The mutual influence of an instructor’s eye gaze and facial expression in video lectures

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Video lectures
• instructor presence
• eye gaze
• facial expression
• learning performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Projects of Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of Ministry of Education of China under grant [19XJC880006; 19YJC190007]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant [61877024; 62007023]; and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [GK202103116].

Notes on contributors

Zhongling Pi

Zhongling Pi is a distinguished research professor in the Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology (