Technology Enhanced Learning using Virtual and Augmented
Realities: An Applied Method to Improve the Animation Teaching
Delivery
Rosana W. Marar and Edward Jaser
Princess Sumaya University, Khalil Saket Street, Amman, Jordan
Keywords: Animation, Augmented Reality, Google Cardboard, Interactive Media, Technology Enhanced Learning,
Virtual Reality.
Abstract: This paper presents a software solution to enhance the content and presentation of graphic design and
animation related textbooks. Using augmented and virtual reality concepts, a mobile application is
developed to improve the static material found in books. This allows users to interact with animated
examples and tutorials using their mobile phones and stereoscopic 3D viewers which will enhance
information delivery. The application is tested on Google Cardboard with visual content in 3D space.
Evaluation of the proposed application demonstrates that it improved the readability of static content and
provided new experiences to the reader.
1 INTRODUCTION
The use of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is
increasing over the years and becoming more vital
for improving the educational process. TEL depends
on the use of technology and facilitating information
accessibility for individuals from any location
possible (Klimova, 2014). Nowadays, teachers adopt
the use of technology in classrooms to make the
educational process more efficient, effective, and
appealing (Srisawasdi, and Panjaburee, 2014). In
addition, the use of technology helps students
overcome some of the learning problems that they
are facing. Interactivity in the educational process
plays a major role in enhancing student’s
productivity and outcomes. To ensure its efficiency
those technologies must be available and updated.
In this paper, a TEL based system will be used to
improve knowledge delivery in an undergraduate
animation course in which presenting the graphical
content of the material will impact the learning
process and aid in visualizing the animated content
of textbooks. To master the basic skills of animation,
students require many hours of envisioning the
content followed by hands-on practice. Several
students face many problems that limit their ability
to understand and apply what they learned. One of
the main problems is that when instructors explain
the 12 principles of animation (Lasseter, 1987),
students will not be able to imagine how to apply
those principles and what difference would it make
if they do not implement them. Also, taking into
consideration that all life aspects are dependent on
technology and computers, reading content intended
to teach animation from a book will not provide the
experience that they are after.
There are many technologies that can be used to
enhance knowledge delivery such as e-learning,
multimedia, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual
Reality (VR), beside others. This paper presents a
solution combining VR and AR technologies to
attempt enhancing the animation teaching process in
universities and colleges. This will provide students
with better perspective in the learning process due to
incorporating traditional teaching methods with AR
and VR technologies to provide a unique experience
and approach in animation learning.
This paper is organized as follows: section II
provides an overview of current AR and VR usage
in teaching. Section III discusses the proposed
solution and evaluating its impact on the learning
process. Section IV concludes the paper and
provides some future intended work that will
improve current existing technologies.
Marar, R. and Jaser, E.
Technology Enhanced Lear ning using Virtual and Augmented Realities: An Applied Method to Improve the Animation Teaching Delivery.
DOI: 10.5220/0006882101030110
In Proceedings of the 10th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (IC3K 2018) - Volume 3: KMIS, pages 103-110
ISBN: 978-989-758-330-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
103

2 AR/VR IN EDUCATION
Lately, VR technology has been widely used due to
its interesting and captivating experience that it
offers to users. It lets them experience an enhanced
3D space that improves their perspective in
interacting with virtual objects. It also gives them
the feeling of existence in a real-like environment
that might not be available in real life. These
qualities motivate users to get more engaged in the
3D experience. VR has many tools and wearable
head gears that give users more depth to the detected
objects.
Nowadays, mobile phones are becoming more
affordable to purchase and their penetration rate is
remarkable. Therefore, reaching the needed
information is getting effortless and easier to
approach. Furthermore, the use of AR and VR with
mobile phones to interact with virtual objects in real
life is becoming more appealing to everyday users.
Such technologies grant people the opportunity to be
involved in a whole new experience that combines
virtual objects with real ones. The use of AR and VR
technologies nowadays will increase the user’s
interest whether it was a game or any other
applications because of its exceptional experience
that has to offer to the users. AR and VR are
employed in many fields and used in various
applications to serve humans and enhance their
interaction with objects around them. Both AR and
VR have been used in education systems. Since the
curriculum has a great importance in forming a well-
educated generation, it has to stay updated with the
latest inventions and technologies.
One of the most entertaining system applications
for AR is incorporating the technology in interactive
books and games. In (Tomi, and Rambli, 2013),
despite not using the head-worn displays, a study
targeted the book reading enhancement process
using mobile phones to make story time more
attractive for kids. This is done by displaying 3D
rendered virtual models, sound effects, and animated
characters. Consequently, this helps boosting their
imaginative fantasy world. Additionally, it might
give the opportunity for children to gain some useful
life values or morals in the learning process.
