Learning from Immersive Augmented Reality on COVID-19 Transmission

The COVID-19 pandemic created the need to educate the public on both its transmission and protection measures. Science has confirmed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is primarily airborne and transmitted mainly through respiratory particles. More specifically, larger particles are called droplets and settle out of the air within seconds after following a short trajectory. Smaller particles are called aerosols and can remain suspended in the air from minutes to hours travelling long distances depending on air currents. An immersive Augmented Reality (AR) application was developed for Magic Leap 1 AR glasses with the aim to visualize as a first person experience the airborne COVID-19 transmission route, in addition to the distinct behaviors of droplets vs. aerosols. Forty-eight educators empirically evaluated the AR application in terms of learning outcomes. The study also investigated the role of the AR particle’s color, i.e., red or blue spherical shapes, on knowledge. A significant learning gain on virus transmission was identified using the pre and post-test method, which also revealed that the color of particles did not significantly affect participants’ test scores. This suggests that both colors, red and blue, are equally effective in representing virtually observed particles for significant learning gains. Learning outcomes were not correlated with gender, age or self-reported awareness of COVID-19 transmission. The participants also commented on the pleasant nature of the activity and highlighted its experiential nature, since it made an invisible phenomenon much easier to understand, in terms of its transmission and protection measures.