JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Augmented Reality (AR) has matured as an interactive communication tool to the point that it can be used in the classroom to engage medical students.

Objective:

We assessed a state-of-the-art AR game, published along with a modern cell atlas on cells of the oral cavity, to investigate the potential of the new technology to convey medical knowledge.

Methods:

An AR serious game was designed and created for classroom use, to represent contemporary knowledge on osteoclasts for the classroom.. The game was evaluated for its usability and an unblinded face-to-face vignette experiment (39 participants) was conducted, comparing the learning outcomes on the topic “Osteoclasts” in the AR game (17 participants) with outcomes from a textbook-only option (20 participants) conveying the same information. (20 participants). Participants were randomly assigned and their learning success was measured at three time-points, via web-based surveys taken immediately after the experiment session, one week later, and one month later. We also assessed the use of the game in different app stores to gain observational insights on self-assessed usability of the game (26 participants) and game metrics (440 unique users).

Results:

The AR serious game elicited strong interest in the topic (perceived relevance in ARCS, W= 10417; P < .001) and motivated students by increasing self-efficacy (confidence in ARCS, W = 11882.5; P = .023) and more satisfaction (in ARCS, W = 4561; P < .001). The learning outcomes were comparable to text-based self-learning (T = 2.0103; PBonferroni = .095). Furthermore, curious students benefited more from interactive learning methods compared to text-only methods (T = -2.518; P = .019) and had higher learning success.

Conclusions:

Introducing new technology such as AR into teaching requires technological investment, updated curricula, and careful application of learning paradigms. AR-based learning may particularly benefit curious students, who appear to learn less in text-heavy teaching. The students now entering the classroom are accustomed to short and entertaining information exchanges, and our teaching repertoire needs to adapt to this change.