Fostering students’ engineering competence by adopting augmented reality: a proposed randomized controlled trial study

Developing students’ engineering competence is an essential objective in engineering education. However, delivering effective and just-in-time instruction is under pressure due to the need to offer personalized learning and the existence of trainer shortages in the engineering sector. Recent developments in educational technology allow alternative innovative sources, such as Augmented Reality (AR), to imitate real-life situations and to offer learning activities which supports students to practice their skills in a safe environment. However, limited experimental studies have been reported that provide insights into the impact of AR-based learning activities on students’ development of engineering competence in comparison to traditional teaching approaches. Therefore, this proposed experimental study aims to investigate the effect of an AR-based learning activity, which involves solving the malfunction of an air handling unit, on students’ development of engineering competence. This experimental condition will be compared to traditional teaching approaches, consisting of an identical learning task including books and written exercises. Additionally, cognitive load, intrinsic motivation and students’ perceptions towards the learning task and learning environment are included, seeing that these aspects are considered to be crucial intermediate variables in learning processes. Results of this study provide insights in the effectivity of AR-based learning environments in engineering education supporting students’ hands-on experience, while releasing the pressure on resources such as industrial devices and staffing.