Furthermore, it engages kids more in reading and
writing that will result into developing well educated
generations. Nowadays, children are more interested
in using technology than the traditional means of
education that the older generations grew up on.
Thus getting such generation more involved in
reading books and receiving education using the
regular ways might seem confusing and
uninteresting to them. Blending any task they need
to accomplish with technology will motivate them to
perform anything in a better way. The study in
(Tomi, and Rambli, 2013) also reported that some of
the previously developed story books that use AR
technology consist of only unappealing markers that
are inserted in the physical book without taking into
consideration their visual examination of the
inserted pictures. That might be diminishing for the
interactive process between the child and the visual
demonstrations and animations. They applied the
same concept of AR technology but with more
appealing images in the book to look at before the
process of placing the virtual objects on the mobile
display. Their process does not vary from the regular
reading of a book, where it includes the storylines
and pictures demonstrating the going events that will
capture the child’s attention before using any
technology. However, the main addition is the use of
the AR technology to enhance the book even further.
They designed the markers in a way that is not
visible for the user. That will illuminate any
distractions from the main story or taking away the
appeal of the pictures themselves. Using mobile
phones with their developed application presented a
blended animated virtual characters and objects with
the real physical book. Moreover, children have the
chance to interact with those demonstrated visuals
with their hands to give them an enhanced reading
experience. The narration audio adds more to the
interaction process. Their evaluation reported
positive reactions from children who used this
application. The children were interested in reading
and completing the story book.
In (Islam, Ahmed, Islam, and Shamsuddin, 2014)
authors reported about blended learning and its
importance nowadays in the learning experience for
students. In their research study they developed an
application that displays an animated 3D solar
system that shows the order of the planets
consequently. It comes with an audio that describes
and explains the contents and all the information
about the solar system, which is represented by 3D
objects rendered in real time. They tested their
application on school children. The first group in
their test they only used the traditional ways of
teaching without any virtual demonstrations, or any
technological methods. The teacher depended only
on the book that is taught in all Dhaka schools. The
second group used VR technology to achieve
Blended learning. They did not replace the
traditional teaching ways but they adopted VR to
enhance it even further. For their research purposes,
projectors were employed in order to demonstrate
3D virtual objects for students to enjoy and learn at
the same time. The third group used only VR
technology without relying on the traditional means
of teaching. Each group had different number of
students. After concluding the three experiments,
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they gave each group certain questions to examine
their perceiving level of the explained material.
They concluded that the group which was exposed
to VR technology combined with the traditional
ways of teaching had a better and more improved
understanding to the explained material. Their exam
outcomes were better than both of the other groups.
In addition, because of the interactive nature and
appeal of blended learning they noticed that the
process was more enjoyable and amusing for
students than the other groups, which created the
feeling that they are playing a game.
A lot of various and different studies talk about
enhancing the educational process by using AR or
VR technologies. Time after time they have proven
that there are great ways to achieve blended
learning. In (Johnson, Moher, Cho, Lin, Haas, and
Kim, 2002), a VR technology used to enhance the
educational process for elementary kids is proposed.
The study consisted of two developed applications.
The first application is about exploring a gardening
world called “The field”. Each group of students
stand in front of big displays that demonstrate the
virtual world while wearing a head-worn gear and
headphones in order to get the students more
involved in the learning process. The application
consists of a wide field that has fences and different
types of plants. Students can observe plants and
revisit the application from time to time to examine
the growing process of plants. Students learn the
kinds of trees and flowers while enjoying a virtual
experience that gave them the feeling of existence in
this virtual field. After going through the process,
students were tested with a set of questions, to
examine their acquired knowledge. Their second
developed application is called "The Bee Dance”. In
this application, students should press certain
buttons that appears on the display to move the
rendered 3D model of the bee from one flower to the
other. Certain animations will appear once the
button is clicked. This application required some
directing from teachers in order for students to
understand what should be done. This proves that
the traditional means of interaction are still needed
in the learning process to direct students correctly.
The application was tested with different groups of
students with different ages. It had better results with
younger students due to their fascination of the VR
technology, the display resolution, and animation.
But all ages of students showed good results when
they answered the question about the application.
Animation is considered one of the most
challenging fields, which requires a lot of patience
and experience to master. Animators always have to
keep in mind a lot of thing while animating a scene.
