# Designing Pedagogically Effective Haptic Systems for Learning: A Review
## 4 Discussion  
With haptic technology becoming increasingly more available for commercial and personal use, there is an increased ability to address pressing research questions related to educational design. Haptic technology offers the versatility and flexibility of a virtual system, while retaining the embodied quality of tangible equipment. This combination allows the user to reap the benefits and affordances of both modalities, thus providing the learner with an effective learning environment. The effectiveness of the learning environment, however, seem to show differences based on the applied domain. Our observations and findings of reviewed papers based on the learning domain and discipline are shown in Table 2. As the epitome of our review, it is seen that more sensitive and immersed haptic experiences lead to better learning outcomes especially in the STEM field and actions lead to better learning outcomes when they are congruent with conceptualization of the learning material. We see that the realism of the haptics simulation, however, is not as imperative in the STEM field as it is for medical training simulations using haptics. As required by most medical diagnosis and treatments that utilize palpation, force feedback with relatively higher forces becomes an important aspect of a haptic simulation for medical training as far as user engagement and simulation of real-life examinations are considered. Therefore, in order to provide the required high fidelity for medical training applications, high-resolution haptic devices with a large workspace are usually preferred, which in return increases the cost of these simulations significantly. The timing of incorporating haptic simulations into the training regimen of professionals affects the learning outcomes; implementation of haptic simulations early in the curriculum proves to be more effective especially in medical training and learning languages. For training of visually impaired persons, incorporation of auditory guidance becomes as important as haptic feedback and the forces reflected to these users tend to remain on the higher range for a more effective learning experience. Our review also revealed that haptic augmentation offers distinct benefits depending on the context it is used in and the educational goal the learner is trying to meet. Due to the abstract nature of STEM subjects, haptic technology may help the learner connect with the learning material in a way that feels concrete and understandable. Haptic technology may also facilitate the acquisition of biologically secondary knowledge through biologically primary methods of interaction; this embodied way of understanding subject material through haptics has been referred to as a \"Haptic Bridge\" by [PERSON] et al. [24]. We know that the success of a haptic simulation for learning is dependent on several factors including but not limited to its context, user population, quality of the software design (user-friendliness, clarity of instructions, graphics etc. ), hardware (haptic interface), engaging features, and effective implementation of pedagogical principles. Therefore, including haptics in any simulation does not guarantee that it will be a successful learning tool. In that direction, we collected the best practices to aid the developers of haptic simulations. The detailed results are presented in Table 2 for the interested reader, but the best design practices and features can be summarized as:  
* Early implementation of haptic feedback during the learning process creates positive learning outcomes. * The more sensitive the haptic device, the better the overall learning outcome and skill gained from the simulation. * The designed actions in a simulation must be congruent with desired learning outcome, and realism secondary to a well-interpreted action/simulation (higher sensitivity and immersion for a more embodied experience). * Incorporating simple sounds, emphasizing haptic feedback, and incorporating audio guidance help improve the effectiveness of the simulation.