Augmented Reality

Instructional Design for Augmented Reality: a sample project

1. Analysis

-          Context and learners

W.W. Irby Elementary School, based in Alachua, FL, serves 438 children in pre-kindergarten through second grade.  Student demographics are as follows: 49% white, 37% Black, 9% Hispanic, 5% two or more races; 45% female; 62% of overall students eligible for free lunch.  The student:teacher ratio at Irby is 13:1.  The school’s Media Center is managed by Shernee Bellamy, M.Ed., a Media Specialist in the second year of her tenure.  Irby students spend approximately 45-75 minutes per week in the Media Center.

-          Need assessment

Through discussions with her fellow teaching faculty, Ms. Bellamy has ascertained their felt needs that students require additional support in learning a subset of the Fry Sight Words, a list of the most common 1,000 words found in reading materials for grades 3-9.  Mastery of the Fry Sight Words will better prepare students for reading achievement as they graduate from Irby Elementary.  To address these teachers’ felt needs, this year Ms. Bellamy began designing learning activities to bolster student achievement in the Fry Sight Words.

Ms. Bellamy purchased a set of Velcro-backed flash cards (see illustration above) featuring Fry Words and distributed these throughout her library.  She hoped that seeing the sight words on a more regular basis would help the students familiarize themselves with the words, but she is also seeking opportunities for more active engagement.  Ms. Bellamy’s Media Center also has access to mobile computing devices, which will be used for this project.    

2. Purpose and instructional goals

-          Significance and rationale for using AR

The purpose of this project is to boost Irby Elementary student achievement in reading through increased engagement with Fry Sight Words during their time spent in the library.  Utilization of Augmented Reality (AR) will allow Ms. Bellamy to layer added information about the Fry words onto her flash cards.  For instance, audio content can be added to the flash cards so that the students can hear how the words are pronounced and used in a sentence.  For action words, animations could also be added that help the students visualize the words.  Both examples can be achieved through the use of AR, which is uniquely situated to offer enhanced opportunities for multiple means of representation and multiple means of engagement, thereby making knowledge more accessible to a wider range of student and stimulating student interest and motivation (CAST, 2021).

-          Measurable instructional objectives

Ms. Bellamy’s goal is that each first-grade student be able to recognize and comprehend many of the Fry Words by the end of their first year in the Media Center.  More specifically, upon completion of the school year:

·         Each first-grader will locate 75% or more of the first 100 Fry Words during two 45-minute sessions in the Media Center’s learning station.

·         Each first-grader will recognize 75% or more of the first 100 Fry Words from a larger word bank during two 45-minute sessions in the Media Center’s learning station. 

These two objectives are connected in that students will first locate the sight word, then demonstrate competency through recognizing the same sight word within a larger word bank.

3. Content

-          Outline the unit content

The unit content consists of the Fry Sight Words.  Students will be taught to recognize the sight words, how they are pronounced, and how they are used in context.  This learning will take place in literacy workstations within the students’ allotted time each week in the Media Center.  This content is based on the district-provided 1st Grade English Language Curriculum Map (FL Dept. of Education, 2014).  This map dictates instruction in the Fry Sight Words utilizing methods including decoding, informational text, visualizations, building connections, and making inferences. 

-          Describe AR instructional materials / application that will be used in the unit.

The Velcro-backed flash cards were used as target images, adding small cartoon-images to the flashcards to increase their contrast and efficacy as targets.  These flash cards were then scanned using a mobile device and the Halo AR app (available on Apple devices).  Using another app, Voki, Ms. Bellamy created an avatar and made short videos for each sight word.  In each of her videos, she first pronounces the sight word, then spells it, and then uses it in a sentence.  These videos were then linked to their respective target images using the Halo app.  The app offers numerous options for sharing the AR “collections,” including a unique QR code.  Any Apple device which is compatible with the Halo app will then be able to scan the image targets and Ms. Bellamy’s video will overlay the image.  The videos can be paused and/or repeated in a loop.  There is also a setting in the app that allows the videos to continue playing even if the student’s view screen diverts from the image; this feature will be critical with small children who are still developing their motor skills.

This approach also enables participation to a wider group of students, including students with auditory disabilities (through the use of assistive hearing devices and/or captioning) as well as ESOL students, who will benefit from the added context and pronunciation of the words.

4. Instructional Strategies

-          Delivery format 

This project is designed for in-person instruction.  Individual students will be provided with mobile devices in order to participate in the activities.  A similar approach could be used for online learning, although since the Halo app is currently only available on Apple products, it would likely limit which students could participate. 

-          Teaching methods (app + follow-up discussions or other types of activities)

Small groups of students will be assigned to a literacy workstation and equipped with a mobile device (depending upon availability).  The Fry Word flashcards are broken into color groups and student groups will be assigned to groups of sight words based on color.  Using their mobile devices, students will scan their assigned words, reviewing the associated video overlays and sharing their experiences with other students in their group.  Once students have finished reviewing their assigned sight words, they will return to the whiteboard where they will work with Ms. Bellamy to identify their assigned sight words from a larger word bank. 

5. Assessment of learning outcomes

Summative assessment will be used to measure learning outcomes.  Each student’s baseline score will be based on the phonics and word recognition section of an oral reading test with an evaluator (the "FAIR," "FS," or Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading Aligned to the Language Arts Florida Standards) and will be ascertained by either Ms. Bellamy or their classroom teacher at the beginning of the year (FL Dept. of Education, 2014).  Each student's initial FS score will be compared with both a mid-year and final FS score.       

6. Follow-up Research

-Analyze available follow-up research strategies/design/methods/techniques for evaluating the instructional impact of AR based learning.

In order to more accurately determine the effectiveness of the AR intervention, it will need to be compared with others.  A control group (no intervention and/or standard teaching methods only) could be used.  There are also a wider range of potential AR implementations.  Audio-only overlays could be used, as well as animations which demonstrate the word in context.  One additional strategy which Ms. Bellamy wanted to employ, but was not yet available in Voki, was to have the letters of the word flash across the avatar’s screen as it was being spelled out.  Student mobility could also be varied.  For instance, having the students work out of a booklet of target images while seated at a table instead of walking around the Media Center with their mobile devices could impact student attention and persistence.  Finally, the curriculum could be gamified in an effort to bolster student motivation and engagement.  These and many other variations could be tried over time to see which of them are most effective. 

References:

• About Universal Design for Learning. CAST. (2021, August 19). Retrieved September 8, 2021, from https://www.cast.org/. 

• Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading Aligned to the Language Arts Florida Standards.  FAIR-FS, Administration Manual for Grades K-2.  FL Department of Education. (2014).

• Sight Words: Teach Your Child to Read.  Sightwords.com.  (2021).  Retrieved September, 27, 2021, from https://sightwords.com/sight-words/fry/. 

• W.W. Irby Elementary School website.  SBAC. (2021).  Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.sbac.edu/Page/21891.  

Header photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash