Abstract
A description and psychometric validation is offered of the evaluation instrument COMPASS-Ar, conceived to check the level of competence achieved by future teachers—after participating in the ITINER-Ar Project (2018-19)—in the collaborative design of augmented didactic itineraries (ADIs) using augmented reality. This instrument—assessed by experts—consists of 30 items to measure the acquired didactic, digital, socio-collaborative, and creative competences involved in ADI development on the basis of an analytical rubric—created ad hoc and validated by means of the Delphi method—which specifies the requirements of each score through a (1-5) Likert-type scale. After evaluating a sample of 322 subjects, the assessment of reliability provided a Cronbach's alpha = .979. Construct validity was tested using factor analysis. Both the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and Bartlett's sphericity test revealed that the instrument under study has a unidimensional nature. It can be concluded that this is a valid and reliable instrument.
TopIntroduction
Twenty-first-century teacher training must focus on favoring the acquisition and development of teaching competencies suited to the needs of present-day society. The aim is to train would-be teachers not so much as experts in the utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) but rather as individuals in charge of harmonizing their integration into the school curriculum seeking to help optimize the teaching-learning process (Del Moral & Villalustre, 2010; Petko, 2012). Logically, since they are framed within a technological and digital environment, the training of future teachers must be aimed at providing them with the ability to use emergent technological resources (Chen, Lim & Tan, 2010; Huang & Yang, 2016). Moreover, it is necessary to pay attention to the didactic-methodological approach to develop enriching ICT-mediated experiences (Del Moral & Villalustre, 2012; Erstad, Eickelmann & Eichhorn, 2015).
The ITINER-Ar Project (2018-19) arises in this context with the aim of boosting the design of training proposals able to activate the teaching competencies of would-be teachers linked to the utilization of technological resources and, especially, to the implementation of augmented reality (AR) in classrooms. More precisely, these interdisciplinary proposals promote the design of Augmented Didactic Itineraries (ADIs), i.e., enriched with AR, to favor learning inside and outside the classroom with the support of digital devices (Bower, Howe, McCredie, Robinson & Grover, 2014; Villalustre & Del Moral, 2016). The purpose is to create didactic routes meant to facilitate the journey of infant, primary and secondary education students through physical or virtual scenarios using AR (Neira-Piñeiro, Del Moral & Fombella, 2020; Villalustre, San Pedro & López, 2020).
The versatility of AR allows the creation of interactive and immersive learning environments, able to add multi-format content to real objects and to provide additional information, in order to facilitate content comprehension and assimilation, with the support of mobile devices (Akçayır & Akçayır, 2017; Del Moral & Villalustre, 2013). Thus, these new landscapes acquire an additional value using AR, as they give access to extra information, they add 3D elements and they increase interaction.
Recent research has pointed out the advantages of AR in several educational levels. Thus, regarding infant education, some studies have focused on the increase of motivation and the initial literacy acquisition (Masmuzidin & Aziz, 2018). Likewise, several works show the positive impact of AR in primary education, regarding students’ attention, attitudes and motivation, as well as in the acquisition of knowledge and skills. In this stage, it is worth highlighting its great potential for science education, although it has also been applied in Social Sciences and linguistic matters (Fotaris, Pellas, Kazanidis & Smith, 2017). Besides, AR is used in secondary education for promoting scientific and linguistic learning, having also provided positive results in cognitive development (Buzko, Bonk & Tron, 2018; Estapa & Nadolny, 2015).
Most instructors consider that AR favors collaborative students’ work, as well as the cooperation between teachers for creating game-based resources and activities. However, teachers are aware of their need for training, in order to design enriching proposals based on AR applications. Teachers also point out their lack of formulae and strategies to assess the knowledge acquired by their students with AR activities (Villalustre, Del Moral & Neira, 2019).
In a similar same way, Bacca, Baldiris, Fabregat and Graf (2014) point out some limitations of AR, such as technical problems, negative effects on students -who sometimes pay too much attention to the virtual contents-, and the fact that AR can be considered as an intrusive technology. Thus, the introduction of AR into school demands that teachers face the challenges linked to these emergent technologies. These challenges are not only related to AR knowledge and use, but also to the acquisition of didactic, digital, creative and social competencies, so that its introduction into the classroom improves the teaching and learning process (Chicioreanu & Amza, 2015; Marques & Pombo, 2020).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Socio-Collaborative Competencies: Set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which enable someone to work collaboratively within a team. These competencies become essential and are particularly promoted with the LBDADI methodology.
Digital Competencies: Set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which enable someone to effectively utilize digital technologies in different contexts. This work pays attention to the digital competencies referred to the selection, management, and creation of AR resources, as well as to their use for an educational purpose.
Learning Based on the Design of Augmented Didactic Itineraries (LBDADI): More broadly embedded into Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Learning based on the Design of Augmented Didactic Itineraries (LBDADI) is a methodology which relies on the collaborative creation of augmented didactic itineraries. The process through which ADIs are elaborated provides a chance to learn, favoring the development of various key competencies for a teacher.
Augmented Didactic Itineraries (ADIs): Tour of a real space that brings together different AR activators designed for an educational purpose. Augmented Reality expands the information coming from the physical route and seeks to foster learning.
Psychometric Validation: It refers to the ability for an instrument to significantly measure and quantify the feature for whose measurement this kind of validation was designed. A measuring instrument is thus valid inasmuch as empirical evidence legitimizes the interpretation of scores resulting from the test.
Augmented Reality (AR): Technology based on the simultaneous combination of virtual information and physical information from the real world, in such a way that virtual contents are superimposed onto the perception of real elements. This technology offers users an enriched or augmented vision of the surrounding environment. A technological tool (computer or mobile device), a camera (which may be integrated into the device), an activator (which makes it possible to access the augmented contents when scanned), together with a specific software and an Internet connection, are required to implement it.
Didactic Competencies: Set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which enable someone to plan and implement—as a teacher—successful teaching-learning processes. This study considers the didactic competencies required to design augmented didactic itineraries.
Creative Competencies: Set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which enable someone to cope with challenges, to solve problems, and to generate elements (ideas, artistic products…) in a new, original way. This work examines the capacities which make it possible to design, elaborate, and combine the different elements shaping ADIs in an innovative manner.