Even for just a normal walk cycle, the twelve
principles of animation have to be applied to make
sure that it looks as believable as possible by
showing the actual weight of the character. In
addition, demonstrating the correct timing and
spacing between frames is vital to give the feeling of
realistic motion. When it comes to 3D animation, if
the motion was too slow or too fast it will lose the
sense of authenticity. Even though people might
think that it is an easy thing to do, it requires a lot of
skills and expertise (Dorribo-Camba, and Fitzgerald,
2007). In this study the authors aim to ease the
process of animating walk cycles for animation
students by developing a tool that gives more insight
for learners on how to animate a walk cycle
properly. Users are able to manipulate rendered walk
cycles to gain more knowledge about how to
animate them. Students can experiment with
animating different walk cycle that indicates
different character personalities. Every person has
their own personality walk that differs from
everyone else. Thus manipulating a generated walk
cycle will give students the knowledge that they
need to achieve correct character motion. In
addition, noticing the applied twelve principles on
those animated rigs will motivate users to use them
while animating a character and understand how
they are employed.
3 A PROPOSED AR/VR
APPLICATION TO SUPPORT
ANIMATION EDUCATION
In this section a detailed description of the proposed
application to enhance the education of animation
topics is discussed. The main focus is biased towards
walk cycles animation.
The main aim of the proposed application is to
provide students with a tool that enables them to
learn animation. Traditionally, a student will use an
animation book to understand the concept of
animating 2D or 3D models. As described earlier,
the main challenge in using static content for
learning animation is the visualization limitations of
the animated examples. To enable such visualization
and allowing interaction, we proposed
complementing animation book by AR/VR
application. Using this application, will give the
opportunity for readers to bring some animations
examples to life and interact with them. To do this,
the user needs to download the proposed application
on his/her mobile device. Furthermore the user
needs to have access to Google Cardboard device as
a tool to view virtual content. The static material
(i.e. books) will have a predefined marker for each
example available in the content. If the user is
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105

interested in gaining additional knowledge about the
material of interest while reading the book, he or she
needs to scan and recognize the marker using their
mobile phone. This will activate the content
specified to that specific example. Then the user can
interact with the animation and listen to an auditory
instruction.
Our proposed applications aim at enhancing the
teaching of animation and elevate the use of the
traditional book. Students can easily engage in the
developed experiences with Google Cardboard, it
does not require any previous knowledge to be able
to use it. For the AR application, the user has to
focus on the given marker that comes along with the
text book to render the needed models. As for the
VR application, the user goes into a virtual world
where they are engaged in an interactive experience
that explains how walk cycles are animated
following Richard Williams’s book. The traditional
ways of teaching are still considered very vital for
the learning process, and using technology will not
be enough. So it is important to mention here that
depending on the experiment that students are
performing, they still have to use the book, because
we are trying to enhance and support the book by
these developed applications and not replace it.
Several experiments are done to evaluate the degree
of enhancement. Each one differs and has different
steps students have to go through but most
importantly both applications will not change in the
process. In addition, after each experiment, results
will be gathered and analyzed to determine the
improvement level.
Figure 1: Character 1 Geometry Divisions and Loops.
Figure 2: Character 2 Geometry Divisions and Loops.
Figure 3: Augmented reality application on mobile.
The developed applications consist of two parts
AR and VR, they have some differences between
them on how they are integrated and developed.
Figure 4: Stereoscopic 3D view on mobile device to be
used with Google Cardboard.
Since the aim of this study is to enhance the
traditional educational process using these
technologies, marker based tracking is used. We
chose marker-based tracking due to its suitability
and because it blends well with the use of physical
books. The AR application will identify the pre-
defined marker and render 3D characters according
to the specified examples (Figure 1and Figure 2).
Extended tracking was done in order to keep the
characters in place and in sight of the marker while
moving the mobile phone. Users changed the
apparent characters by pressing the magnetic button
that comes with Google Cardboard. Each character
has its own audio file that is played once it is
detected to explain how to animate 3D characters
walk cycle. Examples of stereoscopic 3D view of the
characters are presented in Figure 3 and Figure 4.
The second application gets the user into a
virtual world mode where a voice over audio
accompanies the animation of the characters. The
animation shows the user what is needed to be done
in order to produce good quality animations. The
audio explains and directs the user to further
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understanding of the walk cycle following the
explanations of Richard Williams (Williams, 2009).
