Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in augmented reality (AR) technology for education. However, current AR education applications are often used as a new type of knowledge display platform, and they cannot fully participate in educational activities to improve educational results. To enable AR technology to participate in educational activities more effectively, according to learning-by-doing theory, we explore the form of a future experimental course and propose a new AR-based multimedia environment for experimental education. The framework of the multimedia environment consists of three components: the AR experiment authoring tool, the AR experiment application, and the management application. In this AR-based multimedia environment, teachers can independently create AR experiments using the what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editing method. Students can manipulate the AR-based experimental object to complete the experiment in class. Moreover, teachers can observe students’ experimental behaviour, obtain evaluations in real time, and even guide students remotely. We also present an application case of a chemistry experiment and obtain results of the usability test, demonstrating improvements in AR technology participation in educational activities.
