Onscreen presence of instructors in video lectures affects learners' neural synchrony and visual attention during multimedia learning.

COVID-19 forced students to rely on online learning using multimedia tools, and multimedia learning continues to impact education beyond the pandemic. In this study, we combined behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuroimaging paradigms to identify multimedia learning processes and outcomes. College students viewed four video lectures including slides with either an onscreen human instructor, an animated instructor, or no onscreen instructor. Brain activity was recorded via fMRI, visual attention was recorded via eye-tracking, and learning outcome was assessed via post-tests. Onscreen presence of instructor, compared with no instructor presence, resulted in superior post-test performance, less visual attention on the slide, more synchronized eye movements during learning, and higher neural synchronization in cortical networks associated with socio-emotional processing and working memory. Individual variation in cognitive and socio-emotional abilities and intersubject neural synchronization revealed different levels of cognitive and socio-emotional processing in different learning conditions. The instructor-present condition evoked increased synchronization, likely reflecting extra processing demands in attentional control, working memory engagement, and socio-emotional processing. Although human instructors and animated instructors led to comparable learning outcomes, the effects were due to the dynamic interplay of information processing vs. attentional distraction. These findings reflect a benefit-cost trade-off where multimedia learning outcome is enhanced only when the cognitive benefits motivated by the social presence of onscreen instructor outweigh the cognitive costs brought about by concurrent attentional distraction unrelated to learning.

Increasing the realism of on-screen embodied instructors creates more looking but less learning.

BACKGROUND: Although adding embodied instructors on the screen is considered an effective way to improve online multimedia learning, its effectiveness is still controversial. The level of realism of embodied on-screen instructors may be an influencing factor, but it is unclear how it affects multimedia learning. AIMS: We explored whether and how embodied on-screen instructors rendered with different levels of realism in multimedia lessons affect learning process and learning outcomes. SAMPLES: We recruited 125 college students as participants. METHODS: Students learned about neural transmission in an online multimedia lesson that included a real human, cartoon human, cartoon animal or no instructor. RESULTS: Students learning with cartoon human or cartoon animal instructors tended to fixate more on the relevant portions of the screen and performed better on retention and transfer tests than no instructor group. The real human group fixated more on the instructor, fixated less on the relevant portion of the screen and performed worse on a retention test in comparison to the cartoon human group. Fixation time on the instructor fully mediated the relationship between instructor realism and retention score. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of embodied on-screen instructors can promote multimedia learning, but the promotion effect would be better if the embodied instructor was a cartoon animal or cartoon human rather than a real human. This suggests an important boundary condition in which less realism of on-screen embodied instructors produces better learning processes and outcomes.

Benefits of Taking a Virtual Field Trip in Immersive Virtual Reality: Evidence for the Immersion Principle in Multimedia Learning.

This study describes and investigates the immersion principle in multimedia learning. A sample of 102 middle school students took a virtual field trip to Greenland via a head mounted display (HMD) or a 2D video as an introductory lesson within a 6-lesson inquiry-based climate change intervention. The HMD group scored significantly higher than the video group on presence (d = 1.43), enjoyment (d = 1.10), interest (d = .57), and retention in an immediate (d = .61) and delayed posttest (d = .70). A structural equation model indicated that enjoyment mediated the pathway from instructional media to immediate posttest, and interest mediated the pathway from instructional media to delayed posttest score, indicating that these factors may play different roles in the learning process with immersive media. This work contributes to the cognitive affective model of immersive learning, and suggests that immersive lessons can have positive longitudinal effects for learning.

The positivity principle: do positive instructors improve learning from video lectures?

