Promoting eco-agritourism using an augmented reality-based educational resource: a case study of aquaponics

ABSTRACT

Agritourism is a type of ecological tourism that combines agricultural activities with tourism. There is a growing interest in this industry worldwide, which poses both opportunities and challenges for social and natural environments. Grounded on the theory of situated learning, we developed an augmented reality-based educational resource to promote eco-agritourism – namely, to promote agritourism while encouraging tourists to be environmentally responsible. This study presents the results of an educational experiment that compared the scores of students who were instructed using a combination of the augmented reality-based educational resource and the professor's guidance with those of students who were instructed only by the professor. The study analyzed the learning outcomes and the degree of users’ motivation to learn about aquaponics in an agritourism farm. The participants were 40 volunteers who had no previous knowledge about aquaponics. The results show that the resource has a medium effect size on learning gains and a large effect on knowledge retention. Likewise, the data indicates that the resource increased users’ motivation to learn and practice responsible agritourism. These results seem to indicate that augmented reality-based resources are appropriate for promoting eco-agritourism and encourage tourists to develop a positive bond with nature.

KEYWORDS:

• Agritourism
• aquaponics
• augmented reality
• environmental education
• situated learning theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universidad Católica de Oriente [grant number 201826].

Notes on contributors

Juan Garzón

Juan Garzón, M.Sc. (Information Technologies), is a professor at the Universidad Católica de Oriente, Faculty of Engineering, in Rionegro, Colombia. Hi is also a PhD. student at the Complutense University of Madrid. His research interests include augmented reality applications for education, innovations in teaching, and special education.

Juan Acevedo

Juan Acevedo, M.Sc. (Information Technologies), is a professor at the Universidad Católica de Oriente, Faculty of Engineering. His research interest includes Augmented Reality applications for education and information technologies.

Juan Pavón

Juan Pavón, PhD. (Computer Science), is the director of the Instituto de Tecnología del Conocimiento at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. His research interests include e-learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, and smart cities.

Silvia Baldiris

Silvia Baldiris, PhD. (Computer Science), is a full professor at the Universidad Internacional de la Rioja. Her research interests include e-learning, special education, and Augmented Reality.