Evaluating the impact of the augmented reality learning environment on electronics laboratory skills of engineering students

In engineering education, laboratory experience is powerful in building up the specialized aptitudes and skills of the engineering graduates by structuring and conducting practical experiments. In engineering laboratories, the student often deals with complex laboratory equipment to perform the experiment. Oscilloscope and function generator are frequently used electronic equipment in electronics engineering laboratories. Augmented reality (AR) technology has the capacity to provide a unique learning experience to the students which can ease down the difficulties faced by students while operating laboratory equipment. In this paper, an augmented reality learning environment (ARLE) is developed which could help the student in operating the laboratory equipment. The study aims to determine the impact of AR intervention on student laboratory skills, cognitive load, and learning motivation. The experiment was conducted amongst 60 first-year undergraduate engineering students. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: Experimental group and Control group. The participants of the experimental group were given ARLE treatment while the participants from the control group were given traditional teaching treatment. The experimental results suggest that AR intervention has a significant positive impact on student laboratory skills. Also, ARLE is an effective tool in reducing the cognitive load of students while operating laboratory equipment. The student feedback indicates that the students of the experimental group operated the equipment without any fear of damaging the equipment as they were already familiarized with the equipment in ARLE. The results of this study recommend AR as an adequate technology for developing unique AR experiences for engineering education.