The positivity principle states that people learn better from instructors who display positive emotions rather than negative emotions. In two experiments, students viewed a short video lecture on a statistics topic in which an instructor stood next to a series of slides as she lectured and then they took either an immediate test (Experiment 1) or a delayed test (Experiment 2). In a between-subjects design, students saw an instructor who used her voice, body movement, gesture, facial expression, and eye gaze to display one of four emotions while lecturing: happy (positive/active), content (positive/passive), frustrated (negative/active), or bored (negative/passive). First, learners were able to recognize the emotional tone of the instructor in an instructional video lecture, particularly by more strongly rating a positive instructor as displaying positive emotions and a negative instructor as displaying negative emotions (in Experiments 1 and 2). Second, concerning building a social connection during learning, learners rated a positive instructor as more likely to facilitate learning, more credible, and more engaging than a negative instructor (in Experiments 1 and 2). Third, concerning cognitive engagement during learning, learners reported paying more attention during learning for a positive instructor than a negative instructor (in Experiments 1 and 2). Finally, concerning learning outcome, learners who had a positive instructor scored higher than learners who had a negative instructor on a delayed posttest (Experiment 2) but not an immediate posttest (Experiment 1). Overall, there is evidence for the positivity principle and the cognitive-affective model of e-learning from which it is derived.

Busting myths in online education: Faculty examples from the field.

The shift in learning environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates a closer look at course design, faculty approaches to teaching, and student interaction, all of which may predict learner achievement and satisfaction. Transitioning to an online environment requires the reinvention, reimagining, and applying of "e-flavors" of general learning theory. With this shift to online learning comes the opportunity for misunderstandings and "myths" to occur, which may stand in the way of faculty embracing online learning and fully realizing its potential. This article seeks to address several myths and misconceptions that have arisen in higher education during the rapid shift to online teaching and learning. While not comprehensive, these myths represent a snapshot of common challenges. These are we can transfer our in-person course design to online; adult learners do not need an empathetic approach; and online teaching and learning is socially isolating. Through an appreciative inquiry framework, we present each myth in the context of relevant literature and invite faculty with varied online teaching experience to share their own case studies that illustrate how they have "busted" these myths with the goal to identify existing examples of locally effective practices for the express purpose of replication that leads to positive change.

Benefits of Writing an Explanation During Pauses in Multimedia Lessons.

Generative learning theory posits that learners engage more deeply and produce better learning outcomes when they engage in selecting, organizing, and integrating processes during learning. The present experiments examine whether the generative learning activity of generating explanations can be extended to online multimedia lessons and whether prompts to engage in this generative learning activity work better than more passive instruction. Across three experiments, college students learned about greenhouse gasses from a 4-part online lesson involving captioned animations and subsequently took a posttest. After each part, learners were asked to generate an explanation (write-an-explanation), write an explanation using provided terms (write-a-focused-explanation), rewrite a provided explanation (rewrite-an-explanation), read a provided explanation (read-an-explanation), or simply move on to the next part (no-activity). Overall, students in the write-an-explanation group (Experiments 2 and 3), write-a-focused-explanation group (Experiment 2), and rewrite-an-explanation group (Experiment 3) performed significantly better on a delayed posttest than the no-activity group, but the groups did not differ significantly on an immediate posttest (Experiment 1). These results are consistent with generative learning theory and help identify generative learning strategies that improve online multimedia learning, thereby priming active learning with passive media.

Better together: Effects of four self-efficacy-building strategies on online statistical learning.

The goal of this study is to test the individual and combined effects of supplementing an online statistics lesson with four motivational strategies corresponding to Bandura's (1997) four sources of self-efficacy (anxiety coping, modeling, mental practice, and effort feedback) on cognitive, motivational, and affective outcomes. Internet participants (N = 279) completed an online statistics module in one of six conditions with one or all four self-efficacy-building strategies (5 treatment conditions) or none of these strategies (control condition). The results indicated that the four strategies worked effectively in combination, significantly improving transfer test scores (d = 0.608), increasing self-efficacy ratings (d = 0.696), and reducing task anxiety ratings (d = -0.534), as compared with the control condition. By contrast, no motivational strategy alone was effective. The results suggest the importance of taking advantage of the power of all four sources of self-efficacy information in combination when designing motivational interventions for online mathematical lessons.

Designing multimedia instruction in anatomy: An evidence-based approach.

