Converging Subjective and Psychophysiological Measures of Cognitive Load to Study the Effects of Instructor-Present Video

Many online videos feature an instructor on the screen to improve learners' engagement; however, the influence of this design on learners' cognitive load is underexplored. This study investigates the effects of instructor presence on learners' processing of information using both subjective and psychophysiological measures of cognitive load. Sixty university students watched a statistics instructional video either with or without instructor presence, while the spontaneous electrical activity of their brain was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). At the conclusion of the video, they also self-reported overall load, intrinsic load, extraneous load, and germane load they experienced during the video. Learning from the video was assessed via tests of retention and transfer. Results suggested the instructor-present video improved learners' ability to transfer information and was associated with a lower self-reported intrinsic and extraneous load. Event-related changes in theta band activity also indicated lower cognitive load with instructor-present video.