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Evidence regarding the benefits of an instructor's deictic gestures in video lectures on adults' learning may not necessarily be reflective of their effect on children's learning. Furthermore, there is a lack evidence regarding how deictic gestures specifically affect learners' learning process. Based in cognitive load theory, with consideration of the signaling principle and embodiment principle in multimedia learning, the present study sought to determine whether an instructor's deictic gestures affected young adults' and children's learning from video lectures differently. Participants consisted of 60 college students as the young adults sample and 63 pupils as the children sample. Each participant viewed one of two video lectures, either with or without the instructor using deictic gestures. During the experiment, participants' eye movements, prior knowledge, learning process, and learning performance were recorded and measured. The results of nonparametric tests showed that when the instructor used deictic gestures, the children paid more attention to the video content while the young adults reported a higher learning experience. Both groups demonstrated improved learning performance, regardless of age. Our findings highlight the fact that young adults and children do learn differently from video lectures with an instructor using deictic gestures. Furthermore, our findings contribute to understandings regarding the design of video lectures and video-based learning, specifically, that if an instructor is presenting the content in video lectures, they should be encouraged to use deictic gestures to improve students' learning.

Virtual reality, as an excellent supportive instructional technology, has gained increasing attention from educators and professionals, where desktop-based virtual reality (DVR) is broadly adopted due to its affordability and accessibility. However, when evaluating students' learning experiences such as flow experiences in DVR environments, most studies adopt a single construct (the total score of flow experience) rather than multiple constructs (enjoyment, engagement, concentration, presence and time distortion). This study implemented desktop-based virtual reality for a STEM bridge designing program with a total of 254 undergraduates to investigate the relationship between self-regulation skills, five dimensions of flow experience, learning satisfaction and continuous intention when engaging in a DVR learning environment. The results revealed that self-regulated learning exerted a dominant impact on students' learning attitudes in DVR learning, in which students' flow experience had a significant mediating effect. Notably, although DVR exhibited poor time distortion, higher satisfaction and continuous intention were still predicted by the mentality of flow experience (ie, enjoyment, engagement, concentration and presence). The findings of this study contribute to the consideration of learning experiences and attitudes, which has insights for the future design of desktop-based virtual reality environments and related instructional activities.

We conducted a field study using Tobii Glasses 2.0 eye-tracker to assess 11 experienced university teachers' eye gaze patterns in classrooms, and the impact of these patterns on 293 students' engagement, motivation and satisfaction. Independent-samples t tests showed that compared to teachers who gazed primarily at students, teachers who showed a balance of eye gaze towards students and teaching content had students who were more engaged, motivated and satisfied. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that there were significant mediating roles of engagement and motivation in the association between teachers' eye gaze pattern and students' satisfaction. Our results have practical implications for educational practice: teachers are encouraged to allocate their attention both to students and teaching content to enhance students' learning experience.

This study tested the mutual effects of the instructor's eye gaze and facial expression on students' eye movements (i.e. first fixation time to the slides, percentage dwell time on the slides, and percentage dwell time on the instructor), parasocial interaction, and learning performance in pre-recorded video lectures. Students (N = 118 undergraduate and graduate students) were assigned to watch one of four videos in a 2 (gaze: direct, guided) × 2 (facial expression: surprised, neutral) between-groups design. Contrary to our hypotheses, eye movement data showed that students who watched the video lecture with the instructor's guided gaze and surprised face showed longer first fixation time to the slides and lower dwell time on the slides; these students also had lower learning scores. Instructor eye gaze and facial expression did not influence students' ratings of parasocial interaction. Our results suggest that in reference to social cues during video lectures with slides, "more" is not necessarily "better." The findings have practical implications for designing pre-recorded slide-based video lectures: An instructor is cautioned against using multiple social cues simultaneously, especially in video lectures in which the instructor and the visual learning materials compete for students' attention.

The present study examined whether different types of teacher feedback in a university flipped classroom pre-class activity could improve students' self-regulated learning skills, learning performance, and learning satisfaction. In a repeated measures design (N = 31) the teacher gave a different type of feedback (no feedback vs. cognitive feedback vs. praise feedback vs. mitigating feedback) to questions that students posted on the course discussion platform. At the end of each week the students completed a self-regulated learning questionnaire, learning satisfaction questionnaire, and learning performance test. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that all forms of teacher feedback enhanced students' learning performance and self-regulated learning skills, especially the cognitive feedback and praise feedback but not their learning satisfaction.

