Visualizing learners'internal state with augmented reality technology in distance education systems

以往的研究表明，在一般的远程教育环境中，新手教师往往无法执行有效的教育干预远程学习者由于恶化的数量和质量的通信信息。这种不充分的教育互动进一步导致学习者的满意度低和学习成果差。针对这一问题，作者开发了一个新的同步远程教育系统。该系统由学习者内部状态估计（LISE）算法和增强的学习者状态可视化（LSV）系统两个子系统组成，能够为教师提供足够的学习者状态信息，保证教师和学习者之间更好的教育交流。LISE算法根据学习者头部位置的时间序列轨迹来估计学习者的学习状态。评估测试表明，LISE算法具有令人满意的准确性，在状态估计和LSV系统支持教师感知学习者的状态比以往任何时候都更容易，与AR的帮助下。作为一个结论，本研究表明，可视化学习者的状态与AR有利于感知学习者的状态，教师在同步远程教育环境中，促进有效的干预措施，以远程学习者。

Previous researches reported that, in general distance education environments, novice instructors tend to fail to perform effective educational interventions to distant learners due to deterioration of the quantity and the quality of communication information. This inadequate educational interaction further results in low learners’ satisfaction and poor learning outcomes. The authors addressed this issue by developing a new synchronous distance education system. The system was designed to provide instructors with enough learner’s status information, to ensure better educational communications between instructors and learners at the far end.The system consists of two subsystems, i.e. (i) learner’s internal state estimation (LISE) algorithm and (ii) AR enhanced learner’s state visualization (LSV) system. LISE algorithm estimates learner’s learning status based on time series trajectory of their head positions. Evaluation test revealed that LISE algorithm holds satisfactory accuracy in status estimation and that LSV system supports instructors to perceive learner’s status more easily than ever, with the help of AR.As a conclusion, this study demonstrated that visualizing learner’s status with AR facilitates the perception of learner’s status by instructors in synchronous distance education environment and promotes effective interventions to distant learners.