3.1 Application Evaluation P rocess
In order to evaluate if our proposed TEL intervention
added value to the animation teaching, we designed
a number of experiments to validate this. After we
gathered a defined number of students for each
experiment, a study was conducted to measure the
impact of TEL. Each experiment differs in its
requirements and preformed steps. Two types of
experiment designs were used to evaluate the degree
of enhancement of the developed applications and to
determine their efficiency and effectiveness in
supporting the book. These two types are between-
subjects and within-subjects.
In order to study the improvement gained from
using AR/VR technologies in delivering animation
knowledge, a study was designed and conducted.
The null hypothesis was determined to be: “the book
is enough for teaching walk cycle animation or there
is no added value from using TEL to teach
animation ”.
The hypothesis to be tested was that “the proposed
intervention of applications will improve animation
knowledge delivery”. Two experiments were
conducted, Experiment 1 and Experiment 2.
Experiment 1.
As depicted in Figure 5 and Figure 6, twenty
students were randomly selected from the Computer
Graphics Department at PSUT to test the
application. Those students have experience in
animation and have some knowledge about the
animation techniques.
Figure 5: Experiment 1 - Between-Subject Design.
We opted for a between-subjects design in which
those twenty students were divided into two groups.
A classification procedure was designed to ensure
that the two groups are equivalent in terms of skills
and education. The goal of Experiment 1 was to
measure if there were significant differences
between the two learning procedures. Participants of
the first group read how to animate a walk cycle
from the traditional book of (Williams, 2009) and
were given the time to understand the utilization of
the twelve principles from the author’s explanation.
Participants of the second group read the book and
had the application available to engage in the
augmented and virtual reality experiences using
Google Cardboard. After that, participants of each
group were required to fill up an assessment
evaluation to gather evaluation data. The gathered
data were then analyzed in order to accept or reject
the hypothesis. A statistical hypothesis testing was
conducted to determine if the two sets of data
collected are significantly different from each other.
Figure 6: Evaluation Steps of Experiment 1.
Experiment 2.
In the second experiment, ten students were
randomly selected from the Computer Graphics
Department as well as other departments at PSUT.
Students from the other departments have no
experience in animation and do not have any
knowledge about animation techniques. We opted
for a within-subjects design. The subjects were
randomly assigned to two groups. The first group
read about animating the normal walk cycle from the
traditional book (Williams, 2009), understood how it
should be animated, and comprehend the utilization
of the twelve animation principles. Consequently,
they performed the same tasks using our
Technology Enhanced Learning using Virtual and Augmented Realities: An Applied Method to Improve the Animation Teaching Delivery
107

applications, as seen in Figure 7. The second group
performed the same tasks in a reverse order. Every
participant was interviewed in a structured approach
after each task to measure his/her satisfaction,
motivation, immersion and enjoyment of the two
setups.
Figure 7: Experiment 2 – Within Subject Design
Experiment.
3.2 D iscussion
After conducting both experiments, results were
gathered and analyzed. A point system was put to
the assessment questions from one to five according
to the answers. For example, an ‘agree’ answer was
assigned one point whereas a ‘disagree’ answer was
appointed five points.
In (Lazar, Feng, and Hochheiser, 2017) and
(Camilli, and Hopkins, 1978), the authors discussed
how a Likert Scale test is conducted and analyzed. In
analysis, results of a Likert Scale questionnaire are
divided into three categories: agree, disagree, and
neutral. In order to analyze a Likert Scale test, the
total of each category as well as the grand total of all
categories should be calculated, as presented in
Table 1. Following that a Chi- square test was
performed in order to see if the hypothesis is correct
(Lazar, Feng, and Hochheiser, 2017). Table 2 shows
the calculated expected values. As presented in the
table, the expected values are the same for the
application and book because the same number of
evaluators was selected for both experiments.
Table 1: Summation of the Results for the Likert-Scale
Questionnaire Analysis.
Book only Book & App Grand total
Agree 68 83
151
Neutral 21 12
33
Disagree 11 5
16
Total 100 100 200
Table 2: Likert Scale Test - Expected Range of Values.
Book only Book and App
Agree 75.5 75.5
Neutral 16.5 16.5
Disagree 8 8
Based on a 95% confidence interval, the value
resulted is 0.045, which is less than 0.05. This
indicates that the results are not random and that our
applications improved the delivery of animation
material. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected.
Results show a great potential in that the
developed applications enhance and support the use
of the traditional book. Moreover, results showed
that the applications are easy to use and do not
require a lot of experience. Also, a lot of students
either agreed or strongly agreed that using the
applications enhanced and supported the Animator's
Survival Kit book (Williams, 2009) in the learning
process. Furthermore, all randomly selected samples
of students agreed that the use of AR and VR
technology is interesting to use in learning. In
addition, the applications gave a great perspective to
students on imagining how 3D walk cycles would
look like. All ten students agreed or strongly agreed
that they are satisfied with the developed
applications.
