Displaying digital annotations on physical material: An application of augmented reality

It has been believed that courseware have to be digitalized first so that students could learn anytime and anyplace, while we are dealing with e-learning. The belief, to a certain extent, results from the prevalence of Internet. Therefore, we take it for granted that learners would prefer to access online contents. While most people believe the digital content enables students the capability to study without time and location constraints, Vernon [1] suggested that learners preferred to make paper copies of online material when the statement disallowing the behavior was not available. Furthermore, previous studies ([2][3]) also indicated that about half of students had such experiences to download or make a hardcopy of the electronic material. Taken together, the fact is that a high proportion of students are used to print out online material to help them study. The phenomenon seems surprising but reveals something important for academics and practitioners.