Online teaching and technological affordances: An experimental investigation into the impact of modality and clarity on perceived and actual learning

• We manipulated the modality and clarity of an online course to see how it impacts e-learning.
• Modality rich lectures were best at facilitating perceived and actual learning.
• Manipulations in structure and clarity of lectures did not impact learning outcomes.
• Instructor credibility was rated highest in modality rich lectures.

Online courses have become commonplace at many institutions of higher education. While the popularity on online courses is growing, there are still many questions regarding the effectiveness of such courses in facilitating learning outcomes. Using theories from mass communication and education, we designed an online lecture which employed a 2 (modality) × 2 (clarity) between-subjects factorial design to better understand how variations in the mode (text only; audio and text) and structure/clarity (high clarity; low clarity) of information impacted feelings of instructor closeness, credibility, and perceived and actual learning. Results indicated that online lectures presented in a multimodal format were better at facilitating positive student experiences with instructors, as well as perceived and actual learning than lectures that contained only one mode of information. Implications of these findings are discussed with a specific focus on instructional design and technology.