On the other hand, the evaluation of the book
alone proved that the book is a good resource to
depend on when teaching animation. A fair amount
of students, however, agreed on the need of having a
supportive tool to enhance the book. It is important
to mention here that our main goal is to enhance and
improve the use of the book in learning and not to
replace it. Results confirmed that the book is a very
important resource to depend on while teaching
animation.
Qualitative analysis was done to get more insights
about user satisfaction of the applications. All
interviewed students indicated that the applications
have a lot of potential to enhance the educational
process. All students showed positive opinions on
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using the AR/VR technologies in learning, where
they said it is interesting to use, adds a lot of learning
value, and gives a better experience instead of
looking at a projector in lectures. In fact, some
students said that they wished it was used currently in
learning program. Furthermore, all students agreed
that the book is not enough for the learning process
of walk cycles. They explained that the applications
give an enhanced experience and fill the void that the
book has, where some students might feel bored and
skip a few lines while reading. They also had
positive opinions on the AR/VR technologies where
they felt it added more perspective for their
imagination on how walk cycles are done. They
added that animating a walk cycle cannot be
performed depending on only the book itself. Most
students mentioned that AR technology let them
view the 3D character from all views, which made
them able to notice details of movements. Having a
3D character as a reference is more suitable than
observing a 2D image in the book.
On the other hand, students mentioned some of
the modification that can be done in future work
to enhance the usability of the applications. Some
students reported scene navigation difficulties in
finding the animated characters. This could be a
result of using VR technology for the first time.
Some students also mentioned that the accuracy of the
tilting could be enhanced. Three students wished if
the character in the VR application can move in the
environment itself so they can follow and interact
more with it.
It was noticed from the experiments that students
were impressed with the use of the AR and VR
technologies and found it interesting to use for
teaching. Some students wondered while using the
application of the reason why these technologies are
not employed enough in the teaching process of
animation. They mentioned that most students have
difficulties in lectures imagining how 3D animations
are done. In addition, they sometimes lose focus or
interest while attending lectures that use traditional
books as a mean for teaching. They noticed the
difference when they used the applications due to
the entertaining and interesting experience that they
have to offer. The applications kept them engaged in
the lesson in an amusing way.
Furthermore, taking into consideration that most
of the students that performed the second
experiment are not animation students and have no
experience in the animation field, most of them
performed the tasks correctly. In addition, although
both of the book and the applications did not mention
the twelve principles directly, most students
answered the principles related task correctly. Our
applications were developed in a way to support the
information of the book, and had some extra
information to benefit students while enjoying the
interactive experience.
4 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
WORK
This paper proposes a mobile application to support
the teaching process of animation topics. The
motivation of our work com8es from the fact that 3D
animation is considered a hard subject to learn that
requires a lot effort and dedication from students to
understand and visualize. Most students have
difficulties imagining how 3D animation would look
like before practicing the animation on any 3D
program. We attempted to lessen the effect of this
challenge by proposing an interactive content using
AR/VR technologies. Using such technologies in
learning proved to offer a new experience and
adopting them in teaching animation can benefit
students greatly in many ways.
In this study our aim was to enhance the use of
one of the most referenced animation book: The
Animator's Survival Kit. The book is used in
teaching animation at Princess Sumaya University
for Technology. The book is an important reference;
however, all examples are illustrated statically.
Supporting the book using AR/VR technologies
enhanced the reader’s understanding. We developed
two mobile applications that enable the user to
visualize some of the animation examples
in the book.
The application is based on attaching a code with
some challenging animation examples in the book.
Using a mobile device, the user can scan the code to
activate the interactive content. The content is both
animation video and explanatory audio content. This
will allow the reader a different perspective of the
material they are interested in.
To evaluate the application, we designed a
number of experiments. The evaluation of the book
itself showed that the book was easy to use and the
information gained was adequate for the learning
process of animation. Our evaluation demonstrated
that using the interactive examples improved the
readability of the book and provided new
experiences to the reader. It also showed that
providing visual and interactive example enriched
the static content.
To further improve the application, more
examples need to be designed and implemented. This
Technology Enhanced Learning using Virtual and Augmented Realities: An Applied Method to Improve the Animation Teaching Delivery
109

will be the basis to design a course over one semester
to study the impact of our proposed methodology in
terms of time and number of participants. This is
necessary as the number of students gathered to
conduct the experiment should be increased to get
more precise and accurate results.
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