Using of augmented reality systems in urban and regional planning studio education

New technologies are entering into the daily part of human life day by day, changing life and learning habits. Traditional tools and methods used in the field of education leave their place to more technological tools and methods. The tools and methods used in urban and regional planning studio education have also changed in line with the needs that have emerged over time. Planning studio education has taken its current form by adding the needs of the period on top of the knowledge it has been fed from the past. However, traditional planning studio education may be insufficient to evaluate today's multiple spatial digital data together, to read and understand dynamically by visualizing the space at different scales. The purpose of this research is to explore the positive and negative contributions of augmented reality, a new technology, to urban and regional planning studio education. The results of incorporating augmented reality technology into planning studio education have been revealed within the scope of this research. In the first stage of the experiment, a group of 60 undergraduate and graduate students selected were asked to examine the Hakkari Çukurca and Şırnak Güneyçam regions by using the traditional planning studio education method, and to make spatial planning decisions based on analysis/synthesis. In the second stage of the experiment, the same group of students were asked to experience the pre-prepared digital augmented reality world related to Hakkari Çukurca and Şırnak Güneyçam regions by wearing Hololens glasses and using tablet computers. The contributions of augmented reality technology to urban and regional planning studio education were discovered by using both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods. Quantitative data in the research were collected using the "Planning Studio Course Competency Acquisition Questionnaire" which was originally developed within the scope of the study, and statistically analysed using a single-group pre-test-post-test experimental design. Qualitative data in the research were collected using a semi-structured in-depth interview form and analysed with the "content analysis" method. In this direction, the answers given to the questions were divided into themes and codes, and the frequency and percentage values of the answers were extracted. The result of the research showed that the learning, competence and achievement score of 59.17 obtained with the traditional planning studio education method increased to 82.53 with the introduction of the augmented reality method. Therefore, augmented reality has made a positive contribution of approximately 40% to the level of learning, competence and achievement offered by traditional planning studio education. It has been understood that the biggest advantage of incorporating augmented reality technology into planning studio education is that it saves planning students from labour-intensive work in the education process and directs them to mind-intensive works. Augmented reality technology has prevented details from being overlooked in planning studio education, brought students closer to spatial reality, prepared the ground for multidimensional and holistic thinking, activated creative intelligence, provided qualified and permanent learning, liberated the mind, and allowed to do great things in small spaces. The integration of augmented reality technology into urban and regional planning education has changed the way students perceive space and has led them to make more free/original planning and designs. This study is original because it reveals the potential of augmented reality technology in terms of developing urban and regional planning education in line with the needs of the age and discovers ways to activate the learning skills of planning students in innovative/alternative ways.