One of the concerns in service mathematics courses, such as calculus for engineering, is students’ interest in these studies. Research suggests that engineering undergraduates’ lack of awareness about the importance of mathematics for their study success and for their careers contributes to their low motivation for mathematics. An approach to increasing student motivation is to take advantage of technological tools to provide students with more engaging learning experiences. Recent studies showed that augmented reality (AR) enhances student engagement, motivation, and knowledge retention. However, implementing AR can be challenging since it can be quite costly and technically complex. The current paper describes a case study in which an AR application was designed and developed using WebXR, in the context of a service mathematics course for teaching calculus. The AR content involves drawing of level curves and the visualization of a volcano and the flow of lava to support students’ learning of directional derivatives. A pilot study was conducted to examine engineering undergraduates’ perceptions of using AR for learning mathematics. Results show that students perceived using AR for learning math as enjoyable and motivating. Students reported that AR content adds value to their classes by making the mathematical concepts clearer and helping them apply what they have learned to real life. However, the AR content did not work well on all mobile phones and all versions of web browsers. Lessons learned from the design and development of AR using WebXR as well as recommendations for future studies are discussed in this paper. @en

Using 3D design models, this study aims to better involve patients in the design of hospitals by investigating what physical environmental characteristics in hospital patient rooms are valued by patients. There is a plea for shared-decision-making and collaborative design processes with representatives from healthcare and the construction sector based on evidence and end users’ perspectives. Existing research is hampered by poor conceptualization of environmental design factors, as these are differently operationalized between medical and technological sciences. Architects communicate through visuals, whereas medical professionals and researchers tend to communicate in words. By using 3D-modeling to research the relationship between health and well-being on the one hand, and the affordances the built environment offers, this knowledge gap can be better addressed. Two hundred four respondents, 60% patients and 40% medical professionals, engaged in discrete choice experiments visualizing a single patient room. A main finding is that patients and medical professionals consistently choose for hospital rooms with the highest amount of daylight access. What this study adds is that the orientation of the windows matters as well. Horizontal windows, allowing for a panoramic view, were twice as much chosen than were vertical windows. Another important finding concerns patients’ preferences for an open door, suggesting patients prefer to stay “connected” to the outside world. This study is important as it shows, empirically, that patients may make different choices if in research the rooms are better conceptualized and thus visualized and if multiple design features are assessed as configuration rather than using a sequential, “one-design-characteristic-after-another” approach.@en

To investigate whether different colours of the indoor surfaces could have an effect on thermal comfort of children, 335 primary school children were invited to take part in a series of tests conducted in the thermal test chamber of the SenseLab. A three-way factorial randomized design was used to test the effect of three different colours of walls (white, red and blue) and floor (grey, green and blue) on the temperature and draught feeling in a winter situation (sunlight coming in: heat) and a summer situation (opening window: draught). A statistical relevant relationship between feeling of draught and feeling of temperature was found. Except for a significant difference in temperature feeling for different floor colours when the wall colour was red in the winter situation, no relevant effects (or interaction effects) were found for differences in wall or floor colours on the temperature or draught feeling.@en