This paper summarizes 10 research-based principles for how to design effective multimedia instruction in medical education involving anatomy. Clin. Anat. 32:2-11, 2019. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Equivalence of using a desktop virtual reality science simulation at home and in class.

The use of virtual laboratories is growing as companies and educational institutions try to expand their reach, cut costs, increase student understanding, and provide more accessible hands on training for future scientists. Many new higher education initiatives outsource lab activities so students now perform them online in a virtual environment rather than in a classroom setting, thereby saving time and money while increasing accessibility. In this paper we explored whether the learning and motivational outcomes of interacting with a desktop virtual reality (VR) science lab simulation on the internet at home are equivalent to interacting with the same simulation in class with teacher supervision. A sample of 112 (76 female) university biology students participated in a between-subjects experimental design, in which participants learned at home or in class from the same virtual laboratory simulation on the topic of microbiology. The home and classroom groups did not differ significantly on post-test learning outcome scores, or on self-report measures of intrinsic motivation or self-efficacy. Furthermore, these conclusions remained after accounting for prior knowledge or goal orientation. In conclusion, the results indicate that virtual simulations are learning activities that students can engage in just as effectively outside of the classroom environment.

Computer Games in Education.

Visionaries offer strong claims for the educational benefits of computer games, but there is a need to test those claims with rigorous scientific research and ground them in evidence-based theories of how people learn. Three genres of game research are ( a) value-added research, which compares the learning outcomes of groups that learn academic material from playing a base version of a game to the outcomes of those playing the same game with one feature added; ( b) cognitive consequences research, which compares improvements in cognitive skills of groups that play an off-the-shelf game to the skill improvements of those who engage in a control activity; and ( c) media comparison research, which compares the learning outcomes of groups that learn academic material in a game to the outcomes of those who learn with conventional media. Value-added research suggests five promising features to include in educational computer games: modality, personalization, pretraining, coaching, and self-explanation. Cognitive consequences research suggests two promising approaches to cognitive training with computer games: using first-person shooter games to train perceptual attention skills and using spatial puzzle games to train two-dimensional mental rotation skills. Media comparison research suggests three promising areas where games may be more effective than conventional media: science, mathematics, and second-language learning. Future research is needed to pinpoint the cognitive, motivational, affective, and social processes that underlie learning with educational computer games.

Meta-analysis of action video game impact on perceptual, attentional, and cognitive skills.

The ubiquity of video games in today's society has led to significant interest in their impact on the brain and behavior and in the possibility of harnessing games for good. The present meta-analyses focus on one specific game genre that has been of particular interest to the scientific community-action video games, and cover the period 2000-2015. To assess the long-lasting impact of action video game play on various domains of cognition, we first consider cross-sectional studies that inform us about the cognitive profile of habitual action video game players, and document a positive average effect of about half a standard deviation (g = 0.55). We then turn to long-term intervention studies that inform us about the possibility of causally inducing changes in cognition via playing action video games, and show a smaller average effect of a third of a standard deviation (g = 0.34). Because only intervention studies using other commercially available video game genres as controls were included, this latter result highlights the fact that not all games equally impact cognition. Moderator analyses indicated that action video game play robustly enhances the domains of top-down attention and spatial cognition, with encouraging signs for perception. Publication bias remains, however, a threat with average effects in the published literature estimated to be 30% larger than in the full literature. As a result, we encourage the field to conduct larger cohort studies and more intervention studies, especially those with more than 30 hours of training. (PsycINFO Database Record

Teaching for understanding in medical classrooms using multimedia design principles.

