1. Introduction
As Taiwanese society has evolved, perceptions of pet ownership have shifted significantly. In the 1950s, cats and dogs were primarily kept for practical purposes, such as guarding homes and controlling pests, fulfilling a protective role to ensure property safety. However, since the 1970s, motivations for keeping pets have gradually shifted toward emotional satisfaction, emphasizing companionship and entertainment. By the 1990s, the trend of keeping cats as household companions had grown, making them an essential part of family life [
1]. Economic growth led to smaller living spaces, reducing the protective functions traditionally associated with pets. Concurrently, declining birth rates and population aging increased feelings of loneliness, further reinforcing the emotional and comforting roles pets play. Since 2018, Taiwan has officially entered the stage of an aging society and is predicted to enter a super-aged society in 2025 [
2].
These societal changes have shifted the purpose of pet ownership from practical needs to emotional connections, with pets increasingly regarded as family members, playing a central role in modern households [
3]. This shift is not unique to Taiwan; similar trends have been observed in other countries, particularly in regions experiencing demographic shifts and urbanization. For example, in Japan and South Korea, falling birth rates and aging populations have led to the rise of so-called companion animals, with pets often seen as substitutes for children or close family members. In Western countries such as the United States and Europe, pet humanization is also becoming more and more popular, and pet-related industries are expanding to accommodate this evolving relationship. These global trends highlight that the growing emotional significance of pets is a widespread phenomenon, driven by changing societal structures and demographic trends around the world.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on people’s lives, prompting many to adopt pets for emotional support. A 2021 study by Hoffman et al. [
4] reported a noticeable increase in pet ownership during the COVID-19 pandemic, with dog ownership rising from 48% to 54% of households. This trend reflects the rise of the “companionship economy”, which has also created business opportunities. Since the spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan in 2020, the pet-related industry has continued to expand. Between 2018 and 2021, the sales of pet-related businesses in Taiwan grew annually, reaching NT
$43.88 billion in 2021, with a growth rate of 11%. The pandemic has transformed lifestyles and consumption patterns, driving significant growth in pet products, healthcare, and related industries.
Pet ownership has become a growing trend in Taiwan, but it has also led to a rise in related issues. Abandonment of pets has become more prevalent, prompting increased attention from both the government and society toward the importance of animal protection and education. According to data from the Council of Agriculture, there were approximately 155,869 stray dogs in Taiwan in 2020, marking a 6.19% increase compared to 2018, highlighting the worsening stray animal problem. In 2021, public animal shelters nationwide housed 32,388 stray dogs and cats, with uncollected stray animals potentially threatening community safety. In addition to promoting pet registration, education to raise owners’ awareness of animal protection is essential to reduce abandonment and abuse. The government has also promoted spaying and neutering programs for owned and semi-owned cats through subsidies [
5], aiming to reduce abandonment, euthanasia, and public health concerns.
Impulsive pet purchases are often driven by the appeal of an animal’s cute appearance, without fully considering the responsibilities and knowledge required for proper care. Such actions frequently lead to subsequent abandonment issues. To prevent this, prospective pet owners should first understand the responsibilities involved and acquire essential care knowledge [
6]. The Agriculture Bureau recommends that owners carefully consider their lifestyle and living environment before deciding on a suitable pet. Educational programs or readiness surveys can help potential owners assess their ability to care for a pet. These measures promote responsible ownership, reduce abandonment rates and address related societal issues.
Insufficient knowledge about pet care can lead to a variety of problems, particularly regarding nutrition. Owners who are unfamiliar with pets’ dietary needs may inadvertently cause malnutrition or even death. Feeding pets inappropriate diets, such as those containing harmful ingredients or lacking proper nutritional balance, can lead to serious health problems [
7]. Furthermore, as the pet population grows, the environmental impact of pet food production increases, leading to greater land and water consumption and higher carbon emissions [
8].
Pet ownership also raises safety concerns. For example, failing to leash pets in public spaces can lead to traffic accidents or injuries [
9,
10]. Certain bacteria found in pets, like
Capnocytophaga canimorsus, pose health risks. Free-roaming dogs and cats, especially during mating periods, can cause noise disturbances that affect nearby residents [
11]. Moreover, high veterinary costs, especially without national health insurance coverage for pets, significantly increase owners’ financial burden, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of economic capability and long-term responsibility before adopting pets.
In 1998, Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture introduced the “Animal Protection Act”, signaling a pivotal change in Taiwan’s animal welfare policy. This legislation not only aims to prevent cruelty but also promotes respect for animal rights. The law has also served as a foundation for life education, integrating animal protection into the educational system. With the expansion of the educational curriculum, students gain a deeper understanding of biodiversity and ecosystems, fostering values that promote respect for life and social responsibility toward animal welfare.
According to recent data, pet ownership in Taiwan has significantly increased, with dogs and cats being the most commonly adopted companion animals [
12]. Yan et al. [
12] reported that, between 2012 and 2020, there was a growing public interest in adopting dogs and cats from animal shelters. Reflecting these trends, this study focuses on cats and dogs as primary subjects for developing educational content aimed at promoting responsible pet care. With increasing attention to animal-related education in Taiwan, pet ownership issues have become a significant topic of discussion. Given the high acceptance of digital products in modern society, digital learning methods that integrate the Internet and multimedia are emerging as mainstream educational trends [
13,
14]. However, several challenges remain in effectively promoting such educational programs:
- (1)
Applicability of teaching materials: Learning experiences based solely on reading or auditory information often fail to create deep understanding and long-term retention. In contrast, hands-on experience or simulations are more effective in helping learners acquire knowledge and skills. Therefore, the reliance on image- or text-based materials may limit learning outcomes.
- (2)
Limitations of teaching materials: learning with paper-based teaching materials often lacks interactivity, making it difficult for students to stay focused and motivated, which can negatively impact learning effectiveness.
- (3)
Lack of knowledge dissemination: many social issues stem from deficiencies in character or inadequate education, reflecting that educational resources have not been adequately disseminated.
Addressing these challenges requires focusing on improving the applicability of teaching materials, overcoming the limitations of current resources, and enhancing the distribution of knowledge. Based on these potential challenges, this paper proposes the following research questions (RQs).
RQ1: Does the augmented reality (AR) teaching system effectively enhance students’ learning outcomes in pet knowledge courses?
Traditional learning methods that rely primarily on reading or auditory instruction may hinder students’ memory retention and comprehension, particularly when teaching materials lack interactivity, thus limiting learning effectiveness. In contrast, AR technology integrates virtual and real-world environments, providing an immersive and interactive learning experience. This approach allows students to engage in simulations and hands-on manipulation, which fosters a deeper understanding of the material and enhances memory retention. Additionally, AR technology has been shown to improve learners’ motivation and focus by making abstract concepts more concrete and easier to grasp, promoting long-term retention.
Recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of AR-based teaching systems in improving educational outcomes across various subjects. For example, Tsai et al. [
15] developed and validated a virtual chemical laboratory for elementary natural science education, showing that interactive AR environments significantly enhance student engagement and understanding of scientific concepts. Similarly, Tsai and Lai [
16] designed an AR-based teaching system for primary logic programming education, highlighting its effectiveness in improving student motivation and comprehension. In addition, a recent study [
17] highlights that the sensor-based human−computer interaction and multimodal sensory feedback can improve the learning experience. Building on these findings, this study explores the application of AR systems in pet knowledge courses, investigating their potential to enhance student learning and engagement in biological and animal-related education.
RQ2: Can AR teaching materials effectively stimulate students’ motivation in pet knowledge courses?
Motivation plays a crucial role in fostering active engagement in learning, and a lack of motivation often results in challenges with sustained learning efforts. Research has shown that gamified learning significantly enhances student interest and motivation, making gamification an increasingly popular approach in education [
18]. By integrating game elements into the learning process, gamified learning strategies have been widely used to improve knowledge retention in various subjects, including mathematics, language arts, natural sciences, as well as in enhancing problem-solving, strategic planning, and skill application.
To enhance engagement in pet knowledge courses, this study integrates various gamification mechanisms into AR-based teaching materials. These mechanisms include an interactive task system, where learners complete specific actions based on different tasks, and a virtual pet learning system, allowing students to choose and care for different types of pets. Each virtual pet represents a learning milestone, motivating students to stay engaged and progress through the curriculum. By combining these elements, this study aims to evaluate whether AR teaching materials with gamified components can effectively enhance students’ motivation and engagement in learning about pet care.
RQ3: Can the AR teaching system optimize the teaching equipment used in pet knowledge courses?
With technological advancements, the widespread accessibility of smartphones and tablets has enabled the rapid development and adoption of AR and Virtual Reality (VR) applications. These devices significantly lower the barriers to AR and VR technologies, allowing learners to easily interact with virtual objects via mobile devices, offering sensory experiences that are often difficult to achieve in conventional learning environments. The immersive and interactive nature of AR and VR-based teaching methods enhances learners’ engagement and focus, making them highly effective. As portable devices and wireless networks continue to expand, learners can access instructional content in a variety of contexts. This study seeks to explore whether the AR teaching system can optimize the use of teaching equipment in pet knowledge courses by leveraging these accessible technologies.
