Augmented reality is increasingly used in the educational domain. However, little is known concerning the actual importance of AR for learning English skills. The weakness of the English language among English as a foreign Language (EFL) students is widespread in different educational institutions. Accordingly, this paper aims at exploring the importance of AR for learning English skills from the perspectives of English language teachers and educators. Mixed qualitative methods were used. To achieve the objective of this study, 12 interviews were conducted with English teachers concerning the topic under investigation. Second, a systematic literature review (SLR) that demonstrates the advantages, the limitation, and the approach of AR for learning English was performed. This study is different from other studies in using two methods and conducting comprehensive research on the importance of AR in improving English language skills in general. Thus, the study concluded that AR improves language skills and academic achievements. It also reduces students’ anxiety levels, improves students’ creativity, and increases students’ collaboration and engagement. Moreover, the students have positive attitudes towards using AR for learning the English language. The findings present important implications for the integration and development of AR for learning.

The plurality of current infotainment devices within the in-vehicle space produces an unprecedented volume of incoming data that overwhelm the typical driver, leading to higher collision probability. This work presents an investigation to an alternative option which aims to manage the incoming information while offering an uncluttered and timely manner of presenting and interacting with the incoming data safely. The latter is achieved through the use of an augmented reality (AR) head-up display (HUD) system, which projects the information within the driver’s field of view. An uncluttered gesture recognition interface provides the interaction with the AR visuals. For the assessment of the system’s effectiveness, we developed a full-scale virtual reality driving simulator which immerses the drivers in challenging, collision-prone, scenarios. The scenarios unfold within a digital twin model of the surrounding motorways of the city of Glasgow. The proposed system was evaluated in contrast to a typical head-down display (HDD) interface system by 30 users, showing promising results that are discussed in detail.

Multidisciplinary topics in education pose a major challenge for traditional learning and teaching methods. Such topics can deter students from selecting particular courses or hinder their study progress. This study focused on the subject of medicinal chemistry, which is a discipline combining medicine and chemistry. This combination of applied and basic science creates a complex field of education that is challenging to both teach and learn. Chemical and pharmacological principles are typically presented in 2D molecular structures and, recently, 3D molecular models have been utilized to improve the visualization of chemical compounds and their chemical interactions. Contemporary studies have presented Virtual Reality (VR) as an alternative method for improving the learning and teaching of multidisciplinary specialties such as this. However, current educational efforts employing VR offer limited interactivity and a traditional teaching method previously presented in 2D. This reduces students’ interest and concentration in the taught subjects. This paper presents the development rationale of a novel VR educational application based on the evaluation of the user requirements by 405 pharmacy undergraduate students. The results informed the development and preliminary evaluation of a proposed VR serious game application, which was deployed in a real-life class environment and evaluated in contrast to traditional teaching methods by 15 students. The derived results confirmed the advantages of VR technology as a learning and teaching tool, in addition to the end-users’ willingness to adopt VR systems as a learning aid.

Medicinal chemistry (MC) is an indispensable component of the pharmacy curriculum. The pharmacists’ unique knowledge of a medicine’s chemistry enhances their understanding of the pharmacological activity, manufacturing, storage, use, supply, and handling of drugs. However, chemistry is a challenging subject for both teaching and learning. These challenges are typically caused by the inability of students to construct a mental image of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a drug molecule from its two-dimensional presentations. This study explores a prototype virtual reality (VR) gamification option, as an educational tool developed to aid the learning process and to improve the delivery of the MC subject to students. The developed system is evaluated by a cohort of 41 students. The analysis of the results was encouraging and provided invaluable feedback for the future development of the proposed system.

Difficulty in understanding the feelings and behavior of other people is considered one of the main symptoms of autism. Computer technology has increasingly been used in interventions with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), especially augmented reality, to either treat or alleviate ASD symptomatology. Augmented reality is an engaging type of technology that helps children interact easily and understand and remember information, and it is not limited to one age group or level of education. This study utilized AR to display faces with six different basic facial expressions—happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger—to help children to recognize facial features and associate facial expressions with a simultaneous human condition. The most important point of this system is that children can interact with the system in a friendly and safe way. Additionally, our results showed the system enhanced social interactions, talking, and facial expressions for both autistic and typical children. Therefore, AR might have a significant upcoming role in talking about the therapeutic necessities of children with ASD. This paper presents evidence for the feasibility of one of the specialized AR systems.