Much effort has been put into the design of video lectures, but little attention has been paid to the social environment in which learning takes place. The present study addressed this gap by assigning Chinese undergraduate and graduate students who had passed the College English Test-4 to learn easy or difficult English vocabulary words in three different conditions: alone, in the presence of a peer spectator, or in the presence of a peer co-actor. In Experiment 1, participants learned difficult vocabulary words and the effects were measured by both neural activity (EEG signals, measured while participants watched the video lectures and during the generative learning activities) and behavioral evidence (learning performance assessed after having watched the video lectures: immediate and delayed test scores, cognitive load, and motivation). Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that learning alone was more beneficial than learning in the presence of a peer, as indicated by better learning performance and reduced EEG theta band power. In Experiment 2, participants learned easy (rather than difficult) English vocabulary words and outcomes were measured by immediate and delayed learning performance. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that the presence of a peer was more beneficial than learning easy content alone. Combined data from both experiments showed that difficulty moderated the effect of social context. Participants performed best when students learned the difficult content alone, and when they learned the easy content with a peer present.

Information and communications technology (ICT) is rapidly changing how we teach and how we learn. ICT can not only act as a teaching and learning aid but also reshape the delivery of instruction and bring about changes in education. Research has largely examined the effects of teacher education programs on their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of technology integration and relatively little attention has been paid to their ability to use ICT to innovate instruction. This study examined how pre-teachers engaged in co-design via Google Slides, and how their behavioural characteristics influenced their improvement of instructional innovation with ICT of lesson design. The results of correlation and step regression analyses and lag sequential analysis showed that behaviours of engagement into individual ideation and within-group ideation in co-design activities positively related to the pre-service teachers' innovations of lesson designs (i.e., usefulness and originality). The clarification type and positive affection type of peer feedback negatively related and predicted their innovations, and the worst-performed group tended to directly copy information from peer feedback. The implications of how pre-service teachers engaging in co-design activities affect their instructional innovations with ICT are discussed. Implications for practice or policy: (1) Co-design activities are helpful for instructional innovation for pre-service teachers; and (2) Pre-service teachers are encouraged to engage in individual ideation, group ideation, and peer feedback during co-design activities.

An emerging body of research has focused on students' creativity in group contexts, with the assumption that students could be inspired by peers' ideas. Although students' openness and attention to peers' ideas are claimed to play important roles in their creativity in group settings, there is little empirical research that tests this assumption. This study examined the moderating effect of attention to peers' ideas in the relation between openness and creativity in electronic brainstorming. Participants were 91 undergraduate students who took about 10 min to complete a creative idea generation task during electronic brainstorming. Regression analyses found that students who were characterized by high openness were more creative, but only when they showed more attention to peers' ideas. This suggests that electronic brainstorming can be useful for enhancing the creativity of some students.

This study tested the interaction effect of the instructor's eye gaze (direct gaze vs. averted gaze) and facial expression (happy face vs. neutral face) on students' attention and learning performance in slide-based video lectures. University students (N = 120) participated in the experiment in a laboratory setting. The results of ANOVAs showed that students in the conditions that included the instructor's direct gaze paid greater attention to the instructor's face and paid less attention to the video lecture slides. However, direct gaze predicted better learning when the instructor had a happy facial expression. Our results suggest that the effects of an instructor's eye gaze are modulated by her facial expression in this educational context. The findings have practical implications for designing slide-based video lectures: an instructor is encouraged to look straight towards the camera with a happy expression.

Digital competence is critical for university students to adapt to and benefit from digitally enhanced learning. Prior studies on its measurement mostly focus on educators and relied on factor analyses. However, there is a lack of valid and convenient tools to measure university students' digital competence. This study aimed to develop a digital competence scale for university students (DC-US) in digitally enhanced learning with robust psychometric properties. An initial DC-US with 23 items was proposed to measure the single latent trait of digital competence. It was validated and refined continuously through a pilot study, a main study and a predictive validity study in three datasets involving 825 participants altogether, using factor analyses, Rasch analyses and the partial least squares modelling. The final DC-US turned out to comprise two subscales: technical literacy and digital skills, with 10 items retained, and manifested high internal consistency, unidimensionality and measurement invariance. The scale also demonstrated strong predictive validity, with technical literacy greatly predicting digital skills, which negatively predicted technostress. The DC-US enables instructors and school administrators to conveniently obtain preliminary information of university students' digital competence, informing their digital class preparation and development of timely interventions for addressing digital deficiencies.

