Educational videos have become an important content-delivery tool in higher-education (Brame, 2016), especially in online and blended learning. The rapid growth in different contexts is accompanied by a wide range of design options (Carmichael, Reid, Karpicke, & Bradley, 2018). \u00a0A number of services provide different types and styles of video-based lectures and tutorials: Khan Academy, Ted-Ed, LinkedIn Learning Solutions (formerly Lynda.com), Udemy, Udacity to name a few, and in addition there are the user-generated videos on YouTube, Vimeo and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
No matter how the educational videos are used, such as independent learning, in flipped learning or as secondary resource for courses, the use of a video as an effective educational tool can be enhanced by focusing on managing cognitive load of the video; maximizing learner engagement with the video; promoting active learning from the video (Brame, 2016).<\/p>\n
Multiple studies asked the question whether it is beneficial to feature the instructor\u2019s face and use their social cues within the video to promote engagement, increase learning and balance cognitive load and it was explored in different situations. I was curious to explore whether LinkedIn Learning Solutions videos were applying these findings, potential best practices.<\/p>\n
I considered three theories with this question: cognitive load theory, cognitive theory of multimedia learning and social agency theory. According to the cognitive load theory and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, the cues and additional information provided by the instructor\u2019s presence could overload the learner and distract them from the content (Kruger & Doherty, 2016). However, social agency theory posits that the social connections that might be gained from social cues such as eye contact, eye gaze, facial expressions and gestures could lead to greater engagement with the content and might offset the mentioned possible disadvantages (Colliot & Jamet, 2018; Han, 2013).<\/p>\n
While there is a consensus that a proper instructional design balance should be found for these factors to ensure the best outcomes for the learners, there are a few contradicting, inconclusive, or context specific research available on the topic of instructor presence in video-based materials regarding learning, social presence and cognitive load.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The illustration is created by the author.<\/em><\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Brame, C. J. (2016). Effective educational videos: Principles and guidelines for maximizing student learning from video content. CBE\u2014Life Sciences Education<\/em>, 15<\/em>(4), es6. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1187\/cbe.16-03-0125<\/p>\n Carmichael, M., Reid, A.-K., Karpicke, J. D., & Bradley, J. V. (2018). Assessing the impact of educational video on student engagement, critical thinking and learning: The current state of play<\/em>. Retrieved from www.sagepublishing.com<\/p>\n Colliot, T., & Jamet, \u00c9. (2018). Understanding the effects of a teacher video on learning from a multimedia document: an eye-tracking study. Educational Technology Research and Development<\/em>, 66<\/em>(6), 1415\u20131433. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11423-018-9594-x<\/p>\n Han, H. (2013). Do nonverbal emotional cues matter? Effects of video casting in synchronous virtual classrooms. American Journal of Distance Education<\/em>, 27<\/em>(4), 253\u2013264. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/08923647.2013.837718<\/p>\n Kruger, J.-L., & Doherty, S. (2016). Measuring cognitive load in the presence of educational video: Towards a multimodal methodology<\/em>. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology<\/em>. Retrieved from https:\/\/repository.nwu.ac.za\/bitstream\/handle\/10394\/24668\/2016Measuring_cognitive.pdf?sequence=1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Educational videos have become an important content-delivery tool in higher-education (Brame, 2016), especially in online and blended learning. The rapid growth in different contexts is accompanied by a wide range of design options (Carmichael, Reid, Karpicke, & Bradley, 2018). \u00a0A number of services provide different types and styles of video-based lectures and tutorials: Khan Academy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lrnt526"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0057\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}