# Designing Pedagogically Effective Haptic Systems for Learning: A Review
## 3 Haptics Applications for Learning
### Visual Disability Instruction  
It is estimated that there are approximately 43.3 million people suffering from blindness globally [40]. Students with visual disabilities are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning traditionally in a classroom [40, 41]. Inadequate math literacy has been found to be a prevalent problem among the visually impaired and is exacerbated by a limited availability of assistive technology [42]. Mathematics and science often rely on visual presentation, such as graphs; conveying this information in a non-visual way can be an especially problematic tasks for instructors who may have based their own understanding of these topics on visual representations [40, 41, 42, 43, 44]. Current computer education programs heavily rely on graphics to convey subject material, excluding students who suffer from visual impairments. Haptic incorporation in educational settings may provide students with visual disabilities with another means of access to the educational material via touch. A preliminary study conducted by [PERSON] [41] sought to determine if haptic-based apps could promote positive learning outcomes when teaching science and mathematical content to visually impaired learners. Four computer applications were developed to be tested: Three Dimensional Shapes, Exploring the Atom, Gravity on the Planets, and Surface Area of a Cube. The four haptic applications were first tested by a group of experts, which included blind adults, science and math teachers, teachers of the visually impaired, and computer developers. After being tested by the experts, the applications were then tested by four visually impaired learners. During their engagement with the computer applications, the students were observed by the developers. Afterward, the students were interviewed about their experience. Their feedback was accounted for and the haptic design was adjusted accordingly prior to entering educational settings to determine classroom feasibility. Once deemed ready for testing in the classroom setting, the haptic apps were tested at the West Virginia School for the Blind and at Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students (SCI-VIS) In both settings, student understanding of content was measured by pre- and post-test analysis. Students self-reported the haptic apps being fun, easy to use, and helpful for understanding the content [41]. Pre- and post-test score differences indicated that the haptic-based apps show promise in teaching classroom materials to visually impaired students. The 'Exploring an Atom' haptic-based application was tested at the West Virginia School for the Blind and was found to increase average test scores from 4.75 points to 9 points out of a total of 14 points. At SCI-V IS, 'Exploring an Atom', 'Gravity on Planets',and 'Surface Area of a Cube' haptic-based apps were tested and found to increase student scores significantly (2.21 to 5.36 out of 14; 5.67 to 8.22 out of 16; and 1.36 to 3.43 out of 11, respectively). These preliminary results indicate that learning gains can be achieved via haptic-based applications for students who exhibit blindness or visual impairments. A subsequent study conducted investigated the efficacy of haptics-based computer applications in teaching a broad range of science concepts, such as gravity, atoms, surface area, cells, and anatomy, to students afflicted with a range of visual impairments [44]. A pre- and post-test were administered to determine the students' learning gains acquired from using the haptic-based computer applications. [PERSON] and [PERSON] found significant increase in score, on average 41%, between the pre- and post-test after incorporating the haptic-based computer lesson. After the lesson, qualitative reports were also collected that assessed student enjoyment. It was found that students felt exceptionally positive about the haptic incorporation into the classroom, with an average rating of 3.41 (4.00 being the best). A study conducted by [PERSON] et al.