An eye-tracking analysis of instructor presence in video lectures

Research is needed to understand how to best design video lectures that foster learning. We tested whether instructor presence is better afforded through methods that increase students' access to the instructor's eye gaze, thereby enhancing learning through increased social agency. Specifically, we compared the eye-gaze behavior of college students who viewed an organic chemistry video lecture with the instructor using either a conventional whiteboard or a transparent whiteboard. These lecture methods differ in the degree to which they allow students to view the instructor's eye gaze. Using eye-tracking methods, we compared students' attention to the instructor's head during direct gaze events (i.e., when the instructor looked into the camera) and gaze guidance events (i.e., when the instructor looked at the whiteboard), and to the written and drawn information on the whiteboard. Results show that students who viewed a transparent whiteboard lecture attended more to the instructor and less to the material drawn on the board than students who viewed a conventional whiteboard lecture. The transparent group also performed equivalently to the conventional group on learning performance. Overall, this study demonstrates that the instructor's presence can compete with words and visuals drawn on the board by the instructor for students' attention.