OBJECTIVES: In line with a recent report entitled Effective Use of Educational Technology in Medical Education from the Association of American Medical Colleges Institute for Improving Medical Education (AAMC-IME), this study examined whether revising a medical lecture based on evidence-based principles of multimedia design would lead to improved long-term transfer and retention in Year 3 medical students. A previous study yielded positive effects on an immediate retention test, but did not investigate long-term effects. METHODS: In a pre-test/post-test control design, a cohort of 37 Year 3 medical students at a private, midwestern medical school received a bullet point-based PowerPoint™ lecture on shock developed by the instructor as part of their core curriculum (the traditional condition group). Another cohort of 43 similar medical students received a lecture covering identical content using slides redesigned according to Mayer's evidence-based principles of multimedia design (the modified condition group). RESULTS: Findings showed that the modified condition group significantly outscored the traditional condition group on delayed tests of transfer given 1 week (d = 0.83) and 4 weeks (d = 1.17) after instruction, and on delayed tests of retention given 1 week (d = 0.83) and 4 weeks (d = 0.79) after instruction. The modified condition group also significantly outperformed the traditional condition group on immediate tests of retention (d = 1.49) and transfer (d = 0.76). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence that applying multimedia design principles to an actual medical lecture has significant effects on measures of learner understanding (i.e. long-term transfer and long-term retention). This work reinforces the need to apply the science of learning and instruction in medical education.

An embodiment effect in computer-based learning with animated pedagogical agents.

How do social cues such as gesturing, facial expression, eye gaze, and human-like movement affect multimedia learning with onscreen agents? To help address this question, students were asked to twice view a 4-min narrated presentation on how solar cells work in which the screen showed an animated pedagogical agent standing to the left of 11 successive slides. Across three experiments, learners performed better on a transfer test when a human-voiced agent displayed human-like gestures, facial expression, eye gaze, and body movement than when the agent did not, yielding an embodiment effect. In Experiment 2 the embodiment effect was found when the agent spoke in a human voice but not in a machine voice. In Experiment 3, the embodiment effect was found both when students were told the onscreen agent was consistent with their choice of agent characteristics and when inconsistent. Students who viewed a highly embodied agent also rated the social attributes of the agent more positively than did students who viewed a nongesturing agent. The results are explained by social agency theory, in which social cues in a multimedia message prime a feeling of social partnership in the learner, which leads to deeper cognitive processing during learning, and results in a more meaningful learning outcome as reflected in transfer test performance.

An eye movement analysis of the spatial contiguity effect in multimedia learning.

In three studies, eye movements of participants were recorded while they viewed a single-slide multimedia presentation about how car brakes work. Some of the participants saw an integrated presentation in which each segment of words was presented near its corresponding area of the diagram (integrated group, Experiments 1 and 3) or an integrated presentation that also included additional labels identifying each part (integrated-with-labels group, Experiment 2), whereas others saw a separated presentation in which the words were presented as a paragraph below the diagrams (separated group, Experiments 1 and 2) or as a legend below the diagrams (legend group, Experiment 3). On measures of cognitive processing during learning, the integrated groups made significantly more eye-movements from text to diagram and vice versa (integrative transitions; d = 1.65 in Experiment 1, d = 0.85 in Experiment 2, and d = 1.44 in Experiment 3) and significantly more eye-movements from the text to the corresponding part of the diagram (corresponding transitions; d = 2.02 in Experiment 1 and d = 1.35 in Experiment 3) than the separated groups. On measures of learning outcome the integrated groups significantly outperformed the separated groups on transfer test score in Experiment 1(d = .80) and Experiment 2 (d = .73) but not in Experiment 3 (d = .35). Spatial contiguity encourages more attempts to integrate words and pictures and enables more successful integration of words and pictures during learning, which can result in meaningful learning outcomes.

Individual differences in cognitive style and strategy predict similarities in the patterns of brain activity between individuals.

Neuroimaging is being used increasingly to make inferences about an individual. Yet, those inferences are often confounded by the fact that topographical patterns of task-related brain activity can vary greatly from person to person. This study examined two factors that may contribute to the variability across individuals in a memory retrieval task: individual differences in cognitive style and individual differences in encoding strategy. Cognitive style was probed using a battery of assessments focused on the individual's tendency to visualize or verbalize written material. Encoding strategy was probed using a series of questions designed to assess typical strategies that an individual might utilize when trying to remember a list of words. Similarity in brain activity was assessed by cross-correlating individual t-statistic maps contrasting the BOLD response during retrieval to the BOLD response during fixation. Individual differences in cognitive style and encoding strategy accounted for a significant portion of the variance in similarity. This was true above and beyond individual differences in anatomy and memory performance. These results demonstrate the need for a multidimensional approach in the use of fMRI to make inferences about an individual.