Based on the exploration of challenges in pet knowledge education and the literature review, this study proposes an AR-based pet care teaching system. The content of the system is grounded in the Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TSPCA) and animal protection laws, integrating AR technology with gamification design to enhance learners’ interest and focus, thereby improving learning outcomes. Learners can complete educational tasks and simulate pet care interactions through AR mobile games. This study compares the effectiveness of AR learning with traditional teaching materials and presents the following three main contributions:
- (1)
Expansion of educational materials: the AR-based teaching system enables learners to acquire pet care knowledge via smartphones, overcoming the limitations of traditional materials and geographic constraints.
- (2)
Curriculum design: the incorporation of AR features and gamification elements into pet knowledge courses is shown to effectively stimulate students’ motivation.
- (3)
Optimization of teaching equipment: the system replaces traditional textbooks, offering a more accessible and convenient learning method through widely available mobile devices.
The research results indicate a significant difference in student progress between those using traditional textbooks and those using AR teaching materials in pet knowledge courses. The group utilizing AR teaching materials exhibited significantly better learning outcomes, demonstrating the positive influence of AR on educational effectiveness. Students expressed high satisfaction with AR learning, underscoring its role in boosting motivation. Moreover, teachers also showed strong support for the integration of AR into teaching, further validating the effectiveness of the AR-based pet care teaching system in enhancing educational experiences.
5. Discussion
Based on the experimental results and questionnaire analysis, the proposed AR teaching system has a positive impact on students’ learning outcomes and motivation. In terms of learning outcomes, while the test scores of the AR-based learning group showed a greater improvement than those of the traditional learning group, all students demonstrated significant progress in pet knowledge acquisition, independent of the teaching method used. Regarding learning motivation, the AR teaching approach was found to facilitate greater focus and interest among students. The results from the material satisfaction survey indicated that both students and teachers expressed a high level of satisfaction.
5.1. Response to RQ1
This study developed a pet care teaching system based on AR technology and gamification design. The implementation and evaluation results demonstrated that the AR-based teaching system significantly enhanced students’ learning outcomes in pet knowledge courses. The material satisfaction survey revealed that, compared to traditional teaching methods, students exhibited improved focus and interest. Therefore, the AR-based teaching system has a significantly positive effect on students’ learning outcomes.
However, this study primarily involved students with backgrounds in electrical engineering and assistant teachers, who generally have a higher acceptance of new technologies. This may have positively influenced the results. Future research should expand to include audiences from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to validate the effectiveness and acceptance of the AR-based teaching system across a broader population.
5.2. Response to RQ2
Several previous studies have developed instructional tools for animal-related education. For example, Sautière et al. [
20] designed and implemented e-learning tools to enhance undergraduate students’ understanding of animal biology. Their approach focused on delivering educational content through multimedia tools, offering structured materials that support independent learning. Building on this foundation, our AR-based teaching system goes further by providing an immersive and interactive learning experience. Unlike traditional multimedia tools, our system allows students to actively engage with virtual pets by performing tasks such as feeding, playing, and managing their health. This hands-on, experiential approach promotes active learning and helps students apply their knowledge in realistic, practical scenarios.
Moreover, recent research highlights the advantages of AR in various educational fields. In science education, AR helps visualize complex biological processes; in medical training, it provides realistic patient simulations; and in language learning, it creates interactive conversation scenarios. Building on these advancements, our system incorporates real-time feedback and voice interaction to deliver an engaging and effective learning experience in pet care education. Compared with traditional pet-related teaching tools, our AR system offers a more dynamic, interactive platform that aligns with modern trends in AR-enhanced learning.
To increase students’ motivation, we integrated two interactive methods into our instructional design: virtual object interaction and voice commands. By combining AR technology with gamification, students can place virtual pets in real-world settings, observe their behaviors and respond to situational cues. This creates a realistic experience that encourages students to focus on the learning content.
In terms of interaction, students can drag virtual objects to feed or play with their pets. The virtual pets react immediately to these actions, helping students understand the pets’ needs through direct cause-and-effect learning. Additionally, the system supports voice commands, such as calling the pet’s name or instructing it to “sit”, allowing students to simulate real-life pet training. These features address the limitations of traditional 2D learning tools, which often rely on static images and basic click interactions. By integrating learning activities into the student’s environment and supporting two-way interaction with virtual pets, AR technology enables students to actively “do” rather than passively “observe”. This fosters deeper engagement and promotes experiential learning.
