Student-Centered Learning Using Augmented Reality in Anatomy and Physiology Education

This research-to-practice paper described how a student-centered learning pedagogy and AR techniques are used to enhance Anatomy and Physiology undergraduate education. Throughout the evolution of biomedical and engineering education, teachers and students have experimented with various forms of learning platforms and techniques in hopes of enhancing the learning experience. However, these efforts have not always been interactive, leading to student burnout, disengagement, decreased knowledge retention, and lower grades. To tackle this issue, We propose a method to improve both Anatomy and Physiology education. Students can learn biomedical science as well as other engineering educational topics with a more interactive experience using our proposed method via AR device, i.e., HoloLens 2. This project used an exploratory method, which involves conducting user studies using HoloLens 2 as a medium to teach students course-related topics. This method is based on a Student-Centered Learning pedagogy and allows students to walk through course materials with different paths and paces based on the students' preferences, allowing us to investigate the relationship between information retention and the AR platform. Said user studies are conducted to collect qualitative data about students' learning outcomes and their opinions on our proposed method. Through user studies, we recruited 30 students to take part in the lesson plans created and curated by professors in the associated university. Students are given quizzes before taking part to test knowledge of the subjects that they have not been introduced to before and then are allowed to tackle modules at their own pace. They are then given the option to attempt modules at their discretion. This is due to the lesson plan being designed as a tree structure, with multiple pathways that can be navigated either upward or downwards depending on whether they have completed the prerequisite module. After studying the lessons provided, they are given a quiz in a virtual environment to test the knowledge that they have gained while using the device. When calculating the averages of both assessments, students on average had an improvement of 10 percent in scores after using our proposed method compared to the quiz scores collected before using the device. They were also given a survey on their thoughts concerning using the HoloLens 2 device after finishing the study where 96 percent of students believe that the tools and techniques from augmented reality are both exciting and would find it useful in the study of other disciplines. 90 percent of students also found that both listening and conversational skills are frequently utilized while using Augmented Reality.