Intrinsic motivation is seen as the principal source of vitality in educational settings. This study examined whether intrinsic motivation promoted online group creativity and tested a cognitive mechanism that might explain this effect. University students (N = 72; 61 women) who volunteered to participate were asked to fulfill a creative task with a peer using online software. The peer was actually a fake participant who was programed to send prepared answers in sequence. Ratings of creativity (fluency, flexibility and originality) and eye movement data (focus on own vs. peer's ideas on the screen) were used to compare students who were induced to have high intrinsic motivation and those induced to have low intrinsic motivation. Results showed that compared to participants with low intrinsic motivation, those with high intrinsic motivation showed higher fluency and flexibility on the creative task and spent a larger percentage of time looking at their own ideas on the screen. The two groups did not differ in how much they looked at the peer's ideas. In addition, students' percentage dwell time on their own ideas mediated the beneficial effect of intrinsic motivation on idea fluency. These results suggest that although intrinsic motivation could enhance the fluency of creative ideas in an online group, it does not necessarily promote interaction among group members. Given the importance of interaction in online group setting, findings of this study suggest that in addition to enhancing intrinsic motivation, other measures should be taken to promote the interaction behavior in online groups.

In the present study, we tested the effectiveness of three learning strategies (self-explanation, learning by teaching and passive viewing) used by students who were learning from video lectures. Effectiveness was measured not only with traditional measures, but also with electroencephalography (EEG). Using a within-subjects design, 26 university students viewed three sets of short lectures, each presenting a different set of English vocabulary words and were asked to use a different learning strategy for each set of lectures. Participants' EEG signals were assessed while watching the videos; learning experience (self-reported motivation and engagement) and learning performance (vocabulary recall test score) were assessed after watching the videos. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that the self-explaining and teaching strategies were more beneficial than the passive viewing strategy, as indicated by higher EEG theta and alpha band power, a more positive learning experience (higher motivation and engagement) and better learning performance. However, whereas the teaching strategy elicited greater neural oscillations related to working memory and attention compared to the self-explanation strategy, the two groups did not differ on self-reported learning experience or learning performance. Our findings are discussed in terms of potential application in courses using video lectures and in terms of their heuristic value for future research on the neural processes that differentiate learning strategies.

While there are many studies on students' collaborative learning at the small group level, pedagogies and strategies for supporting students' collaborative learning at the class level are underexplored. This study proposes a pedagogical model named the Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMCKI) to inform the design and implementation of multi-layered collaborative learning activities in a networked class where there are many groups of students working collaboratively. Starting with a phase of individual ideation, the pedagogical model scaffolds students to go through five phases of intra-group and inter-group knowledge improvement and refinement, with the goal of supporting the advancement of their individual and collective knowledge. An exploratory case study is presented to illustrate how this model was used in a pre-service teachers' technology-enhanced learning (TEL) activity design lesson in a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environment. The results show that the participants significantly improved the quality of TEL design throughout the five phases of SMCKI. The implications of the findings on designing and implementing CSCL activities in authentic class environments are discussed.

There has been growing interest in the possibility that peers' ideas can stimulate students' creativity in group contexts. However, empirical research on this issue is limited. This study tested the hypothesis that peers' ideas and students' openness to experience would predict student creativity and attention to peers' ideas. Undergraduate students (n = 60) completed creative tasks in an online collaborative group in which the ideas of "peers" were pre-programmed. Mixed ANOVAs showed support for the hypothesis. Specifically, students with higher (but not lower) openness, when exposed to a high (but not low) rate of peers' original ideas, paid greater attention to those ideas and were more creative. The implication for education is that teachers should encourage students to share more of their original ideas and to pay more attention to peers' ideas in online collaborative groups.

