Teaching with AR as a tool for relief visualization: usability and motivation study

TLDR

In geographical education, 2D maps are common but students struggle to interpret relief, prompting the use of digital terrain models and AR to provide interactive 3D representations. The study reports on the usability and motivational impact of AR tablets for relief visualization. Sixty‑three university students participated in a 2015–2016 course using AR tablets, with assessments of efficiency, efficacy, satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation via the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. AR tablets demonstrated high usability for interpreting terrain relief and effectively motivated students to engage with 3D visualizations.

Abstract

In the field of geographical and environmental education, maps and geo-referenced information are frequently used, in which the earth's surfaces are represented in a two-dimensional (2D) way. Students have difficulty interpreting the relief representation and switching between 2D and 3D scenarios. Digital terrain modelling is added to the traditional cartographic techniques to represent the landforms, and the AR technology provides a new 3D and mapping human–machine interaction. In the 2015–2016 course, an educational experiment using AR on a tablet with 63 students from La Laguna University was performed covering three steps: academic improvement, usability of this technology to interpret the relief, and if it is motivating for the students. This paper presents the results in usability and motivation. A usability study in terms of efficiency, efficacy and satisfaction is presented. To assess student motivation, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory motivational model with six dimensions is adopted. Results about AR on tablets in the interpretation of terrain relief show a great usability of this technology, which serves as a motivational tool for the 3D visualization.