Organizational Context
XYZ University (XYZU) is a leading Australian university which offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in various disciplines. It has five campuses across five different cities-Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney.
The purpose of the report is to provide detailed overview and implementation details of the augmented reality or the AR technology. The reason that for which the university wants to explore the technology is that over the years, there has been decline in the number students taking admission in the university and this has led to the decision of the university authority to bring a change a teaching style as a way to improve the student base taking admission to the university. The university thinks that integration of cutting edge technologies is an effective way to improve the teaching quality and offer more academic value to the students.
The objectives of the report are:
- To prepare a detailed strategy for the XYZ University, to implement the AR technology within the university.
- As per the requirement of the university, the report will specially investigate associated AR technologies, challenges and opportunities associated with the project of AR technology implementation.
- It will provide a way to enhance the teaching and learning style with increase in student base for the university.
The information for preparing the report will be collected from peer reviewed academic journal and industry reports.
The report first introduces some key concepts related to augmented reality to form a basic overview of the topic. Then the current application of the AR technology in various industries has been discussed followed by opportunities for education sector and how XYZ University can be benefitted has been discussed properly. Then report has discussed about advantage, disadvantages of the application along with implementation details followed by risk analysis, recommendation and conclusion of the overall report and related findings about the topic.
The oxford dictionary (2018) defines the terms in the following way:
“A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view”.
“The computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors”
According to Munnerley et al., (2014), although the development of AR has revolutionized various sectors such as advertising, marketing, communication and media, it has not seen that much popularity in the education sector. Although the education sector was initially slow to the adoption of the AI technology, it is now realizing the benefits of the AR application for advancement and increasing productivity.
According to Freina and Ott (2015), although the VR technology is being used form 1960, it has just become more advanced and productive. Due to this there are various applications being designed with the technology in various fields such as retail, fashion, research, entertainment to name a few. The authors also specify that the possibility of VR application for education is very promising and should be extended beyond e-learning process.
However according to Freina and Ott (2015), cost is still a significant issue in widespread adoption of VR in education sector and integrate that with the learning procedure that XYZU University aims to achieve.
The augment reality or the AR technology is shaping various industry in terms of improvement and technological improvisation. In the following section, some of the interesting and important application of the AR technology has been discussed:
Purpose and Objectives
In the recent few years, AR technology has found a widespread application in the retail and fashion industry due and few of the advantages are better consumer satisfaction, improved product delivery and increased popularity among the consumers (“9 Powerful Real-World Applications Of Augmented Reality (AR) Today”, 2018).
Sephora, a Cosmetic company uses AR technology that made it possible for the consumers to compare different looks and eye, lips and cheek products with accuracy in selection of colours that suits their choice with reference to their own digital face. This help the company in increasing sells while allowing the consumers to explore the products in the most fun way possible (“Sephora Virtual Artist | Try On Makeup Virtually | Sephora”, 2018).
Another company to enter in this trend is Rolex, one of the leading luxury watch maker in the world. The company has designed a virtual try-on experience. It allows the consumers to try different models and styles without visiting the stores in person.
Although AER is yet to be applied in the healthcare sector in full fledge, some interesting applications has already been designed with the technology. AR in healthcare industry is helping doctors and practitioners in obtaining real time data about patient for better diagnosis and surgery to improve treatment.
AccuVein which is manually operated, is capable to scan vein network of a patient that leads to 45% reduction in escalation (“AV400 Vein Viewing System | AccuVein”, 2018).
AR is also being adopted in the entertainment for developing consumer oriented interactive game to provide consumers a whole new dimension of entertainment. It helps to engage the consumers which was not previously possible. Consumer here get to interact with the fun elements being presented to them through various forms.
Some popular AI based entertainment applications are the Bic DrawyBook app or teeth brushing games from Georgia-Pacific’s Dixie brand. These applications are really becoming popular among the consumers as it provides wholesome entertainment (“9 Powerful Real-World Applications Of Augmented Reality (AR) Today”, 2018).
To buy the furniture online has always been a problem for the consumer due to various issues and one of them is to find the right size so that it is perfect fit for the space where the furniture is to be installed (“9 Powerful Real-World Applications Of Augmented Reality (AR) Today”, 2018). In order to solve this problem and help the consumer to guide in the online purchase for choosing the right product as per the requirement, online furniture retailer are considering the adoption of the AR technology for increasing the consumer base as well as improve the shopping experience.
