The effectiveness of using augmented reality (AR) to enhance student performance: using quick response (QR) codes in student textbooks in the Saudi education system

Augmented reality (AR) is a new way to integrate virtual reality into the real world, and integrating AR into education offers opportunities for increasing student performance. The Saudi Ministry of Education integrated technology into its educational system by building an educational portal called iEN, which offers many technologies that support education, such as AR experiments, e-textbooks, learning games, video clips, and TV channels. This initiative made Saudi Arabia better prepared for the transition to remote education, which offered an easy and prompt shifting of the education system during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The current study examined the effects of using QR codes as an AR to enhance student performance in Saudi education. The findings show that students who utilized QR codes in their education performed at higher levels than those who did not and demonstrated that students did not face any technical issues in integrating technology into their learning processes. However, that could be based on their generation of using technology (alpha generation), which became part of their lives.