Effect of haptic feedback on a virtual lab about friction

Background: With the increase in recent years of the utilization of multimedia devices in education, new haptic devices for education have been gradually adopted and developed. As compared with visual and auditory channels, the development of applications with a haptic channel is still in the initial stages. For example, it is unclear how force feedback influences an instructional effect of an educational application and the subjective feeling of users. Methods: In this study, we designed an educational application with a haptic device (Haply) to explore the effects of force feedback on selflearning.Subjects in an experiment group used a designed application to study friction by themselves using force feedback, whereas subjects in a control group studied the same knowledge without force feedback. A post-test and questionnaire were designed to assess the learning outcomes. Results/Conclusions: The experimental result indicates that force feedback is beneficial to an educational application, and using a haptic device can improve the effect of the application and motivate students.