Reality matters? exploring a tangible user interface for augmented-reality-based fire education

When fire disasters are imminent, disaster prevention measures and relief plans are critical. However, “fire education” to equip civilians with the know-how to cope with various emergencies and protect themselves is perhaps more important. To provide learning materials which are interesting, appealing, flexible, safe, and efficient for fire education, this study adopts an augmented reality (AR) technique to create an interactive fire education learning environment. This study constructs an interactive learning environment for fire education and examines the learning effectiveness between an AR card and tangible-user-interface-based (TUI) AR in motivation, fire prevention attitude, and cognitive learning outcome. In the proposed AR interactive learning environment, Kolb’s experiential learning cycle is used to guide students’ learning process. There were 170 experimental participants in this study; 86 were assigned to the experimental group using the TUI, and 84 to the control group using AR cards. The AR system integrated with experiential learning could improve students’ fire prevention attitudes and learning outcomes in both groups. Moreover, the experimental group performed better in the cognitive learning outcome and had lower mental loads than the control group. However, no difference in the fire prevention attitude between the two groups was found. In other words, the “object-linked” characteristics provided by TUI-AR benefits cognitive performance rather than attitude. To conclude, this research presents an important perspective on the introduction of technology into fire education that contributes to the broader body of teaching and learning on school fire education.