it as an overlay onto the physical world, differing from virtual reality (VR), which is entirely digital content. AR can be generated on devices such as a smartphone or tablet or through a head-mounted display.
“We’ve seen many applications in entertainment and advertising, which basically show you some sort of action projected onto real-world settings,” said Karthik Ramani, professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue. “But the key thing is for people to become part of the action. Augmented reality can see what you see. It can sense your hands and see how you are manipulating objects, which means AR can actually help you. It can learn from everyone, and everyone can learn from it. That’s why it’s ideal for education.”
Purdue set out to create AR content that is as simple to create as a PowerPoint file so that any instructor can train on MetaAR to create lesson plans and start collaborating in a virtual classroom.
The researchers built a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education kit — a model of a city to teach the basics of circuit boards with wooden pieces and conductive material where students would assemble streetlights and connect the circuits to make them light up. With the MetaAR software, researchers duplicated the pieces in 3D and created a lesson plan to teach students how to build the city. The virtual classroom showed how the physical pieces go together and how to connect the circuits.
In the virtual classroom, students can ask questions using video and images of their work and receive feedback or collaborate with other students.
“All of this happens in the cloud,” Ramani said, “Which means that the teacher no longer has to physically look over the shoulder of 40 different students. Both the teacher and the students can be located anywhere and get the same hands-on education. The teacher can be present during the session, or students can learn on their own with the lesson the teacher has already authored. Students can learn at their own pace. And teachers can incorporate feedback, in real time, to improve the lab.”
Ramani was surprised at how quickly the students took to collaborating by AR. “It seems like this generation was born with this technology,” he said. “They gave us very good feedback of what works and what doesn’t work, which helped us make our software even better.”
Purdue’s lab is also working on incorporating AR and VR into other real-world applications such as home repair or in the factory to learn how to operate equipment or repair machinery with assistance from technicians in another location. Future uses for AR could also include doctors and nurses training together to do robotic surgery or pilot a robot in the field.
