Abstract

Hands-on experiential learning, or “learning-by-doing”, is an effective method to enable students actively learn while also being able to reflect on their experiences, particularly for more abstract concepts. Within physical disciplines such as engineering, experiential learning plays an important role in the projects, laboratory classes or even “hands-on lectures”. However, two challenges that are still frequently encountered within engineering hands-on learning are: (1) the difficulty in visualizing and relating the abstract concept fundamentals with the practice; and (2) the lack of ability to perceive the inner-workings of a real system. A physical system typically only allows the output of the cause-effect to be observed, rather than what is happening within the system. This project aims to develop an augmented-reality (AR) framework that can aid in hands-on learning within engineering courses. AR allows additional information about the internal workings of physical systems to be visualized and can aid in showing more abstract concepts. The challenge of this project is that the AR would be used in a dynamic system, where the properties of or the physical system itself can be changing. This is unique compared with existing classroom uses of AR, where static cards are used instead of augmenting a physical real system. The proposed framework will provide a set of software components to allow AR elements for physical systems to be conveniently developed, and also integrate uReply with AR where questions will dynamically appear in real-time depending on the scene. The AR modules will be tested on both tablets and also AR glasses, and employed in four faculty of engineering subjects to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed project within different topic areas: robotics, electronics, bio-fluids and also bio micro-electro-mechanical systems.