In summary, the AR-based instructional design not only increases students’ interest and attention during the learning process but also significantly improves their understanding and application of pet care knowledge.
5.3. Response to RQ3
The feedback from the teaching assistants and elementary school teachers involved in this study highlights several advantages of using AR instructional materials to enhance the learning process. Teachers observed that the AR-based teaching system made lessons more vivid, interactive, and engaging compared to traditional methods. Students showed higher levels of enthusiasm, participation, and immersion, which suggests that AR technology can effectively increase motivation and interest in learning activities. In addition, the portability and flexibility of the AR materials allow for educational activities to be conducted in different settings, reducing the dependence on fixed classroom resources.
However, some challenges were identified that need to be addressed to improve the system’s practicality and adaptability. For example, AR functionality can be affected by environmental conditions such as poor lighting or difficulties in detecting flat surfaces, which may limit its effectiveness in certain classroom settings. Future improvements in technology and system design should aim to overcome these limitations to ensure smoother integration into various learning environments. Moreover, although this study focused on college students, some elementary school teachers suggested that the current difficulty level and interaction design may not be fully suitable for younger learners. To make the system more age-appropriate, future adaptations could include simplifying the interface, reducing task complexity, and offering guided instructions tailored to different developmental stages. For younger students, intuitive controls and additional visual or audio prompts may help enhance usability and understanding.
In terms of practical classroom integration, teachers emphasized the importance of providing clear implementation guidelines. For instance, they recommended offering short training sessions for instructors (around 2–3 h) to familiarize them with the app’s functions and prepare them to assist students during activities. Additionally, classrooms would need to be equipped with compatible devices, such as tablets or smartphones that meet the system’s hardware requirements, to ensure optimal performance.
In summary, while the initial responses to the AR teaching system were positive, adjustments are necessary to make it more suitable for younger students and to facilitate its seamless use in daily classroom routines.
6. Conclusions and Future Work
In this study, we developed an AR-based teaching system focused on pet care, providing students with instructional materials to understand the essential aspects and potential costs of pet ownership. To enhance students’ learning outcomes and motivation, the proposed system incorporates three AR technology-based modules: the application module, the AR Foundation module, and the AR environment module. The application module involves the development of the user interface and the management of virtual objects. The AR Foundation module utilizes features such as plane detection, voice recognition, and image recognition to enrich the interactive learning experience. The AR environment module combines the application interface with thematic and spatial settings generated by AR Foundation, enabling learners to engage with virtual pet objects and view outcomes within the spatial environment of their mobile devices, thus making learning about pet care more engaging and practical.
The AR-based pet care teaching system proposed in this study has demonstrated a significant positive impact on enhancing students’ learning outcomes and motivation. Teachers have generally expressed high levels of satisfaction with the system, highlighting its ability to facilitate teaching in an intuitive manner while promoting engagement and interactivity. However, the system does present some limitations. Some teachers may require additional training to effectively adapt to the new technology, which could increase their workload. Additionally, students might face technical issues or limitations related to their mobile device systems when using AR teaching materials, potentially impacting their learning experiences and outcomes.
In future research, we will focus on enhancing the stability and compatibility of the AR system to ensure smooth operation on both Android and iOS devices. Furthermore, we plan to optimize the pet education content by adding more interactive and challenging tasks through gameplay, while also including topics like pet behavior training, basic emergency care, and responsible pet ownership to give students a more complete understanding of pet care. Since many students are also interested in pets beyond cats and dogs, such as fish and birds, we aim to expand the instructional materials to cover a wider variety of pets. This expansion will help meet different learning needs and keep students motivated. Moreover, as this system is currently a prototype designed for general users, future work may explore ways to improve accessibility, such as larger text, voice commands, and screen reader support, to make the system more inclusive. Additionally, we recognize the importance of objective evaluations beyond self-reported outcomes. Future work will include performance-based assessments, such as tasks that test how well students apply pet care skills, and long-term tests to measure knowledge retention. We also aim to involve a larger and more diverse group of participants from different age groups, education levels, and cultural backgrounds to better understand how the system works for different learners. Finally, we plan to explore the impact of different levels of gamification within the AR learning environment to ensure that game mechanics continue to enhance, rather than distract from, the learning experience. These enhancements will help provide a more comprehensive understanding of the AR system’s educational impact.