Benefits, opportunities and applications of Augmented

Reality in education: a literature survey

Demetrio Hermida Castro

Department of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications, Open University of
Catalonia (UOC), Barcelona, Spain

E-mail address: dhermida@uoc.edu

Keywords: Augmented Reality; Blended Reality; Education; Learning

ABSTRACT
Augmented Reality (AR) is currently considered to be one of the key emerging technologies in
education, providing new opportunities for teaching and learning, by allowing a virtual world of
digital content to be overlaid and mixed into the learner’s perceptions of the real world, thus
creating an enhanced and augmented reality.
This paper provides an overview of the use of AR in education, identifying advantages,
challenges and effectiveness, and exploring its current status of research.
In total, 66 studies, published between 2000 and 2016, were analyzed in this survey, which
allowed to identify fourteen benefits and opportunities of AR in educational environments that
provide evidence of positive outcomes concerning students learning, ranging from fostering
motivation to developing spatial abilities.
The main findings of the literature review, as well as several factors underlying them, are
discussed in relation to their potentialities and to the different research approaches.
Although relatively little is known about this novel technology as a support of learning and
teaching environments, the surveyed articles suggested that AR is a powerful and very flexible
tool that can be used in a number of educational settings and for very different purposes, thus
maximizing its potential learning benefits.
Finally, this article deals with some current limitation factors and suggests topics and issues for
future research in AR for educational settings.
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