Employment of Mobile Augmented Reality in Biological Education: A Comparison of Perceptions Regarding Austrian Secondary School Teachers and Students
Abstract: Mobile augmented reality (mAR) is considered an innovative, promising, and emerging educational application (app) which has the potential to increase students’ motivation, engagement, conceptual knowledge, and learning outcomes. Many studies on (m)AR have been published in recent years, highlighting the different advantages and disadvantages (e.g., lack of devices, Internet access), but there is little research on the frequency of use and the reasons behind its utilization. To present the current state of the employment of mAR apps in Austrian biology education and their potential effects on science lecture structures and learning preference, a descriptive method study was embodied. Therefore, a questionnaire with closed-ended questions was sent to and completed by 35 Austrian biology teachers and 91 secondary school students. The descriptive results of biology teachers’ and students’ perceptions of this exploratory research indicate gender and age differences in regard to the frequencies of mAR utilization in biology education, the effect on the structure of a lesson, and learning preference. Younger students are more likely to use mAR than older ones, and female students are less likely to learn with mAR, according to the results of this study. Moreover, findings indicate that Austrian secondary students use mAR applications more often in biology class and in their leisure time than their teachers. Further research using quantitative methods has to be done on this topic.