Remote Assistance System in Augmented Reality for Early School Dropout Prevention

Abstract

The educational system suffers from early school dropout (i.e. graduation of the 8th grade at most), which is critical in Romania by its magnitude (16.4% in 2018). Unequal access to resources in education, the gap between rural and urban areas and the integration issue of the Roma population are challenges that result in deeper inequalities in society as a whole. Although many reforms have been applied and the budget for education kept increasing lately, Romania did not reach (or even get close to) any of the EU educational targets set for 2020 (i.e. 10% for early school dropout). The current situation of the education demands that more modern solutions should be discussed. In this paper, we propose an innovative technical system which facilitates remote learning experiences, especially for pupils with learning difficulties. We aim to explore the use of Augmented Reality (AR) to promote virtual co-location in education. That means, remote teachers can reach rather isolated pupils more easily and can smoothly engage in collaborative learning sessions. It is our belief that such an approach has the potential to reduce the risk of early school dropout.