Paper: Understanding the Power of Augmented Reality for Learning

Gail Carmichael, Robert Biddle, David Mould. Understanding the Power of Augmented Reality for Learning (2012). World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education. Conference Paper

This paper provides a theoretical grounding that explains the underlying value of AR for learning and identify when it is a suitable interface. Also, they define four main categories of advantages of AR:

Reality for Free
* Content

* Behavior

* Multiple Senses

Virtual Flexibility
* Customization
* Impossibility

Invisible Interface
* Natural movement

* Single focus

Spatial Awareness
* Adjust to surroundings
* Align spatially

These advantages can be used to decide whether augmented reality is a good interface for a particular type of learning scenario.

Design Questions
The more questions a designer can answer yes to here, the stronger the case for using AR becomes.
 * Is there a real-world environment that the application or associated task is or should be set in?
 * Is there a strong, non-arbitrary association between the virtual data and objects your application uses and some aspect of the environment?
 * Is it important that details of the environment, from content to behavior, be preserved?
 * If the application supports learning a specific task, is this a non-abstract task that is already performed in the real world?
 * Does the application benefit from real-world context?