Case Study: Harnessing Mixed-Reality Technology in the Classroom

The Concept

Mixed reality (MR) solutions represent the forefront in technology, blending the physical and digital worlds to create immersive and interactive experiences.  By integrating elements of both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), MR enables users to interact with and manipulate both physical and virtual objects in real-time.

MR-enabled immersive learning experiences bring subjects to life and facilitate deeper understanding.  For academics, this presents a unique tool for creating interactive and engaging educational content, while fostering more dynamic and collaborative ways of teaching and learning.

The Need: student engagement

Research and latest trends point towards technology being a positive driver for higher levels of engagement and collaborative teaching techniques. A notion is, investing in tech in the classroom has a direct correlation on student motivation and academic success. “In addition, immersive technologies in higher education foster active and engaging learning of students. These technologies help visualize complex concepts, create interactive simulations, and allow students to master practical skills in a controlled environment.” (Sviridova et al. (2023)).

“Students have been enthusiastic to try new technologies and to merge the learned content with practical applications. As MR and spatial computing become the next revolution in how we interact with technology, providing students with examples of how their understanding of cognitive psychology concepts is useful in real-world applications is extremely valuable. At the same time, showcasing the university’s efforts to provide students with access to these technologies as they emerge, helps cement the university’s commitment to inclusivity to both current and prospective students.”

- Gwijde Maegherman, Psychology Lecturer, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences

The Approach: MR-enabled teaching

TELT’s Zaheer Daleel collaborated with Psychology Lecturer; Gwijde Maegherman, to introduce the technology to classroom-based lessons to gauge its effect on student engagement.  The HoloLens’ MR device was trialled in Cognitive Psychology lectures, complementing discussions on laws of perception and visual processes and how these can be used to make technology more intuitive and computing more accessible.  Students were being taught by merging perceptual principles described for over 200 years with modern technology and resulting in students excited to learn via immersive learning content they would not ordinarily have access to.

The opportunity was also taken to demonstrate MR-teaching to approx.100 A-Levels students who attended an open/outreach day.  Concepts were explained in terms of bottom-up (visual stimuli) and top-down (knowledge and expectation) processes using examples of virtual items in the classroom.

The Impact: classroom and student experiences

The HoloLens headset’s built-in eye-tracking capabilities was expertly utilised to provide students with innovative examples of overt and covert attention, and to highlight the power of eye-tracking as a research method.  This would ordinarily involve small student groups coming into the lab to see highly specialised and expensive equipment for a few minutes, but with the HoloLens, the lecturer was able to seamlessly switch to an immersive demonstration and provide students the opportunity to assess eye-tracking themselves.  The impact of this was minimum set-up time, reduced planning for equivalent groupwork and activities, and being able to move quicker between theory and practical learning application.

“I used it in front of the class as a live eye-tracker to showcase covert and overt attention (paying attention to a stimulus with/without moving the eyes), which was excellent, and I don’t think I could feasibly have done this in any other way. I also gave the students a few minutes during the break to try it and they really enjoyed it – suffice it to say it has been a truly excellent teaching tool, so thanks for the opportunity!”

- Gwijde Maegherman, Psychology Lecturer, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences

Students tried various demonstrations of the device’s MR capabilities while the lecturer mirrored the 3D scene in 2D via the classroom projector.  This allowed students to see in real time what the demonstrating student was seeing and allowed for whole-class collaboration: students actively participated in linking what they had just learnt with what they were seeing live, applying their understanding in a way not previously possible.  The impact of the ad-hoc nature of the demonstration exhibited the real-life implications of the confluence of laws of perception and technology, and provided the digital literacy needed to prepare students for the disruptive changes that will be brought on by innovative MR in the next few years.

