Designing a mobile learning application model by integrating augmented reality and game elements to improve student learning experience

Learning Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in an online medium can be difficult and tedious. Lengthy facts with technical terms, complex images, and explanations are among the reasons that make STEM subjects less desirable among the current generation and degrade the students’ learning experience. Students can be assisted with learning applications that are not only mobile but also integrated with features that are enjoyable to trigger students’ interest in STEM. Game elements and augmented reality (AR) are two technologies that are capable of improving students’ learning experience. However, there are limited guidelines for designing mobile learning applications that are based on game elements and AR. Moreover, the existing guidelines mostly focus on usability but not the overall learning experience. Therefore, this paper aims to design a model of a mobile learning application that integrates AR and game elements to improve the student learning experience. The model consists of three elements; content, pedagogy/technology, and interaction that was initially verified by the subject matter experts. A mobile application prototype called m-BioP was developed based on the model and tested heuristically. A complete version of m-BioP was evaluated in an experimental study with 30 respondents using the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ). Respondents were biology students aged between 16 and 23 years that were recruited by purposive sampling. The results were positive on almost all features of m-BioP with values higher than 0.8 on the pragmatic and hedonic scale, thus approving the developed model. Based on the evaluation, the only aspect that requires improvement is the design of the videos. The model can be used by academicians and learning content creators as a guideline to design and develop mobile learning applications that are able to provide STEM students with a better learning experience.