Massive open online courses are one of the most prominent trends in higher education in recent years. Instructional videos play a significant role in the massive open online courses platform. This study tested the impact of sending danmaku related to video content versus sending danmaku not related to video content versus not sending danmaku in instructional video. We assessed students' achievement, learning satisfaction, social presence, and cognitive load. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, we collected data from 137 participants. Result revealed that the danmaku related to video content improved social presence, learning satisfaction, and learning achievement but created more cognitive load.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become increasingly common in recent years. As the main component of MOOCs, instructional videos play a significant role in students' learning. This study builds on the extant research on multimedia learning by testing the impact of teachers' continuous vs. intermittent presence in procedural knowledge instructional videos. Students' outcomes were assessed in terms of achievement, learning satisfaction, social presence, and cognitive load. Using a quasi-experimental design, 120 Chinese undergraduate students from four undergraduate classes, were randomly assigned to one of two video conditions based on whether the instructor had a continuous or intermittent presence in an instructional video teaching procedural knowledge. A series of independent sample t tests revealed that a teacher's intermittent presentational approach improved learning achievement and satisfaction, and created less cognitive load relative to a continuous presentational approach. Results of this study can contribute to the design of procedural knowledge instructional videos.

Video lectures are being widely used in online and blended learning classes worldwide, and their learning effectiveness is becoming a focus of many educators and researchers. This study examined the cognitive load and learning effectiveness of video lectures in terms of the type of knowledge being taught (declarative or procedural) and instructor visibility. Video lectures with and without an instructor were used to teach each type of knowledge. Sixty Chinese undergraduates were randomly assigned to two of the four lectures. They completed a cognitive load questionnaire and learning tests after viewing the lectures. The results of t-tests revealed that adding the instructor in a video lecture increased learners' cognitive load only when learning procedural knowledge; adding the instructor only facilitated declarative knowledge learning. The results suggest that the learning effectiveness of video lectures varies depending on the type of knowledge being taught and the presence or absence of an instructor.

Recent research on video lectures has indicated that the instructor's pointing gestures facilitate learning performance. This study examined whether the instructor's pointing gestures were superior to nonhuman cues in enhancing video lectures learning, and second, if there was a positive effect, what the underlying mechanisms of the effect might be. There were three kinds of video lectures in the study: one with the instructor's pointing gestures, one with nonhuman cues, and one without any cues. Eighty-four Chinese undergraduates were randomly assigned to view one of the three video lectures in a laboratory. As hypothesized, the results of analyses of variance showed that the instructor's pointing gestures improved learning performance more than the nonhuman cues and no-cues conditions. The pointing gestures directed the learners' visual attention to the relevant learning content of PowerPoint (PPT) slides in the video lecture. This suggests that the instructor's pointing gestures can be a valuable means to improve learning performance in video lectures, in particular PPT slides with much learning information.

Video podcasts have become one of the fastest developing trends in learning and teaching. The study explored the effect of the presenting mode of educational video podcasts on the learning process and learning outcomes. Prior to viewing a video podcast, the 94 Chinese undergraduates participating in the study completed a demographic questionnaire and prior knowledge test. The learning process was investigated by eye-tracking and the learning outcome by a learning test. The results revealed that the participants using the video podcast with both the instructor and PPT slides gained the best learning outcomes. It was noted that they allocated much more visual attention to the instructor than to the PPT slides. It was additionally found that the 22 min was the time at which the participants reached the peak of mental fatigue. The results of our study imply that the use of educational technology is culture bound.