During a QMUL-open day, prospective A-Level students were able to experience various scenarios, as opposed to traditionally reading about or watching them online. Students were shown virtual items placed on desks and walls which were revealed through the HoloLens device.  These virtual objects were manipulated in line with physical laws, such as a virtual lamp standing on a desk and not being able to pass through it.  Using these examples, it was explained to students how our visual sensations come together with our expectations of the physical world to provide the best understanding and experience of a visual percept.

It was extremely well-received, including audible gasps from the audience where many prospective students (and their parents) were impressed and eager to experience the MR content for themselves.  We are confident it is exactly this kind of innovation that made the open day memorable for them and showing we have access to such technologies at the university may well influence their choice of offer.

The Case for Caution

The use of the device is not without flaws: some students found the HoloLens intriguing and tried the device multiple times, experimenting with different eye-tracking and visual scenarios, while others remained hesitant.  While it is natural that students will not equally appreciate the opportunities presented by new technology, some students also found the device difficult to use from a navigation point of view, and not all students were able to use it easily due to ergonomic constraints.  These issues have been found previously with the HoloLens (John et al., 2022) and it should be noted the device is now several years old in a technology space that moves on very quickly: newer devices aim for improved ergonomics and ease of use.  From a classroom perspective, the primary concern is that only one device was available – while a 2D view was shown in real time, this scarcity limited the level of inclusivity as demonstrations were held.  These concerns are allayed using newer technology, such as Meta’s Project Orion (Meta, 2024), which could make these devices as ubiquitous as mobile phones.

Device set-up and connectivity also need to be considered before the device is used in-class.  While there are workarounds such as using mobile-hotspots, the device often needed time to connect to, and sometimes not at all, the on-campus Wi-Fi network. The HoloLens works with an institutional Microsoft licence and individual’s account, but switching between users was also a barrier as this was not as seamless as expected.  On occasions, IT technical colleagues needed to intervene to rectify connectivity issues.

Next Steps

TELT hope to continue embedding MR as an innovative learning method via collaboration with QMUL academic colleagues and hope to develop more content for Psychology and SBBS programmes more broadly.  TELT and colleagues will look to source different MR apps that the device may be able to offer by way of the Microsoft Apps store.  More educational apps are likely to be in scope and may become available to download soon.  This may open opportunities for more schools and faculties to use the headset for teaching purposes.

TELT aim to highlight the MR technology at future events, namely, the Festival of Communities which is an outreach programme to highlight QMUL’s commitment to excellence in education and its local communities.  Through increased partnership with QMUL schools and faculties, TELT will continue to explore immersive learning technologies and techniques to enhance teaching and learning techniques.  TELT are currently investigating several technological solutions to meet the needs of academic professionals and their students.

Case-study Authors
Zaheer Daleel (TEL Enhancement Manager, ITS) and Gwijde Maegherman (Psychology Lecturer, SBBS) 

Do you have a tech-based idea for improving teaching and learning practices? 

Want to hear more about TELT's enhancement work and innovative projects? 

Get in touch with TELT or Zaheer Daleel directly for more information or visit the TELT website: www.qmul.ac.uk/telt

 

References

Sviridova, E., Yastrebova, E., Bakirova, G., & Rebrina, F. (2023). Immersive technologies as an innovative tool to increase academic success and motivation in higher education. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 8, p. 1192760). Frontiers Media SA. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1192760

Daleel, Z., & Maegherman, G. (2024, February 1). TELT’s Mixed Reality Innovative Collaboration with SBBS. TELT’s Mixed-Reality Innovative Collaboration with SBBS - Technology Enhanced Learning Team. https://www.qmul.ac.uk/technology-enhanced-learning-team/telt-magazine/items/telts-mixed-reality-innovative-collaboration-with-sbbs.html

John, B., Kurian, J. C., Fitzgerald, R., & Goh, D. H. L. (2022). Students’ learning experience in a mixed reality environment: drivers and barriers. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 50(1), 510-535. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.05024

Meta. (2024, September 27). Introducing Orion, our first true augmented reality glasses. https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/