The effect of augmented reality applications in architectural education on students' academic achievement and attitudes

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of augmented reality applications in architectural education on students' academic achievement and attitudes. For this purpose, an augmented reality application was designed for "Turkish architecture in pre-Islamic Asia, and sources of Anatolian Turkish architecture with Uyghur, Karakhanid, Ghaznavid and Great Seljuk architectures" course contents for the History of Architecture course. With the designed augmented reality application, it is aimed to contribute to the academic success of the students. In the study, sequential explanatory design, which is one of the mixed methods in which both quantitative and qualitative research methods are used together, was preferred. In the quantitative part, one-group pre-test-post-test model, which is one of the weak experimental designs, was used, and in the qualitative part, semi-structured interview form was used. Fırat University architecture students (45 students) constitute the sample of the study. In addition to classical learning techniques, augmented reality applications were used in the study group during the 8-week period. At the beginning and at the end of the process, achievement test and attitude scale were applied to the study group in the form of pre-test-post-test. The obtained data were analyzed in the SPSS 26 statistical program. Since the data obtained in the study showed normal distribution, dependent groups t-test was used. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the achievement test and attitude scale pre-test-post-test mean scores of the students. According to these results, it has been determined that augmented reality applications increase academic success and student attitudes in architectural education.