Abstract:

Universities are positively welcoming the introduction of new methodologies that involve the use of new technologies. One clear example is the use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), which has transformed the education in the last decades (Education Technology, 2019). Nowadays we are living a similar movement with proliferation of augmented and virtual reality (AVR) technologies in Universities. According to Osuna and Cabero (2016), AVR technologies facilitate student learning and increase student motivation. Universidad Europea de Madrid (UEM) also bets on this technology, for which it developed the Extended Reality Laboratory (XR Lab), focused on research, evaluation and development of didactic resources supported by this technology, with the objective of measuring and improving student learning performance and student satisfaction.

The XR Lab Methodology, developed by UEM, must be understood as the set of procedures to create and evaluate learning resources based on extended reality technologies. The innovative feature of this methodology, and what differentiates it from other Digital Resource Centers at Universities, is that it combines the technological and the pedagogical viewpoint, understanding that technology is at the service of pedagogy. The procedures used in this methodology are based on existing methods. From the technological side, it follows the SCRUM model that facilitates the agile development of applications. From the pedagogical side, it follows the ADDIE Model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) and the humanist paradigm, stamp of identity of the University, through which the student learns to do and to be (Mingo, 2015).

The XR Methodology cycle consists of the following steps: In the first place, an analysis of educational needs is carried out, understanding them as problems that must be solved with the available means. Then comes the time to select the viable alternative, that is, the means that can achieve greater success and thus create the prototype. Subsequently takes place the development phase, both technological, and didactic content. In this phase, the user experience test for each prototype is also developed with the intention of checking its suitability. Approved the prototype develops the minimum viable product that must meet the minimum characteristics to meet the needs of the first users. Next, each product is piloted with students through a quasi-experimental design based on experiential learning. Finally, the evaluation is carried out, both of the project itself and of the student's training and learning. The student's experience has also been taken into account in order to continue improving the usability and satisfaction in each of the applications and developments created in the XR Lab, establishing the corresponding improvement actions.

Thanks to XR Lab methodology, an orderly planning of the design and deployment of 5 XR products and the implementation of 16 activities with students has been carried out. As a conclusion, we want to emphasize that it is so important to have the appropriate technology, as with a methodology that shows that applications with technological devices are a means to an end, but they are not an end in itself.

Keywords:

Extended Reality Laboratory, methodologies, ADDIE Model, technologies.