Augmented and virtual environments for students with intellectual disability: design issues in Science Education

The number of students with Intellectual Disability (ID) enrolled in general classes increases. They appear to meet difficulties in acquiring basic science literacy skills and addressing grade-aligned curriculum. Digital technology seems to contribute to this challenge by engaging students in augmented and virtual environments, especially by enabling 3D representations of abstract and difficult to visualize physical magnitudes and phenomena. This work investigates design issues regarding the development of digital learning environments that contribute to Science Education for students with ID. In this phase, the study explores the perceptions of different groups of professionals and a student with ID regarding the structure of matter. They interacted with different versions of both an augmented and a virtual environment simulating the water vapor in microscopic view. A focus group discussion revealed important data concerning presence, simulator sickness, acceptance and satisfaction for the two environments. The results show that professionals prefer engaging, rather than scientifically aligned representations. The choice between augmented and virtual reality seems to depend on the instructional objectives and strategies based on the specific academic profile of each student with ID.