Home improvement store Lowe’s has some examples are “Measured by Lowe’s”, a virtual tape developed by Lowe’s, a home improvement store which helps to measure inside and out, and Envisioned by the Mine (owned by Lowe’s) which lets to place 3D images of furnishings and accessories into home or commercial space (“How tall is that wall? Lowe’s has a measuring app for that”, 2018).
- AR has a powerful impact on the study of the art and design as it enables to experience creativity along with theoretical study (Bower et al., 2014). AR is helping students around the world to provide physical dimension to the abstract ideas of art and design by creating affordable prototypes through smartphones, tablet and PC.
- Augmented reality is having a huge potential in improving the way student study architecture engineering. In the study of architecture design, practical course work play a vital role in understanding of the study. It often involves simulation of complex building design with adequate details.
- In comparison to traditional teaching method, AR assisted teaching helps teachers to create 3D models which is more effective than the 2D representation. Hence students will be able to learn better.
As per the discussion, AR technology has various opportunities for the XYZ University. There are various disciplines where the technology could be implemented and some of the disciplines where the technology is possible to integrate are the followings:
Methodology
According to the European Council, in order to ensure lifelong learning, two of the most important competencies are the ‘digital competence’ and the ‘cultural awareness and expression’ (Panciroli, Macauda & Russo, 2018, March). According to the council, the ‘digital competence’ consists of “the competent and critical use of the Information Society Technologies (TSI) for work, free time and communication, find, value, preserve, produce, present and exchange information and also communicate and participate in collaborative networks through Internet”. In order to achieve the cultural competencies, it is important to expand the ideas, experience as well as emotion through various media, including “music, performing arts, literature and the visual arts”.
If XYZ University adopts AR in teaching and learning of arts and design, it will help teachers to teach better through virtual simulation of prototypes of various design concepts and abstract artistic theories which are often hard to interpret without proper visualization.
Hence it will be beneficial for the University to improve its position in the education field which will be perfect opportunity for them to attract more and more student in taking admission in the University.
If augmented reality is considered it will allow the student to simulate the building designing in virtual 3D world that has close match with the real building environment (Fonseca et al., 2014). Thus the virtual 3D simulation in the augmented reality environment will provide a detailed guideline like how the design will fit in the real environment and thus help them to deal with the design constraints better. XYZ University, through integrating AR assisted teaching and learning with the architecture department could improve its standard and popularity among the students who aspires to take degree course in architecture which could increase the student strength as well which is right now one of the main concern of the university.
AR could be helpful for XYZ University in improving the quality of teaching and learning in production engineering. AR enabled lab would help student in designing affordable prototypes without requiring any real materials required for traditional productions (Plinta & Kraj?ovi?, 2015). Thus it is possible to even create expensive models while exploring theoretical models in real world production in the most inexpensive yet in the most accurate way possible. This will not help the university to raise its education and infrastructure standards, but also help in train their students better with advance industrial knowledge. Hence it will help to attract more numbers of student and inspire them to take admission in the University for Learning and increasing their knowledge.
The infrastructure and hardware of implementing AR technology across University is often complex. However there are affordable yet effective implementation is possible. According to Miller and Dousay (2015) following hardware requirements however need to be ensured for proper implementation:
- Smart devices with capability of processing audio, video and images. The modern smart phones have this features and hence this is easy to implement.
- Devices capable of data storage and data processing.
- Wireless network for seamless connectivity and communication as most of the information augmented information that is delivered to the teacher and students will be collected from data sources available online.
According to Munnerley et al. (2014), some of the advantages and disadvantages of AR in the educational field are:
- Interactive and visual method for teaching and learning which helps student to learn things better and retain most of the information out of it.
- Simulation of real world with ease whenever required for demonstrating concept for in-depth learning.
- Easy to use and hence both teacher and student can access it. Hence no need for extensive technical knowledge.
- Cost effective as it allows to verify models and design without complex infrastructure. Thus saves money and also improve quality in practical coursework. The XYZ University does not need to invest in complex infrastructure to improve the design and research lab of various discipline.