The present study examined whether different types of teacher feedback in a university flipped classroom pre-class activity could improve students' self-regulated learning skills, learning performance, and learning satisfaction. In a repeated measures design (N = 31) the teacher gave a different type of feedback (no feedback vs. cognitive feedback vs. praise feedback vs. mitigating feedback) to questions that students posted on the course discussion platform. At the end of each week the students completed a self-regulated learning questionnaire, learning satisfaction questionnaire, and learning performance test. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that all forms of teacher feedback enhanced students' learning performance and self-regulated learning skills, especially the cognitive feedback and praise feedback but not their learning satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested whether seeing others' typed messages while viewing video lectures affected learners' attention and learning performance. Participants viewed one of three versions of a video lecture: (a) conventional video lecture as control; (b) video lecture with others' programmed messages appearing onscreen when the instructor was giving demonstrations on course content; (c) video lecture with others' programmed messages appearing onscreen when the instructor was posing questions. In Experiment 1, participants viewed video lectures without pause and could not post messages themselves. Eye tracking data revealed that although seeing others' messages did not decrease learners' attention to the learning content in the video, greater attention to others' messages was associated with lower retention. Furthermore, learners who viewed the conventional video lecture showed higher transfer than those who viewed either of the video lectures that included others' messages. In Experiment 2, participants viewed self-paced lectures and could post messages themselves. Experiment 2 duplicated the results of Experiment 1 in a realistic educational setting. Overall, these findings suggest that seeing others' messages during a video lecture has negative effects on learners' attention and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generating written explanations is a popular learning strategy in an online learning environment. Students can explain to themselves (ie, self‐explanations) or a peer‐student (ie, instructional explanations). However, for improving learning from video lectures, it is unclear whether writing self‐explanations is more beneficial than writing instructional explanations, and whether writing both types of explanation is more beneficial than writing only one type. We compared the learning‐related outcomes of students who wrote explanations under one of four conditions: self‐explanation (n = 30), instructional explanation (n = 30), self‐explanation then instructional explanation (n = 30) and instructional explanation then self‐explanation (n = 30). We assessed the participants' external and internal attention, explanation quality, and immediate and delayed learning performance. Students in the conditions that included self‐explanations showed higher internal attention, as well as better immediate and delayed performance than those in the instructional explanations condition. In addition, students in the two combined conditions showed a higher level of organization and elaboration than those in the instructional explanations condition. These results suggest that students should write explanations to themselves while learning from video lectures. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Generating explanations is a beneficial learning strategy.It is unclear whether explaining to oneself (self‐explanations) is more beneficial than explaining to a peer (instructional explanations).The benefits of writing instructional explanations on learning performance were not consistently found across diverse areas.What this paper adds Self‐explanations, both in oral and written form, were more effective for learning performance than instructional explanations.Students in the conditions that included both self‐explanations and instructional explanations demonstrated a higher level of organization and elaboration than those in the instructional explanation condition.When compared to the self‐explanations condition, additional instructional explanations had no effect on learning performance or internal attention.Implications for practice and/or policy Self‐explanations was an excellent approach for learning from video lectures.Students should write explanations to themselves while learning from video lectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrinsic motivation is seen as the principal source of vitality in educational settings. This study examined whether intrinsic motivation promoted online group creativity and tested a cognitive mechanism that might explain this effect. University students (N = 72; 61 women) who volunteered to participate were asked to fulfill a creative task with a peer using online software. The peer was actually a fake participant who was programed to send prepared answers in sequence. Ratings of creativity (fluency, flexibility and originality) and eye movement data (focus on own vs. peer's ideas on the screen) were used to compare students who were induced to have high intrinsic motivation and those induced to have low intrinsic motivation. Results showed that compared to participants with low intrinsic motivation, those with high intrinsic motivation showed higher fluency and flexibility on the creative task and spent a larger percentage of time looking at their own ideas on the screen. The two groups did not differ in how much they looked at the peer's ideas. In addition, students' percentage dwell time on their own ideas mediated the beneficial effect of intrinsic motivation on idea fluency. These results suggest that although intrinsic motivation could enhance the fluency of creative ideas in an online group, it does not necessarily promote interaction among group members. Given the importance of interaction in online group setting, findings of this study suggest that in addition to enhancing intrinsic motivation, other measures should be taken to promote the interaction behavior in online groups. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic The generation of creative ideas in group settings calls for both individual effort and cognitive stimulation from other members.Intrinsic motivation has been shown to foster creativity in face‐to‐face groups, which is primarily due the promotion of individual effort.In online group settings, students' creativity tends to rely on intrinsic motivation because the extrinsic motivation typically provided by teachers' supervision and peer pressure in face‐to‐face settings is minimized online.What this paper adds Creative performance in online groups benefits from intrinsic motivation.Intrinsic motivation promotes creativity through an individual's own cognitive effort instead of interaction among members.Implications for practice and/or policy Improving students' intrinsic motivation is an effective way to promote creativity in online groups.Teachers should take additional steps to encourage students to interact more with each other in online groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we tested the effectiveness of three learning strategies (self‐explanation, learning by teaching and passive viewing) used by students who were learning from video lectures. Effectiveness was measured not only with traditional measures, but also with electroencephalography (EEG). Using a within‐subjects design, 26 university students viewed three sets of short lectures, each presenting a different set of English vocabulary words and were asked to use a different learning strategy for each set of lectures. Participants' EEG signals were assessed while watching the videos; learning experience (self‐reported motivation and engagement) and learning performance (vocabulary recall test score) were assessed after watching the videos. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that the self‐explaining and teaching strategies were more beneficial than the passive viewing strategy, as indicated by higher EEG theta and alpha band power, a more positive learning experience (higher motivation and engagement) and better learning performance. However, whereas the teaching strategy elicited greater neural oscillations related to working memory and attention compared to the self‐explanation strategy, the two groups did not differ on self‐reported learning experience or learning performance. Our findings are discussed in terms of potential application in courses using video lectures and in terms of their heuristic value for future research on the neural processes that differentiate learning strategies. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Watching video lectures does not always result in learners actively making sense of the learning material.Self‐explaining facilitates deep learning from viewing video lectures and in traditional educational settings.Learning by teaching also facilitates deep learning in traditional educational settings.What this paper adds Learning by teaching resulted in the highest theta and alpha band power in EEG assessment while viewing video lectures.Compared with passive viewing, learning by teaching enhanced students' motivation to try to understand the material; in addition, both learning by teaching and self‐explaining enhanced the amount of mental effort students put into understanding the material.Learning was increased via both self‐explaining and teaching strategies after viewing video lectures.Implications for practice and/or policy Learners are encouraged to generate explanations during pauses in video lectures or after viewing them, in order to increase learning.Learners are also encouraged to learn by teaching, as this strategy can increase learning and also increase neural oscillations associated with memory and attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become increasingly common in recent years. As the main component of MOOCs, instructional videos play a significant role in students' learning. This study builds on the extant research on multimedia learning by testing the impact of teachers' continuous vs. intermittent presence in procedural knowledge instructional videos. Students' outcomes were assessed in terms of achievement, learning satisfaction, social presence, and cognitive load. Using a quasi-experimental design, 120 Chinese undergraduate students from four undergraduate classes, were randomly assigned to one of two video conditions based on whether the instructor had a continuous or intermittent presence in an instructional video teaching procedural knowledge. A series of independent sample t tests revealed that a teacher's intermittent presentational approach improved learning achievement and satisfaction, and created less cognitive load relative to a continuous presentational approach. Results of this study can contribute to the design of procedural knowledge instructional videos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been growing interest in the possibility that peers' ideas can stimulate students' creativity in group contexts. However, empirical research on this issue is limited. This study tested the hypothesis that peers' ideas and students' openness to experience would predict student creativity and attention to peers' ideas. Undergraduate students (n = 60) completed creative tasks in an online collaborative group in which the ideas of "peers" were pre‐programmed. Mixed ANOVAs showed support for the hypothesis. Specifically, students with higher (but not lower) openness, when exposed to a high (but not low) rate of peers' original ideas, paid greater attention to those ideas and were more creative. The implication for education is that teachers should encourage students to share more of their original ideas and to pay more attention to peers' ideas in online collaborative groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive open online courses are one of the most prominent trends in higher education in recent years. Instructional videos play a significant role in the massive open online courses platform. This study tested the impact of sending danmaku related to video content versus sending danmaku not related to video content versus not sending danmaku in instructional video. We assessed students' achievement, learning satisfaction, social presence, and cognitive load. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, we collected data from 137 participants. Result revealed that the danmaku related to video content improved social presence, learning satisfaction, and learning achievement but created more cognitive load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video lectures are being widely used in online and blended learning classes worldwide, and their learning effectiveness is becoming a focus of many educators and researchers. This study examined the cognitive load and learning effectiveness of video lectures in terms of the type of knowledge being taught (declarative or procedural) and instructor visibility. Video lectures with and without an instructor were used to teach each type of knowledge. Sixty Chinese undergraduates were randomly assigned to two of the four lectures. They completed a cognitive load questionnaire and learning tests after viewing the lectures. The results oft-tests revealed that adding the instructor in a video lecture increased learners’ cognitive load only when learning procedural knowledge; adding the instructor only facilitated declarative knowledge learning. The results suggest that the learning effectiveness of video lectures varies depending on the type of knowledge being taught and the presence or absence of an instructor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Video podcasts have become one of the fastest developing trends in learning and teaching. The study explored the effect of the presenting mode of educational video podcasts on the learning process and learning outcomes. Prior to viewing a video podcast, the 94 Chinese undergraduates participating in the study completed a demographic questionnaire and prior knowledge test. The learning process was investigated by eye-tracking and the learning outcome by a learning test. The results revealed that the participants using the video podcast with both the instructor and PPT slides gained the best learning outcomes. It was noted that they allocated much more visual attention to the instructor than to the PPT slides. It was additionally found that the 22 min was the time at which the participants reached the peak of mental fatigue. The results of our study imply that the use of educational technology is culture bound. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]