Impacts of the Application of Virtual and Augmented Reality on Teaching-Learning Processes in Engineering Courses: A Systematic Literature Review About Learning and Satisfaction on Students

Introduction

Through a systematic literature review, this article discusses the impacts of the application of VR and AR on student satisfaction and learning levels in Engineering Education and discusses pedagogical approaches and analyses the impact of the application of VR and AR. According to Libâneo (1994), didactics are the intervention process to generate learning conditions for students. In parallel, Freire (1999) points out that “teaching is not transmitting knowledge, but generating the conditions for that to happen,” that is, to create appropriate circumstances to the teaching-learning processes, generating conditions for the learning to occur. With that in mind, Kaliská (2014) shows that students can learn in several ways: practicing, listening, visualizing, and discussing. Accordingly, each teacher varies his teaching methods through discussions, demonstrations, exercises, and lectures. Besides that, didactics need to be committed to cognitive issues and the development of students’ thinking, so in the teaching-learning process, it is necessary to train thinking subjects capable of interpreting scenarios, receiving information, and solving problems (Gil, 2010). With that in mind, Kaliská (2014) shows that students can learn in several ways: practicing, listening, visualizing, and discussing. Accordingly, each teacher varies his teaching methods through discussions, demonstrations, exercises, and lectures. Besides that, didactics need to be committed to cognitive issues and the development of students’ thinking, so in the teaching-learning process, it is necessary to train thinking subjects capable of interpreting scenarios, receiving information, and solving problems (Gil, 2010).

Gathering this with the pedagogical methodologies, there are five approaches to the teaching process: traditional, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and sociocultural (Mizukami, 1992).

One approach that links the student and the teacher is cognitivist in the process of a more significant interaction. According to Gil (2010), learning is a process of reconstructing previous knowledge, in which new learning content is anchored to an existing one. In this context, cognitivism has as its main action to privilege mental processes and cognitive skills. The students' experiences must guide the design of the contents, and the methodologies must be selected to learn by doing. For Santos Santos (2006), the teacher does not assume a central position, but the student must be focused and mobilized to be the center of the learning process, thinking, and building his knowledge.

In the cognitive approach, the student needs to participate actively in his learning by carrying out research, experimentation, group work, challenge stimulation, reasoning development, and constant search for knowledge because the answers are not ready or unique. However, to contemplate this investigative model, the teacher must work with didactic approaches that strengthen the students' investigative role in his preparation to think. The question is how teaching can enhance cognitive activities to improve training and consolidate the theoretical knowledge (Gil, 2010; Libâneo, 1994).

Currently, one of the educational tools used to support cognitive teaching methodologies is the application of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), which are multisensory technologies that use multimedia, computer graphics, image processing, and other resources to create total or partially artificial environments (Cardoso et al., 2013; Martins & Guimarães, 2012). Those uses are reinforced by Juanes and Ruisoto (2016) when he explains that the virtual environment brings students closer to the real world, and its results are more effective in training, helping in the qualification of the future professional.