Digitizing Project-Based Learning: Augmented Reality Using Microsoft HoloLens 2

A SAIT faculty member combined passion and technology to positively impact student comprehension. By digitizing the project-based learning approach that apprenticeship training is known for, he brought apprenticeship training into the 21st century. Motivated by the challenges imposed by COVID-19 restrictions, he created 3D building models, complete with water and drainage systems, and toured students through these spaces virtually using Microsoft HoloLens 2. Students look through the faculty member’s eyes as he walks through the building and has them detail out code requirements for the plumbing system. The size and type of the building’s plumbing system is limited only to the imagination. A traditional physical shop space can only replicate a two-story house. This innovator is instructing on attributes that cannot feasibly be duplicated on the physical campus. Synchronous online delivery of instruction using MS Teams and visual representation of various plumbing systems has greatly enhanced student understanding, better preparing them for the future of work.

Innovator

• Fred Bretzke, Instructor, Construction