Introduction
Higher-level math subjects (e.g. geometry, trigonometry, and calculus) are filled with formulas and jargon and can be intimidating and overwhelming for students without a strong understanding of basic math concepts.
Our goal was to design immersive experiences that can establish a safe space to foster deeper learning and reduce anxiety around higher-level mathematics.
Research
Questions
What is the current state of Augmented Reality (AR) in education technology (ed-tech) and math education?
What are the teachers' perspectives on ed-tech in higher-level math?
How are math teachers engaging students in higher-level concepts?
What are students’ perceptions of engagement with math concepts?
Immersive Content Exploration
We began our research by conducting a literature review to understand the current use of AR in educational technologies.
Literature Review
9 papers on AR in education
9 papers on math education
3 research journals on ed-tech in the classroom
Annual Teacher Survey
Administered in Oct 2022
Sample size of 121, 9-12th teachers
K-12 teachers across the US
Math Classroom Explorations
Teacher Interview
We conducted semi-structured interviews to talk to math teachers from public and private high schools and learn how they currently implement tools in their classrooms. We needed to gather insights from teachers teaching in different learning environments, to help us gather inclusive insights. We also wanted to use the interview to ask teachers how they currently teach complex math concepts to their students, and specifically how they currently teach the Unit Circle and make it relevant to students.
Student Focus Groups
We decided to conduct a focus group with students because we believed that there would be some value in speaking with students directly. Students feel more comfortable engaging in small group discussions with their peers. These discussions helped us deepen our understanding of the insights we gathered, and the students were able to chime in and provide us with more context. Listening to the conversation among the students allowed us to learn and gather real-time insights and reactions.
2 focus groups
1 Private school
1 public school
Activities
Word Cloud Discussion: Warm-up activity
Open-Card Sort: Write down tools you find helpful while engaging in math classes and sort each tool as a group activity
Storytelling: Reflect on how you seek assistance and what makes the aid more impactful.
Findings & Design Requirements
How can we use AR to engage students and allow them to visually explore and practice higher-level math concepts?
Student Autonomy
Insights
Students want to feel in control of their learning
Students want content to be presented in a variety of mediums
Students want to understand how concepts relate to each other
Design requirement #1
Students should feel as if they have autonomy over their learning
Low Effort Implentation
Insights
For a teacher adopting new tech into their classroom, tech literacy is key
Teachers believe students would benefit from more digital tools, but face significant barriers to implementing these tools
Design requirement #2
The Design should be easy for teachers to implement in the classroom
AR = Engagement
Insights
Supporting student exploration and engagement allows them to learn better
Teachers find that students are more engaged during learning activities with AR tools
Design Requirement #3
Teachers should feel the content is engaging for their students
Exploration is Key
Insights
Supporting student exploration and engagement allows them to learn better
Students want platforms that help visualize equations and graphs
Design Requirement #4
Students should feel engaged with the content when completing the activities
Ideation
The three of us were very new to the AR space at the time and we had no clue how to get started with designs, we had more experience with designing wireframes and 2D interfaces, but had no clue what lo-fidelity designs would look like in a 3D space.
How can we create low-fi designs for AR?
We got creative and realized we could use, multiple mediums to make our designs. We decided to take spacial photos of our environment and sketched over the photos to create our designs.
Concept Evaluations
AR Experts
5 experts from Discovery Education
30-45 mins sessions
Math Teachers
3 teachers (2 private schools, 1 public school)
30-45 mins sessions
Concept 1
Students will use what they know about angles and special right triangles to restore a world using AR. They would piece together a world built on the foundations of a unit circle.
AR Experts' Feedback
Creates mixed experiences so AR is supplemented to Classroom lessons
Teachers' Feedback
Interactive and can build fluency with practice
Concept 2
Students will complete exercises about the unit circle and create their own intricate crop circle using the unit circle to build their own real-world crop circle using plants.
AR Experts' Feedback
The progressive development of the story is encouraged by learning.
Teachers' Feedback
Engaging story that supports students understanding of materials.
Concept 3
Students build out their own understanding of what the unit circle is by curating a greenhouse, through the use of regular in class practice on past concepts and learning new ones
AR Experts' Feedback
Longitudinal Experience that supports long-term learning.
Teachers' Feedback
Supports practice and formative learning
Final Concept
Hard decision awaited us, we took into consideration all the feedback from our concept evaluations and we decided to design a final concept that combined aspects of all 3 concepts.
