A realidade aumentada como ferramenta no ensino de anatomia da orelha humana

Abstract

Learning the anatomy of the human auditory organ presents significant challenges for students due to its structural and functional complexity. Understanding its internal parts and mechanisms requires detail and precision, which is often difficult to achieve with traditional teaching methods alone. The application of technologies such as Augmented Reality emerges as an innovative solution, providing an immersive experience and facilitating the understanding of this content. Objective: This research aims to develop an educational application based on Augmented Reality (AR) technology for teaching the human auditory organ, as well as to evaluate its pedagogical effectiveness in comparison with traditional teaching methods. Methodology: Participants were asked to complete two forms, a socioeconomic questionnaire, and the pre-test form with 16 multiple-choice questions, which was administered before receiving the class on the anatomy of the human ear. After the class, the post-test form was administered with the aim of verifying the baseline understanding of each participant's knowledge, along with semi-structured interviews to obtain information on the qualitative perceptions of the students regarding the use of the application. For the statistical processing of the data obtained, the Shapiro-Wilk tests were applied to verify normality and the Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests to validate the hypothesis, with a significance level of α = 0.05 to compare the results of the control and experimental groups, together with the Bardin content analysis technique for the qualitative processing of the interviews. The research was carried out with first-year undergraduate students of the nursing and pharmacy programs (n = 80) of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), who were divided into 2 groups as follows: Experimental group (n = 38), and Control group (n = 42). Results: A significant positive effect was proven in both the experimental group and the control group when compared to the pre-test (p < 0.001). When comparing the experimental and control groups, no statistically significant difference was found, either for the pre-test of each group (p = 0.4593) or the post-test of each group (p = 0.8960), showing that the application was equally effective when compared to the traditional teaching method. During the interviews, participants highlighted that there was a greater spatial understanding of anatomical relationships and greater engagement with the use of the application compared to traditional teaching, making the learning process clearer, more innovative, dynamic and interactive, which makes the tool serve as an important complement to practical and theoretical classes. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the use of augmented reality allows for efficient learning of the anatomy of the auditory organ and significantly improves participant engagement, but further studies need to be carried out with other organs of the human body and in other areas related to health.