An Investigation of Science Teachers' Intention to Use Augmented Reality for Educational Purposes in Saudi Arabia's Public Education System

Augmented reality (AR) is one of the most prominent emerging technologies in the educational environment in the world and especially in the educational system in Saudi Arabia. The Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia claims to have enabled the use of AR and anticipates it to be utilized for educational purposes in public education, but not all science teachers have yet taken and accepted it to the point of thinking of it for routine use. This quantitative research design investigates science teachers' intention to use AR for educational purposes in Saudi Arabia's public education system. UTAUT2 is selected for the purposes of this study as the most renowned and comprehensive model to identify the relationship between the intended use of augmented reality and five UTAUT2 factors (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation). Unlike previous UTAUT2 research, a differentiation was made between those already using the technology and those not. Age, gender, and experience were found to have no effect, with the exception of AR users with over 20 years of teaching experience. Performance expectancy (β = . 322 t= 4.014, p<.001) had the strongest predictive power for non-user behavioral intention to use AR in the classroom. The second most predictive variable for the non-user group was hedonic motivation (β = .317 t= 3.752, p<.001). Social influence had the third largest predictive power for the non-user group (β = .263 t= 3.370, p<.001). For the user group hedonic motivation had a more elevated sway in the prediction of behavioral intention (β = .374 t= 5.687, p<.001). It is followed by facilitating conditions that (β =.289 t= 3.646, p<.001). The result clearly showed that there is a variance between the two groups in the strength of the influence of performance expectancy and facilitating conditions. Finally, social influence had the third largest predictive power for the user group (β = .208 t= 3.393, p<.001). Intention levels were analyzed by an independent t-test to compare the means of the two groups. Both groups have positive intentions to use AR for educational purposes in the public education system in Saudi Arabia (t (342.786)=0.708, p=0.597). Both groups accept using AR in the classroom.