The Effectiveness of Playful Augmented Reality Media for Teaching Early-Primary Students: Indonesia

This study examines whether the Humanoid 4D+ augmented reality flashcard app can make anatomy lessons more engaging for early-primary students in Solo City, Indonesia. Framed as a response to "Zoom Fatigue" that emerged when Covid-19 pushed instruction online, the work draws on playful learning and frugal education principles associated with the ACES project, and on prior research linking augmented reality and play to student engagement and creativity. Its central aim is to assess whether the app, used to teach human organ systems, offers a practical and low-cost alternative to purely screen-based remote instruction.

The investigation used a Participatory Action Research design involving 43 volunteer teachers and 132 early-primary students. Data came from open-ended survey responses collected between March and April 2021 and were analyzed thematically. Respondents reported uniformly positive perceptions of the app's engagement, usefulness, and efficiency, and the authors concluded that it is beneficial for reducing Zoom Fatigue. These conclusions rest on qualitative self-reported perceptions from a small, non-random sample, so they indicate promise rather than measured learning gains. The authors also acknowledge practical constraints, including degraded responsiveness when device storage was full and reliance on stable internet connectivity.

The scope of the work is narrow in geography, population, and subject matter: a single city in Indonesia, a limited cohort of teachers and young children, and one anatomy topic over a period of remote schooling in 2021. The reference base spans augmented reality in science education, play-based pedagogy, virtual fixtures, UNICEF guidance on early childhood learning through play, and research on student fatigue in online settings. Taken together, the study positions the app as a plausible, context-sensitive tool for early-primary science instruction, while leaving open questions about its effect on actual learning outcomes and its generalizability beyond the sampled setting.