Application of Augmented Reality Module for Alkane Derivatives to Improve Students' Spatial Ability and Mastery of Concepts

Application of the augmented reality alkane derivative compounds module to improve students' spatial ability and mastery of concepts


Introduction
Chemistry learning needs to include three levels of chemical representation, namely the macroscopic, sub-microscopic, and symbolic levels (Treagust, 2019).Barke et al. (2008) and Luviani et al. (2021) stated that fulfilling these three levels of chemical representation can make it easier for students to understand chemical material.The use of multiple chemical representations during learning can help students develop cognitive structures and reduce cognitive load (Baptista et al., 2019;Upahi et al., 2019).Students' understanding of the three levels of chemistry forms an interconnection slice known as a chemical mental model.The research results of Sucitra et al. (2016) showed that the mental model of high school students in relation to the concept of hydrocarbons still belongs to the category of alternative mental models.This mental model shows that students' understanding of macroscopic, sub-microscopic, and symbolic concepts of hydrocarbons has many errors (Bongers et al., 2019).
The concepts of alkane compounds and their derivatives are abstract concepts with concrete examples.This concept is one of the chemistry concepts that involves the ability to visualize 3-dimensional shapes from 2-dimensional shapes, the rotation and reflection of molecules, and the structures of organic chemical compounds in various forms (Harle & Towns, 2011).Understanding materials with these characteristics involves the ability to visualize 3-dimensional shapes from 2-dimensional shapes, the rotation and reflection of molecules, and the structures of organic chemical compounds in various forms (Harle & Towns, 2011).Rahmawati et al. (2021) found that chemical concepts related to molecular shapes, hydrocarbons, isomers, and reaction mechanisms often lead to misconceptions among students.According to Tamami & Dwiningsih (2020), the difficulty in understanding chemistry, especially molecular geometry, is visualizing it in 3D.These findings indicate that students have a cognitive load in learning the concept of hydrocarbons.The use of augmented reality (AR) in learning can reduce cognitive load.In addition, AR also increases learning satisfaction, improves students' observation abilities from different perspectives, provides scaffolding for students to solve problems, and improves concept memorization better (Papakostas, 2021).The results of research conducted by Bodner & Guay (1997) confirmed that there was a correlation between students' spatial abilities and their understanding of chemistry related to representation.This ability can be enhanced through interventions in learning (Harle & Towns, 2011).
AR in the field of education is an innovation that can increase student learning motivation and enhance a fun learning environment for students.AR was found to be a technology that can train spatial abilities (Guntur et al., 2020), increase the ability to represent submicroscopic geometric molecular materials (Wulandari et al., 2019), increase motivation to explore the laboratory (Huwer & Siebert, 2018), as well as increase motivation (Mazzuco et al., 2021).Papakostas stated that AR can enhance motivation, academic performance, positive attitude, and visualize abstract concepts (Papaskostas, et al., 2021).Spatial abilities require practice in their development.Through AR, this ability has the potential to be developed better.AR in education can be applied alone or in combination with various other learning technologies.Research on the development of ARassisted e-modules has previously been carried out.Hurrahman et al. (2022) development of AR-assisted e-modules at the university level for molecular shape matter.The results of research conducted by Irwansyah et al. (2017) showed that the development of AR-based media has the potential to be applied to molecular geometry materials.Lam et al. (2020) developed the ARChemEx application, which is an interactive AR for chemical experiments.The results of his research show that the application is able to help students conduct chemical experiments to enhance awareness of the dangers of chemicals.The results of his research also showed several weaknesses, namely: 1) the progress of the chemical experiment was unclear; users did not know exactly which step they were in; 2) the application experienced lag during the experiment; 3) the application was not very helpful in raising awareness of the dangers of chemicals; and 4) the application is difficult to use.
Alkane derivative compounds are hydrocarbon compounds derived from the alkane group in which one or more H atoms are replaced by certain atoms or groups of atoms.To make a student understand this concept at a macroscopic, sub-microscopic, and symbolic level, similar research at the secondary school level needs to be conducted to reveal its impact on spatial abilities and conceptual mastery.Thus, training the visualization of twodimensional molecular structures into three dimensions by generating, maintaining, and manipulating abstract visual images needs to be developed to understand the concept of hydrocarbons.
Article review conducted by Velazquez & Mendez (2021) concluded that although there has been an increase in research on the application of AR in STEM subjects over the past decade, very little formal research has focused on the impact of AR on students' spatial intelligence.Based on this description, the use of augmented reality needs to be packaged in a form that is more flexible in its use.In this study, an AR module for alkane derivatives, abbreviated as ARMAD applied to improve students' spatial abilities and mastery of concepts about alkane-derived compounds on Senior High School students.Thus, the purpose of this study is to find out the effect of an AR module for alkane derivatives on students' spatial abilities and mastery of concepts about alkane-derived compounds.

