Is holographic teaching an educational innovation?

The objective of this exploratory study was to know to what extent holographic teaching, as an educational innovation in physics class, impacts student learning in higher education. Through a mixed-methods approach in a sample of 311 students, this study provided a validated model to evaluate technology-enhanced learning environments that included a virtual-presence teaching tool, and assessing factors like social presence, flow experience, student engagement, and learning outcomes in a single instrument specially developed for this purpose. The quantitative results showed that holographic teaching by itself does not improve student learning outcomes, nor does it make them worse. However, the students exposed to holographic teaching reported higher levels of learning flow experience versus the ones taking only the traditional modality classes. Student engagement, on the other hand, was not statistically different when the two groups were compared. In the avatar sessions, high levels of social presence were identified. It can be concluded that when implementing an innovation like holographic teaching in higher education, it is also important to consider non-technological factors like the teacher’s experience and the pedagogical approach in order to impact student performance positively.