Learn Spatial! Introducing the MARBLE-App - A Mixed Reality Approach to Enhance Archaeological Higher Education

Emerging modern technologies including Mixed Reality (MR) are gradually becoming an inherent component of higher education. Studies concerning the effectiveness of their use as a didactic tool have been conducted in several fields of research. While the benefits of spatial representation through MR have already been employed in the fields of cultural heritage and museums, hardly any research is dedicated to higher archaeological education. In this paper, we present the first results of the ongoing development of the MARBLE-App of the research programme »Mixed and Augmented Reality in Blended Learning Environments« on the integration of MR into everyday archaeological higher education. The results are presented on the basis of learners' feedback from a focus group study carried out with archaeology students on understanding the spatial complexity of an archaeological structure. They show an increase in the students' impression, their self-reflected learning gains and their engagement towards spatial-related topics in the field of archaeology.That said, we perceive a high potential yet to be explored for the use of this technology in archaeological spatial education.