Methods
This study applied the pre-experimental method with a one-group pre-test and posttest design (Fraenkel et al., 2005).Participants were 60 of 10th-grade high school students in Sukabumi region, West Java.The determination of participants was carried out by purposive sampling based on certain considerations.The considerations used in this purposive sampling are students who have mobile devices to run the the ARMAD module.
Spatial ability was measured using an instrument with 8 questions (5 multiple-choice questions and 3 essay questions).The aspects of spatial ability that are measured are visual-spatial ability, spatial orientation, and spatial relationships (Lohman, 1979).The instrument for collecting data on concept mastery used 20 multiple-choice questions on alkane derivative compounds based on Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwol, 2001).All the instruments were filled out by students as pre-test and post-test.
The increase in spatial ability and mastery of concepts was analyzed using the normalized-gain test (Hake, 1999).Categorization of the significance of the increase in the pretest-posttest score of mastery of the concept was determined by a non-parametric test, namely the Wilcoxon Test after the prerequisite test was carried out first.Categorization of N-gain showed in Table 1.

Results and Discussion
The ARMAD module was implemented face-to-face with 60 students of class XI MIPA to improve their spatial abilities and mastery of the concept of alkane compounds.The findings on increasing students' spatial abilities are presented in Figure 1.

Spatial Ability
Pre-Tets Post-Test Based on Figure 1, the mean initial score spatial abilities of students in the three aspects show different scores.All measured spatial abilities increased rapidly after learning with the ARMAD module.Spatial visual ability was the weakest ability mastered before the implementation of the ARMAD module.This finding supports the previous findings put forward by Velazquez and Mendez (2021).AR in the STEM area provides greater benefits for users with low visuospatial abilities.Figure 1 also shows that the implementation of the ARMAD module has succeeded in improving all aspects of students' visual abilities.The highest students' spatial ability is achieved in the aspect of spatial orientation, followed by spatial relations, and visual-spatial relations, respectively.AR integrated into the e-module is appropriate in increasing the development of students' spatial abilities.Students have flexible time in accessing material that is presented in digital form with the addition of AR in it.According to Velazquez & Mendez (2021), AR-assisted learning with the right methodology has a positive effect on the development of students' spatial intelligence in STEM subjects.
Details of the N-gain for each aspect of spatial ability are shown in Table 2. Based on these data, it is known that the mean of N-gain score is in the high category, with N-gain = 0.87.In detail, all aspects of the spatial ability achieved by students show a high N-gain category.The highest spatial aspect is achieved in the aspect of spatial orientation, with a score of 0.97, followed by spatial relations and visual-spatial relations, respectively.The high N-gain score of the three aspects of spatial ability shows that the use of the ARMAD module can train students to develop their spatial abilities.This module is equipped with markers that are integrated with the augmented reality technology contained in the ARMAD application.In the developed ARMAD module, there is a section that contains a description of the material, compound structure, and/or reaction equations.On the structure of alkane compounds and equipped with AR molecular structure.The material description is presented contextually.
AR objects in the form of three-dimensional molecules presented in the ARMAD module are designed so that students can manipulate them by zooming in, zooming out, rotating and sliding them.AR helps students to visualize complex alkane derivative concepts.Mazzuco et al. (2021) stated that AR is a pedagogical resource for increasing students' understanding of complex concepts.In studying alkane compound material using the ARMAD module, students can adjust their learning speed.On concepts that are considered complex and complicated, students have time to manipulate AR objects to make them easier to understand.When interacting with AR objects, students develop spatial abilities and understand the concept of chemical compounds.
The ARMAD module, which contains material descriptions at the beginning of each alkane concept and is equipped with AR in the section that displays molecular structure, is thought to reduce students' cognitive load when processing information about shape, size, position, and bond relationships that make up a molecule.The findings of this study are in line with the findings of Rahmawati et al. (2021).In his research, it was found that the use of 3D virtual representations can reduce the cognitive load of understanding, interpreting, and translating chemical representations at the submicroscopic level.The results of a literature review conducted by Mazzuco et al. (2021) found four challenges in developing students' abilities through AR, namely: 1) increasing the efficiency of AR by reducing the cognitive load imposed by the software itself on students, 2) overcome difficulties in finding free applications by teachers, 3) We need to ensure that there are no errors in AR applications due to the simplification of visualization, 4) Ergonomic problems.The ARMAD module is one of the solutions to face challenges in developing AR for educational purposes.
Based on Table 2, spatial orientation is an aspect of the highest spatial ability achieved by students.This shows that students already have the ability to understand the geometrical shape of the alkane molecular structure from a variety of different perspectives.The freedom of students and the freedom of time that students have in using the ARMAD module cause this ability to develop more than other abilities.The transformation of students' mental models occurs when students carry out activities that enlarge, reduce, rotate, and shift objects made of chemical compounds.This is referred to as a process to increase spatial awareness (Sung et al., 2020), spatial intelligence (Velázquez & Méndez, 2021), and reduce students' cognitive load (Keller et al., 2021).The results of AR-assisted e-module development research conducted by Hurrahman et al. (2022) showed that AR-assisted e-modules can help students build representations of the concept of molecular shapes in their cognitive structures.
