Effects Of Displaying An Instructor’s Face On Learning And Sustained Visual Attention

In online education the inclusion of a small video depicting the instructor’s face superimposed over a slideshow is commonly seen. However, there is little empirical basis for this feature’s effectiveness in teaching or its impact on students’ visual attention during instruction. With the goal of contributing to the development of instructional resources which facilitate and support meaningful education, this study investigated the effects of continuously displaying video of an instructor’s face on participants’ learning outcomes and sustained visual attention as they watched a prerecorded college level lecture. No significant effect of the face’s presence was observed in any of the findings on learning outcomes, while the eye tracking results revealed a sizable effect of the face on overall viewing behavior. Limitations and implications of these and other findings are discussed.