As a result of several governments closing educational facilities in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, almost 80% of the world’s students were not in school for several weeks. Schools and universities are thus increasing their efforts to leverage educational resources and provide possibilities for remote learning. A variety of educational programs, platforms, and technologies are now accessible to support student learning; while these tools are important for society, they are primarily concerned with the dissemination of theoretical material. There is a lack of support for hands-on laboratory work and practical experience. This is particularly important for all disciplines related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), where labs and pedagogical assets must be continuously enhanced in order to provide effective study programs. In this study, we describe a unique perspective to achieving multi-sensory learning through the integration of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) with haptic wearables in STEM education. We address the implications of a novel viewpoint on established pedagogical notions. We want to encourage worldwide efforts to make fully immersive, open, and remote laboratory learning a reality.

Digital storytelling platforms have proven to be a great way of bringing cultural heritage closer to people. What lacks is a deeper understanding of the user experience of such systems, especially in multi-platform digital storytelling. For the last three years, we have been developing a project called Spotlight Heritage Timisoara, which is at its core a digital storytelling platform for the city of Timisoara (Romania), soon to be European Capital of Culture in 2023. The project consists of a website, mobile applications, and interactive museographic and street exhibitions. This paper presents a multi-platform usability evaluation study which employed semi-structured interviews, observations, think-aloud protocol, SUS questionnaire, Net Promoter Score and Product Reaction Cards to gather insights from 105 participants and reveal usability problems in the Spotlight Heritage context. We found out that the four platforms, i.e., interactive touchscreen table, desktop/laptop, mobile and Augmented Reality, have very good usability scores, are considered accessible and useful, work seamlessly together, and create user satisfaction and loyalty, across demographic groups, having the potential to bring people closer to cultural heritage.

Computer Vision is a cross-research field with the main purpose of understanding the surrounding environment as closely as possible to human perception. The image processing systems is continuously growing and expanding into more complex systems, usually tailored to the certain needs or applications it may serve. To better serve this purpose, research on the architecture and design of such systems is also important. We present the End-to-End Computer Vision Framework, an open-source solution that aims to support researchers and teachers within the image processing vast field. The framework has incorporated Computer Vision features and Machine Learning models that researchers can use. In the continuous need to add new Computer Vision algorithms for a day-to-day research activity, our proposed framework has an advantage given by the configurable and scalar architecture. Even if the main focus of the framework is on the Computer Vision processing pipeline, the framework offers solutions to incorporate even more complex activities, such as training Machine Learning models. EECVF aims to become a useful tool for learning activities in the Computer Vision field, as it allows the learner and the teacher to handle only the topics at hand, and not the interconnection necessary for visual processing flow.

Eye-tracking technologies have matured significantly in recent years and have become more affordable and easier to use. We investigated how eye-tracking technology can be applied to evaluate the usability of mobile augmented reality applications with historical images for urban cultural heritage. The experiment involved a series of complex user evaluation sessions, combining semi-structured interviews, observations, think-aloud protocol, SUS questionnaire, and product reaction cards, complemented by eye tracking, to gather insights on the Spotlight Timisoara AR mobile application, part of a digital storytelling multiplatform for the city of Timisoara (Romania), soon to be European Capital of Culture in 2023. The results indicate strong and weak aspects of the application, both as expressed by the participants and as derived from analyzing the eye-tracking data. The paper also lists the main challenges we identified in using eye-tracking equipment to evaluate the usability of such mobile augmented reality applications for urban outdoor heritage.

Virtual reality technologies have been demonstrated to produce encouraging results in the educational process. However, adoption of virtual reality-based instruction among educators has yet to see significant numbers. One of the reasons is the technical difficulty in authoring custom-made VR experiences for students. In this paper, we propose criteria for choosing VR authoring tools that are appropriate for usage in education and apply them to such current platforms. We also present a case study of learning collaboration project that revolved around the usage of VR authoring tools. We conclude with some recommendations regarding additional features that would enhance the exploitation of current VR authoring tools in education.