Seeing creativity in an augmented experiential learning environment

In recent years, augmented reality (AR) technology has opened up new opportunities for building more attractive and pedagogical learning settings and is regarded as a type of “next-generation” pedagogical media for promoting learning quality, especially for outdoor exploration activities. This study develops a new learning paradigm in outdoor co-space and implements a mobile AR system for a creative design course unit. Based on Kolb’s experiential learning theory, we develop an innovative teaching scheme and implement a learning system consisting of a mobile app designed for use with Google Glass, an Android-based smartphone, and a web-based platform. The Remote Associates Test (RAT) is used to assess critical thinking skills for problem solving. The proposed system implements a game-based learning activity consisting of RAT question generation and answering. Experiments were conducted with 36 students to assess system usability and learning effectiveness. In post-activity interviews, the students suggested that the use of “real” stimuli in the authentic environment improved learning effectiveness. Results also indicated that the question generation process had a more significant impact than question answering. Moreover, more than 90% of participants indicated that they were more likely to employ associative strategies and expose themselves to novel experiences after engaging in the associative training. It is expected that the proposed system can provide improved accessibility to other subject domains, such as language learning, eco-education, and social science education.