Abstract
This review paper presents a systematic literature review on the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in engineering education, and specifically in student’s spatial ability training, for the last decade. Researchers have explored the benefits of AR, and its application has been of increasing interest in all levels of education. Engineering students tend to have difficulties in acquiring visualization skills, and hence, AR is gaining momentum in enhancing students’ learning achievements. This paper aims to present valuable information to researchers, tutors and software developers of learning technology systems concerning the advantages and limitations of AR in spatial ability training, the incorporation of adaptivity and personalization in AR applications as well as the aspects of spatial ability having been evaluated using AR and the prevalent evaluation methods for AR applications. To this direction, a total of thirty-two (32) studies were reviewed, having been published since 2010. The findings reveal an increase in the number of studies during the last three years. One major conclusion is the improvement of learners’ spatial ability using AR in educational settings, and the noted challenge is the need for more learning content. One research gap that has been identified is the lack of personalization in the developed applications, offering space for future research. Concluding, this area is under-researched, and thus, there is scope for a lot of improvement.
Highlights
In engineering education, the enhancement of the visualization skills of the students is essential for the development of the design skills in many fields of engineering (Ali et al, 2017b; Serdar et al, 2013)
The first evaluation criterion analyzed in this systematic literature review deals with the reported advantages of Augmented Reality (AR) in spatial abilities’ training
General reviews of AR applications focusing on education have been made; there is absence of systematic literature review when it comes to the use of AR in spatial ability training
Summary
The enhancement of the visualization skills of the students is essential for the development of the design skills in many fields of engineering (Ali et al, 2017b; Serdar et al, 2013). Engineering drawing is the first course offered to students in engineering faculties in order to provide the basics of engineering education. Engineering drawing plays an important role towards the efforts in improving students’ spatial ability. Spatial ability may be defined as the ability to generate, retain, retrieve, and transform well-structured visual images. Spatial ability is not a unitary construct. There are, several spatial abilities, emphasizing different aspects of the process of image generation, storage, retrieval, and transformation. Spatial abilities are pivotal constructs of all models of human abilities (Lohman, 1996)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have