Applying multimedia design principles enhances learning in medical education.

CONTEXT: The Association of American Medical Colleges' Institute for Improving Medical Education's report entitled 'Effective Use of Educational Technology' called on researchers to study the effectiveness of multimedia design principles. These principles were empirically shown to result in superior learning when used with college students in laboratory studies, but have not been studied with undergraduate medical students as participants. METHODS: A pre-test/post-test control group design was used, in which the traditional-learning group received a lecture on shock using traditionally designed slides and the modified-design group received the same lecture using slides modified in accord with Mayer's principles of multimedia design. Participants included Year 3 medical students at a private, midwestern medical school progressing through their surgery clerkship during the academic year 2009-2010. The medical school divides students into four groups; each group attends the surgery clerkship during one of the four quarters of the academic year. Students in the second and third quarters served as the modified-design group (n=91) and students in the fourth-quarter clerkship served as the traditional-design group (n=39). RESULTS: Both student cohorts had similar levels of pre-lecture knowledge. Both groups showed significant improvements in retention (p<0.0001), transfer (p<0.05) and total scores (p<0.0001) between the pre- and post-tests. Repeated-measures anova analysis showed statistically significant greater improvements in retention (F=10.2, p=0.0016) and total scores (F=7.13, p=0.0081) for those students instructed using principles of multimedia design compared with those instructed using the traditional design. CONCLUSIONS: Multimedia design principles are easy to implement and result in improved short-term retention among medical students, but empirical research is still needed to determine how these principles affect transfer of learning. Further research on applying the principles of multimedia design to medical education is needed to verify the impact it has on the long-term learning of medical students, as well as its impact on other forms of multimedia instructional programmes used in the education of medical students.

Applying the science of learning to medical education.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this paper is to examine how to apply the science of learning to medical education. SCIENCE OF LEARNING The science of learning is the scientific study of how people learn. Multimedia learning - learning from words and pictures - is particularly relevant to medical education. The cognitive theory of multimedia learning is an information-processing explanation of how people learn from words and pictures. It is based on the idea that people have separate channels for processing words and pictures, that the capacity to process information in working memory is limited, and that meaningful learning requires appropriate cognitive processing during learning. SCIENCE OF INSTRUCTION The science of instruction is the scientific study of how to help people learn. Three important instructional goals are: to reduce extraneous processing (cognitive processing that does not serve an instructional objective) during learning; to manage essential processing (cognitive processing aimed at representing the essential material in working memory) during learning, and to foster generative processing (cognitive processing aimed at making sense of the material) during learning. Nine evidence-based principles for accomplishing these goals are presented. CONCLUSIONS Applying the science of learning to medical education can be a fruitful venture that improves medical instruction and cognitive theory.

Increased interestingness of extraneous details in a multimedia science presentation leads to decreased learning.

In Experiment 1, students received an illustrated booklet, PowerPoint presentation, or narrated animation that explained 6 steps in how a cold virus infects the human body. The material included 6 high-interest details mainly about the role of viruses in sex or death (high group) or 6 low-interest details consisting of facts and health tips about viruses (low group). The low group outperformed the high group across all 3 media on a subsequent test of problem-solving transfer (d = .80) but not retention (d = .05). In Experiment 2, students who studied a PowerPoint lesson explaining the steps in how digestion works performed better on a problem-solving transfer test if the lesson contained 7 low-interest details rather than 7 high-interest details (d = .86), but the groups did not differ on retention (d = .26). In both experiments, as the interestingness of details was increased, student understanding decreased (as measured by transfer). Results are consistent with a cognitive theory of multimedia learning, in which highly interesting details sap processing capacity away from deeper cognitive processing of the core material during learning.