JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

As physical education classes are lost to budget cuts and recess is cancelled to meet standardized testing goals, the modern school day has become dominated by sedentary digital activities. To reverse this trend, current interventions have focused on reducing screen time. However, instead of fighting this digital invasion the present study examined the use of technology, specifically mixed reality, to turn screen time from sedentary into active, promoting physical activity in a classroom setting.

Objective:

The primary aim of this study was to iteratively develop and test a mixed reality prototype that promotes physical activity (e.g., jumping, squatting, and punching) during a digital classroom activity. The primary outcomes were the percentage of active time during the activity, a breakdown of the intensity of that active time, and an evaluation of the prototype’s usability.

Methods:

Between November 2023 and April 2025, a multi-disciplinary research team developed a prototype and evaluated their prototype during two rounds of beta testing. Participants were 10-15 years old attending local middle schools. Physical activity was assessed with a medical grade, hip-worn accelerometer (Actigraph wGTX3-BT). Acceptability was assessed with a validated questionnaire (System Usability Scale) that has a maximum score of 100. To collect feedback for prototype improvements, semi-structured interviews were conducted after each round of beta testing.

Results:

In the first round of beta testing, students (n=22) were active 46.0% of the time they wore the headset (average 15 ± 0 minutes). After improving the prototype using feedback from the first round, students in the second round (n=10) were active for a majority (62.4%) of the web-based assignment (average 9.3 ± 2.41 minutes), while still reporting “good” acceptability scores (73.8 ± 17.2). There were no significant differences in acceptability ratings between the two beta testing rounds (p = 0.159), nor were there differences between boys and girls in round one (p = 0.791) or round two (p = 0.610).

Conclusions:

Results of this iterative study indicate that mixed reality can be used to elicit physical activity in a classroom setting, at least for short assignments. However, further research is needed to determine longer-term use and effectiveness.