- Initial setup cost is higher
- Lack of privacy is a major concern
- Low performance level often creates issue during the testing process
- Though easy to execute, still basic training is required for effective application of AR compliant devices
According to Miller and Dousay (2015) there are various risk associated with the AR implementation:
|
risk component |
Risk description |
Risk mitigation |
|
Ethical risk |
When students and teacher access the wireless network the network might collect some data that is not ethically permitted with data security ethics which might create ethical issue if concern is raised by teacher or student |
it should made sure that the network only collects data that are ethically permitted and hence a detailed policy need to be designed which should be closely monitored by the network admin |
|
Legal risk |
As the students are accessing the network with their personal smart phones or devices, if any personal data is hacked, it will create legal issue for the university |
· Two phase authentication to login to the network · Continuous assessment of the network security along with network server for enhanced security |
|
Privacy threat |
Sometimes student might be required to submit some personal data to their assessor for submitting and obtaining feedback regarding their assessment of the model. Now there are several strategies developed for data tempering like data spoofing, illegal access and data storage exploitation (de Guzman, Thilakarathna & Seneviratne, 2018). This is a threat to the data privacy |
To develop personal data stores (PDS), with managed application access permission control which requires different level of security for data storage access |
- Increasing skill: the application of AR in University will be successful one if the members of the university is well versed with the tools and techniques that is required to work with the technology. In order to properly develop the skills basic training is required. The training need to be provided to the teachers and the students as well which will be evaluated through continuous assessment till they achieve the desired competencies.
- Improving security: wireless network is an internal part of the augmented reality implementation. Hence any risk regarding the wireless network contributes to security issues. Hence it is recommended to have proper security policy for accessing the network. It is recommend to host the network into private server which need to be secured with proper admin account so that no one except the admin has access to the main network server. This will ensure proper network security. Integrating firewall with the network is another recommend step to enhance the security of the wireless network.
Conclusion:
The purpose of the report was to investigate the opportunities of augmented reality as part of the strategic development program considered by the XYZ University to improve its teaching learning standard to improve the reputation of the University to attract more number of student.
An in-depth analysis of the application of AR technology in various sector along with the education sector shows that it has various opportunities for the University to improve the academic standard. It will assists the teachers to deliver lectures in an interactive way along with 3D visualizations which will help students to learn things better and accurately.
Although AR technology has various advantages like interactive teaching, cost effective practical application of the theories, it has various disadvantages like high initial setup cost, basic training for execution, data privacy, low performance level during execution followed by high maintenance cost.
References:
9 Powerful Real-World Applications Of Augmented Reality (AR) Today. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/07/30/9-powerful-real-world-applications-of-augmented-reality-ar-today/#4dc5c9932fe9.
AV400 Vein Viewing System | AccuVein. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.accuvein.com/products/catalog-2/av400-vein-viewing-system/
Bower, M., Howe, C., McCredie, N., Robinson, A., & Grover, D. (2014). Augmented Reality in education–cases, places and potentials. Educational Media International, 51(1), 1-15.
de Guzman, J. A., Thilakarathna, K., & Seneviratne, A. (2018). Security and Privacy Approaches in Mixed Reality: A Literature Survey. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.05797.
Fonseca, D., Martí, N., Redondo, E., Navarro, I., & Sánchez, A. (2014). Relationship between student profile, tool use, participation, and academic performance with the use of Augmented Reality technology for visualized architecture models. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 434-445.
Freina, L., & Ott, M. (2015). A Literature Review on Immersive Virtual Reality in Education: State Of The Art and Perspectives. eLearning & Software for Education, (1).
How tall is that wall? Lowe’s has a measuring app for that. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/how-tall-is-that-wall-lowes-has-a-measuring-app-for-that.
Miller, D. R., & Dousay, T. (2015). Implementing Augmented Reality in the Classroom. Issues and Trends in Educational Technology, 3(2).
Munnerley, D., Bacon, M., Fitzgerald, R., Wilson, A., Hedberg, J., Steele, J., & Standley, A. (2014). Augmented Reality: Application in Higher Education. Office for Learning and Teaching (Australia). DOI, 10(2.1), 3121-7445.
Panciroli, C., Macauda, A., & Russo, V. (2018, March). Educating about Art by Augmented Reality: New Didactic Mediation Perspectives at School and in Museums. In Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Proceedings (Vol. 1, No. 9, p. 1107).
Plinta, D., & Kraj?ovi?, M. (2015). Production system designing with the use of digital factory and augmented reality technologies. In Progress in Automation, Robotics and Measuring Techniques (pp. 187-196). Springer, Cham.
Sephora Virtual Artist | Try On Makeup Virtually | Sephora. (2018). Retrieved from https://sephoravirtualartist.com/landing_5.0.php?country=US&lang=en&x=&skintone=¤tModel=
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