Using Augmented Reality to Foster Collaboration in the Classroom

We recently sat down with Jaime Donally, Instructional Strategist and expert on AR/VR in education, and Renee Dawson, an Educational Special Technology Specialist for Atlanta Public Schools, to talk about integrating Augmented Reality (AR) into lessons to complement core curriculum. In the third and final part of this series, Jaime and our content specialists discussed how augmented reality can be used to foster collaboration and competition to boost engagement.

Click here for a quick refresher on what augmented reality is and how it can be used in education, and here for a deep dive into using augmented reality to gamify learning.

What is McGraw Hill AR?

McGraw Hill AR is a free augmented reality app we created in partnership with Verizon for its Verizon Innovative Learning initiative, which seeks to bridge the digital divide by providing digital skills training to 10 million students by 2030. The app supplements any core curriculum by providing hands-on multi-sensory experiences on challenging, abstract, or “routine” topics to engage students and open up new opportunities for learning. These bite-sized, standards-aligned experiences give teachers flexibility in integration while helping students learn a concept in minutes. The app library currently includes science, social studies, and math. McGraw Hill AR is available for tablets and smartphones, but some web-based activities are available on mharonline.com.

By the start of the 2024 back-to-school season, all activities will be available in Spanish and for web, and new features will be available, such as a scratch pad and a calculator. Over the next few years, our team will be creating dozens more activities branching into new subject areas — so stay tuned!

Download McGraw Hill AR on your phone here:

Why Augmented Reality is a Match for Collaborative Learning

Educators strive to create collaborative learning opportunities so that students can obtain social and emotional skills, learn from each other, and have fun. Collaboration boosts confidence and creativity and allows students to practice important interpersonal skills they’ll need in college and career. But it can be hard to find the time and space for collaboration in the classroom — it requires flexibility, and for the teacher to release control, and leads to a messy, loud classroom. When designed with purpose, AR can provide bite-sized, meaningful, engaging moments for collaboration that are easily embedded into a lesson alongside direct instruction and individual work. The immersive nature of AR, and its flexibility to be used on shared devices, make it a great candidate for collaborative work.

Purposefully designed educational AR should present opportunities for competition, too. We know that competition is key to motivation and engagement. Gamified augmented reality can capture students’ attention by leveraging competition in learning.

Collaboration in McGraw Hill AR

Our content specialists updated McGraw Hill AR to feature group activities that create engaging, quick opportunities for collaboration and competition. Here are two options for using McGraw Hill AR in student groups:

Option 1: Collaboration in Solo Play

When we told teachers we would be adding group activities in McGraw Hill AR, many of them told us they were already using the app for collaboration! Here’s how they do it:

• Students share devices.
• Every McGraw Hill AR activity follows an Observe, Explore, Evaluate approach. Students watch the Observe phase of the activity together.
• They use the “reset” button in the Explore phase of the activity to take turns completing the activity on a shared device. Students coach each other through the activities and discuss challenges.
• Finally, they work together answering the Evaluate portion of the activity.

Option 2: Group Play

The group play feature is currently available in three activities across Math, Science, and Social Studies respectively: Quadratic Functions, Law of Reflection, and Space Race. The group activities still follow the Observe, Explore, Evaluate approach. They can be done in-person or remotely in a virtual school or hybrid environment — students don’t have to be in the same room! Each group activity can include up to four students, and teachers need to appoint a leader (or let the group decide) for each activity.

Stay tuned for a new feature that will push boundaries for collaboration even further: we’re working to integrate Persistent AR into the app, a technology that will allow students to create something in that real-life location for other students to discover in the app later.

How Collaborative AR Enhances Learning Across Subjects

Here’s an example of how McGraw Hill AR fosters collaboration and uses competition to boost engagement, across subjects:

History: The Space Race activity uses competition among students to reflect the competition between countries during the Cold War, giving students an immersive, engaging perspective into geopolitics. Students work in groups to complete various space missions that represent monumental US achievements, gathering historical context from newspapers that reflect key space race events throughout the activity.

Science: In the Law of Reflection activity, students play miniature golf in the AR environment, utilizing the Law of Reflection to accurately hit balls off walls and around barriers, allowing them to discover a complex concept for themselves through play. The gamified experience uses competition to motivate students to master their understanding of the concept and score higher than their peers.

Math: Our designers chose to create a Quadratic Function activity using AR because they wanted to give students the opportunity to discover the relationship between variables in an equation rather than just being taught what can often feel like a dry topic. The group version of the activity uses collaboration to encourage students to work together and discuss relationships as they explore the concept by setting off fireworks.

To learn more about McGraw Hill AR, click here. To watch a recording of this conversation, click here.