Based on the results of the analysis of the answers to the spatial ability test, some students had difficulty drawing sketches of two-dimensional molecular shapes from threedimensional images using dash and wedge projections.The difficulty for students is to choose the type of line that represents a three-dimensional structure between thick lines, dashed lines, and wedge-shaped lines.Factors that affect a person's spatial visual representation include his understanding of adequate drawing techniques (Azalia et al., 2018).In line with this, an effective approach to training students' spatial abilities is through the activity of drawing sketches of two-dimensional molecular shapes from threedimensional images from different perspectives using dash and wedge projections (Carlisle et al., 2015).
At the end of the module, there are evaluations by asking students to draw a molecule shape in 2D and 3D (Figure 2).This evaluation has a role as an exercise to help students to develop skills in visual spatial orientation.However, in this module, there is no learning or guidance for students to convert 3D visuals from AR into 3D images.This finding showed that without guidance on drawing 2D and 3D molecular shapes, students will experience difficulties when doing the exercises.This allegedly influenced the results of this research.The visual-spatial aspect has the lowest N-gain score when compared to the aspects of spatial relationships and spatial orientation.This allegedly influenced the results of this study.The spatial-visual aspect has the lowest N-gain score when compared to the spatial relationship and spatial orientation aspects.The results of the pretest and posttest tests for students' mastery of concepts after learning using the ARMAD module obtained an N-gain of 0.59, which is included in the medium category (Table 3).Based on the research results of Azalia et al. (2018), students who have good visual-spatial abilities tend to have good argumentation skills in discussions about material related to three-dimensional structures.This is shown by the results of students' mastery of concept tests about alkanes.The increase in students' mastery of concepts was due to the ARMAD module presenting the conceptual integrity of the alkane material.The features contained in the module support the development of mastery of concepts both classically in class and individually.This finding is in line with previous studies showing that integration of AR into modules can increase conceptual knowledge (Chen & Liu, 2020), increase understanding (Ewais & Troyer, 2019), develop higher-order thinking skills (Weng et al., 2020), and eliminate misconceptions (Sirakaya & Cakmak, 2018).
The Wilcoxon test results for the pretest-posttest scores are presented in Table 3.The Kolmogorv-Smirnov normality test results were obtained by Asymp.A sig. (2-tailed) of 0.000 is smaller than 0.005 (data not normally distributed).The Wilcoxon test result with Asymptote Sig.(2-tailed) is 0.000, which is less than 0.05, which means there is a significant difference.An analysis of the normality test and the Wilcoxon test for both spatial ability and mastery of concepts is presented in Table 4.  4, indicate that the use of the ARMAD module has significantly increased students' spatial abilities as well as their mastery of concepts in alkane materials.The features contained in the module include the integration of AR, which can improve the reception and processing of verbal and visual information in the cognitive structure of students.The module used contains basic material on the concept of alkanes and alkane derivatives.Presenting the concept of alkanes textually and visually reinforces the information processing by students.This finding is in line with Li, et al. (2020), that spatial ability plays an important role in individual success in many academic fields, including chemistry as a part of science.
The main challenges in studying the complexity of chemistry are the abstract concepts that are difficult to explain and the cognitive and spatial skill requirements (Mazucco, 2022).Understanding symbolic, microscopic, and macroscopic levels of chemistry can be one of the greatest challenges.Fatemah (2020) found that with conventional learning students experience difficulties in spatial processes and understanding molecular structures.The addition of AR to learning helps improve understanding of molecular structures.In this study, addition AR to the module can contribute to enhancing moleculer structure and concept understanding of alkana through visualization and manipulation of chemical models and processes.Further research is needed to elaborate on the relationship between spatial ability and mastery of concepts in chemistry learning using the ARMAD module.

Conclusion
Based on the research data, it can be concluded that the application of the ARMAD module can significantly improve students' spatial abilities and mastery of concepts related to alkanes and their derivatives.The implementation of the ARMAD module succeeded in improving all aspects of students' visual abilities.The highest students' spatial ability was achieved in the aspect of spatial orientation, followed by spatial relations and visual spatial relationships, respectively.The ARMAD module also succeeded in increasing mastery of the alkane concept in the medium category.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Screenshot of the ARMAD module in the evaluation section

Table 1 .
N-gain categorization The next step is to test the significance level of the pretest-posttest with a non-parametric test, namely the Wilcoxon test.Previously, a normality test was carried out using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test as a prerequisite for inferential statistical tests.
Spatial Ability Pretest-Posttest Results

Table 3 .
Results of the Concept Mastery Test

Table 4 .
Results of Normality Test and Wilcoxon Test