Peer Review

Aurasma Studio (online)

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Feb 25, 2016 by Teacher Education

Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Aurasma Studio provides a powerful drag-and-drop web studio that enables anyone to easily create, manage, and track augmented reality experiences. It is the key component that makes the Aurasma app the key to unlocking created AR experiences.
Background Information: This app created by Aurasma Studios allows users to create and view augmented reality on mobile technology, most popularly used with a smartphone. Augmented reality (AR) is simply an overlay of detailed information onto another object such as an image in order to create a composition of information for the user. Think the blue and yellow scrimmage and 1st down lines you see when watching a football game. Aurasma calls the added detailed information an aura. Aurasma allows you to easily create your own object overlays to produce new outcomes by linking different types of content simultaneously. For example, AR would allow you to point your phone at the sports section of a newspaper and queue up video replays of the game for you to view. In the classroom, a student could point their phone at a project description and have it queue up an interactive walkthrough for each step with specific details and reminders along the way. Aurasma allows for this kind of interactivity. Aurasma allows users to create or view augmented reality (AR) experiences that blend the physical and digital using a mobile device's camera. Simply point your device's viewfinder at an object or photo (called the "trigger") in physical space, and wait for the Aura, an interactive experience that transforms the trigger image into a video, an animation, or another image on the device's screen. For Aurasma to work, the triggers must have an attached Aura. Users can start by browsing a collection of pre-created Auras, created by Aurasma or by other users who chose to make their Auras public. The pre-created Auras include triggers such as fast food logos, images of superheroes, pictures of celebrities, and even pictures of dollar bills. To create their own Auras, students or teachers choose an overlay and a trigger. An overlay is a video, an image, or an animation that will appear when someone finds the trigger object or photo. Aurasma offers a library of overlays to choose from, but users are also free to create their own. Users can save their Auras as either public or private, choose whether to add them to a specific channel in Aurasma's library, and share their Auras with others.
Type of Material:: Simulation
Recommended Uses:: There are endless ways that educators and students can use Aurasma. Some examples include interactive journals or newspaper articles, enhanced classroom rules or expectations, enhanced labels, diagrams or posters, interactive word walls, how-to videos, yearbook, school or community tour and interactive art exhibits. This app is currently being explored at great length in commercial business but has not made many in-roads in education. This app can allow students to go far beyond classroom walls and connect student access to resources both physical and digital, and then share those newly created composites with others. Homework, especially math, would have an entirely new process if Aurasma were used. For example, teachers could create an explanation in text or video for each math problem type that a student encounters at home. Instead of flipping through a text book and reading the steps, the student could point their camera at the problem and the explanation would be given to them in the same way it was explained in the classroom; or, a link to another video found online that explains it step by step a little differently (Khan Academy, for example). Basically, this provides support to the student immediately rather than hoping the student will pull these resources up for him/herself. It removes the extra step of searching for homework help online that many students might not otherwise bother to do. Even though AR does this for them, it could promote students to recognize which resources to go to in the future if AR is not available and, therefore, promote self-directed learning.
Technical Requirements:: Internet access needed. Aurasma Studio is free to use, as is the Aurasma app that works in conjunction with Aurasma Studio.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Aurasma Studio provides a fairly easy online means for linking or connecting trigger images to overlays to create auras. The auras are the augmented reality that happens when users open the Aurasma app and hold it over a trigger image. Another words, Aurasma Studio is where the connections are made to make the augmented reality happen. Aurasma's goal is to bridge the physical and virtual worlds through your phone or tablet. The system allows you to take a physical image and turn it into an interactive element.
Target Student Population:: elementary, middle, and high school students; college students; general adult population Based on research done by reviewers, the app has been used from grades 4 and up. It has been used across the curriculum from reading to math to science. Some especially engaging related arts courses, especially music and art have increased student participation in a couple of studies dedicated to augmented reality (AR).
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Internet access; ability to upload digital images and video clips is helpful. Moderate use of mobile technology, especially using the camera and attach functions are helpful. No experience with augmented reality or programming is required.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: Aurasma Studio provides exploration of auras and augmented reality created by others to see, learn, and follow. And by making your created auras public, others will be able to see, learn, and follow your creations online as well. Aurasma Studio also has an area for your assets (uploaded images used for triggers and overlays), and a section for your created auras for duplicating, editing, or deleting. Basically, Aurasma Studio is your online "command center" for creating augmented reality. It works very well with the free Aurasma app. Since the content of the auras are created by the user, the educational concepts and curriculum covered can vary. This site allows the user to be the creator of augmented reality and not just the recipient of it.
Concerns:: Much of the pre-created auras on the site do not connect easily with student learning. This is probably because of the scarcity of educators and students using it.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: Aurasma provides a way for you to link your physical world to your digital world for an educational interaction. The potential for making learning engaging, fun, and relevant is very high. Instructors and students can use this site to create a variety and range of learning experiences on any given topic. It is simply a matter of connecting an image, picture or object to another image, video, animation, URL, etc. The created auras can be used to introduce unit or lesson content, make a historical figure come alive, link to notes or relevant articles, embed rubrics, and more. The use of the augmented reality is highly engaging. Pedagogically, adding video or animations to static content can help students make deeper, real-world connections to abstract or hard-to-relate-to ideas. The best uses of Aurasma, however, require inventive implementation. Users are only limited by their imaginations.
Concerns:: One deficiency in effectiveness for this tool, which is no different than any other tool, is that students can become side-tracked with unrelated content. One way to mitigate this might be allowing them time to "play" with the tool for a while before settling into content.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The Aurasma Studio site is clearly labeled--Explore, Assets, My Auras, along with the user's account information, Help, and Create New Aura, all at the top of the page. Under the Explore page, you can search by topic or hashtag to see public examples of auras created by others. The Assets page (uploaded content used for triggers and overlays) and My Auras page (your saved auras that can be edited or deleted) are your work areas within Aurasma Studio. The Help page is chock full of information that includes, Getting Started with Aurasma--four short video clips, Frequently Asked Questions, the Aurasma Community Network, information on the top five advance topics, and searchable database, and an email contact for support. The free Aurasma app is used to view the created auras made in this online Aurasma Studio site.
Concerns:: The basic user guide and extensive online video help get students started. The user-created content is uneven in quality, but it can help kids and teachers get ideas for their own creations. Also, educators will need to set aside a weekend to play with and learn to use this app on their own before introducing it to students.

Other Issues and Comments:: Users have the option to share their creations, or make them private. No user information is transferred in the Aurasma environment. Since there is a studio showing user created content, there are varying levels of maturity for some content. For example, there are some controversial topics that are appropriate for high school level but not elementary. There are standards that the site maintains that are appropriate for a general audience, and occasionally for a "PG" audience.
Creative Commons: