Fostering students' digital literacy and academic achievement using augmented reality-enriched inquiry learning

Despite the increasing use of Augmented Reality (AR) in education, there remains a gap regarding its impact on digital literacy and academic achievement in secondary school chemistry, particularly in the context of global warming. This study examined the effect of AR-enriched Questioning-Investigating-Making-Synthesising (QIMS) inquiry learning on the digital literacy and academic achievement of tenth-grade students in chemistry. A total of 72 students (37 males and 35 females) participated in the study, which employed a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design. Two intact classes from a public high school in Jakarta during the 2023/2024 academic year were assigned as the experimental and control groups. Data were collected using a digital literacy scale and an academic achievement test and were analyzed using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The findings revealed that students in the experimental group who were taught using AR demonstrated significantly higher levels of digital literacy and academic achievement compared to those in the control group who received instruction without AR. These results suggest that AR-based learning has a meaningful impact on students' learning outcomes on the topic of global warming. The study highlights the potential of AR-enriched QIMS inquiry learning as an effective teaching method to enhance a student's performance in chemistry education.