Feedback 1
AR supplements classroom activities
Implementation: Tool supplements Math Textbook
Feedback 2
Progressive Development of an engaging story
Implementation:Main character leads storytelling
Feedback 3
Interactive and encourages practice
Implementation: Add context to math problem from story & Gamification as reward
Feedback 4
Supports formative learning
Implementation: Encourage learning that takes place overtime
We started sketching out our ideas to connect the concepts we wanted to design
Then using the Adobe stock assets we brought our ideas into higher fidelity and begin creating wireframes of our concepts using Adobe Aero.
Tools Used for Designs
Design Language
Prototype
World & Story
Context: Students views the world map and is introduced to the story.
Why: Invites students to explore and sparks interest to further engagement.
Accessible Considerations: Audio triggers, Sizing of world, and environmental representation.
Motel & Math Problem
Context: Students views the destroyed motel and is prompted to solve math problem
Why: Incentives engaging with problem and spark curiosity to build understanding
Accessible Considerations: Audio triggers, bolding, highlight, large font, color blind-friendly colors.
Motel Interior & Reward
Contexts: Student earns a token, and visits the inside of the motel they restored.
Why: Provides students with an incentive to practice and complete math problems.
Accessible Considerations: Audio triggers, Large icons and font, color blind-friendly colors.
Evaluations
Heuristic Evaluations
Tasks
Navigate to the practice problems in the ARC app. (From onboarding to practice problems)
Please repair the water tower of the motel (Solve word problems to repair)
Please show us how you would clean up the inside of the hotel (Interact with story elements as reward)
Heuristics
Visibility of system status
Match between system and real world
User Control and freedom
Consistency and standards
Error Prevention
Recognition rather than recall
Aesthetics and minimalist design
Results
Does not make assumptions on what the user knows or what they can do
The environments are very well designed. They are clear and do not overwhelm the user.
Color use is good with a soft, contrasting palette.
Background music feels very appropriate and doesn’t take center stage.
Solving the angle question is well designed and is easy to access.
“I love the visual style across the 2D elements and the 3D elements. Beautifully presented and cohesive”
Error Prevention
Tapping on some 3D and UI elements was tricky
Some UI elements would be better if they occupied screen-space as opposed to world space. In particular the persistent menu*
Usability Testing
Tasks
Navigate to the practice problems in the ARC app. (From onboarding to practice problems)
Please repair the water tower of the motel (Solve word problems to repair)
Please show us how you would clean up the inside of the hotel (Interact with story elements as reward)
Usability, Engagement Questions, and Results
Story engagement: Will students find the story engaging and fun?
Yes, students liked the storyline and felt it didn’t distract from the math problems
Transition between AR and real world: Will students struggle to move between working on paper and the AR practice problem?
Students were able to move seamlessly between their calculator and paper while solving problems
Students Liked
The perseverance coin and highlighting of mathematicians.
The detail of the 3D models and spent time exploring the map and motel models.
The background music that played during some activities.
The storyline and added objectives to the problem sets.
Students Suggested
Adding a “focused view” of the word problem to remove visual clutter while solving
Greater emphasis on the trigonometry vocabulary in the word problem
More assistance when the problem is answered incorrectly
Clearer labeling of visualizations of practice problems in app
User Engagement Results
Focused attention: Feeling absorbed in the interaction and losing track of time.
Average score of 3.57/5
Perceived usability: The degree of control and effort expended.
Average score of 3.14/5
Aesthetic appeal: The attractiveness and visual appeal of the interface.
Average score of 4.47/5
Endurability: Users’ willingness to recommend an application to others or engage with it in future.
Average score of 4.47/5
Iterations
Screen vs World Space
Screen space is defined as the "2D plane" the users see on their monitors, while world space are the 3D environment/objects that are portrayed on their screen. Often times world space can be a virtual environment and scene in a video game, while a screen space would be the menu page where a player can pause the game and control the game settings. In our project the world space is the actual environment the users are in that is projected on the mobile devices, and it was important for us to allow the users to have clearer distinctions between their world space, and the UI around it.
Changes
Utilized and created a distinction between screen vs world space to help user focus on the math problem
Built out feature that uses screen space
Made the menu a part of fixed “screen space” in the UI of the app
Made menus and icons easier to interact with because they are no longer in 3D “world space” where it is hard to tap on objects
Learning Assistance Design Iterations
Changes
Clearer signifiers to show interactions
Realistic angles
Label for variable going to solve for
Usability Design Iterations
Onboarding Updates
Added more instructions on the learning assistance elements within the practice problems
Provided detailed animations to visualize how users could interact with elements