Keywords

1 Introduction

Over recent years, Augmented Reality (AR) has become a popular educational research topic [1,2,3] that focuses on the potentials of AR in the teaching and learning process. The main factor that contributes to the wide acceptance of AR are its cost-effectiveness in creating highly immersive and enjoyable learning environments in which students can learn more efficaciously [4, 5]. Specifically, teaching and learning can be carried out in real-world environments containing embedded virtual contents to support for formal and informal learning [6, 7]. Several researchers have also pointed out that AR can significantly help improve learning in various contexts, particularly in conceptual understanding, inquiry learning, technology, and engineering [8,9,10]. Furthermore, the deployment of multimedia contents on internet resources during lessons enables lecturers and teachers to perform their respective tasks more flexibly and conveniently [11] to explain theoretical aspects and increases students’ motivation in invigorating settings [12,13,14]. With the use of mobile devices, AR learning contents can be made more accessible to students transcending temporal and geographical barriers [15, 16]. To date, several researchers have begun conducting studies that focus on learning assisted by AR in many disciplines and fields [17, 18]. In this study, a systematic review of the current literature of the applications of AR in various educational contexts was carried out o highlight its advantages and disadvantages and the challenges in its implementation. The findings of this undertaking helped the researchers to determine the main research objective and formulate appropriate research questions that focused on the instructional design of AR mobile learning with the use of relevant multimedia elements.

2 Related Work

In the current literature, many educational benefits accorded by AR have been highlighted in many educational contexts [19,20,21] in a number of disciplines and fields [22]. In particular, many researchers have conducted several systematic reviews of the applications of AR in a diverse range of important fields, which have identified a host of educational benefits and potentials [23, 24]. The same reviews have also identified several barriers in the implementation of this technology in educational contexts [25]. In such reviews, the main focus was on the use of AR in multimedia context learning [26] and on the insight into how AR could serve as an assistive tool for students to learn more efficiently and effectively [27]. In this regard, according to Erbas et al. [28], most students perceive the use of AR in learning to be both highly useful and enjoyable, signifying the educational potential of this novel technology [29]. Interestingly, most of the studies in the current literature were carried out based on a qualitative approach that helped highlight the impact of AR on students’ performance, motivation, attitudes, and interest in learning [30,31,32]. Given these revelations, it can be reasonably argued that the implementation of AR technology in educational settings can further enhance the teaching and learning process through interactive and immersive learning environments, benefitting both teachers and students [33, 34]. Table 1 summarizes some of the studies of the applications of AR in multimedia education in classroom settings.

Table 1. The objectives and results of AR studies in multimedia education
Full size table

Figure 1 highlights the flow of the steps taken by the researchers in carrying out the systematic review of the current literature of studies of Augmented Reality in multimedia learning in education. This review helped reveal the positive impacts of multimedia Augmented Reality technology in helping students to achieve learning outcomes in a diverse range of educational settings [43,44,45]. More importantly, the review helped highlight the potential of improving learning efficacy by capitalizing on mobile devices, notably smartphones, to provide mobile learning with the use of interactive multimedia elements [46, 47]. The following section provides a detailed account of the systematic review carried out by the researchers by focussing on collecting appropriate data, which is essential in the early stages of a systematic review process [48, 49].

Fig. 1.
figure 1

The flow diagram of the systematic review of literature of studies of Augmented Reality in multimedia contexts

Full size image

3 Method

3.1 The Manuscripts Selection

The selection of relevant academic articles and was made by searching several online research databases. The researchers conducted such a process on 20 August 2020 by applying appropriate keywords or strings of phrases, such as “Augmented Reality” AND Education AND Learning AND Multimedia. Such a query search helped the researchers to identify and select relevant documents that were both appropriate and current. Specifically, the online databases searched were several leading online publications, namely Springer, ISI Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and ACM Digital library. The selection process of articles was inter-coded through the agreement and disagreement between two different coders that helped determine the veracity of such articles based on several inclusion and exclusion criteria. Ultimately, this filtering process yielded 40 articles that were deemed relevant and current according to such criteria as summarized in Table 2.

Table 2. The inclusion and exclusion criteria in selecting relevant articles relating to Augmented Reality in the Multimedia learning context
Full size table

The following subsection will analyse the manuscripts based on the content analysis to deduce the textual information.

3.2 Analysis of the Manuscripts

In this study, the researchers carried out a thematic analysis of contents and contexts of selected papers or articles. Even though such an analysis is quite simple, the results it yield can be significant for research [50, 51]. In principle, the systematic categorization process [52] of a large amount of data consisting of textual information can help determine patterns [53] and trends of words, as depicted in Fig. 2. The reliability of the selected articles was deemed high based on the calculated value of Cohen’s Kappa at 0.94, which is regarded extremely high [54]. In this research, the thematic analysis was implemented based on a qualitative methodology. Figure 2 shows the characteristic of the thematic and content analysis.

Fig. 2.
figure 2

The characteristic of the thematic and content analysis

Full size image

The analysis process was performed by the researchers in determining a group based on the categorical analysis of sub-categories. Later, research questions were grouped based on the domains and characteristics of the criteria of the study. This content analysis is also suitable for multi-faceted criteria based on the AR classification process [55, 56]. In the following stage of the systematic review process, emerging classifications were refined to reveal the appropriate sub-categories [57]. Arguably, other researchers can manually code studies depending on the sub-categories that have been defined earlier. For this type of research, iterative discussions among researchers are essential.

4 Result

As highlighted, this study involved a systematic review of the current literature of studies of the applications of AR in education. Specifically, the review was performed by searching and identifying relevant and recent articles on several leading online databases, which were published from 2014 to 2020. The review yielded 40 articles that discuss various application of the novel technology. Based on the analysis of their contents, 15 articles are related to multimedia learning involving augmented reality in primary classroom settings. On the other hand, 25 articles discuss studies involving the use of AR in university settings. In terms of content, 18 articles articulate the applications of AR from the explorative perspective, while another 18 articles elaborate the use of AR books in education. By contrast, only 4 articles highlight the use of game-based AR in education. Interestingly, 81% of the researchers used image-based AR technology. The above findings helped the researchers to address both the first and second research questions of this study. The findings of studies discussed in the selected articles suggest that specific instructional models are needed based on appropriate learning contexts [58, 59]. For instance, Salar et al. [60] discovered that students’ focus and attention were influenced by a particular AR-learning approach used in a classroom setting. In addition, Zafar et al. [61] argues that students can learn more efficaciously in a AR-enabled learning environment because they can visualize learning objects that help improve cognition.

5 Discussion

In this study, the researchers used a qualitative research methodology involving a systematic and thematic review of literature. The process helped highlight descriptive accounts of relevant papers or articles that discuss studies of the applications of AR in various learning contexts. In particular, such a review enabled the researchers to examine the characteristics of AR that could help students to learn in learning environments that are engaging, entertaining, and motivating, which ultimately can lead to enhanced learning through which students gain better understanding of learning contents.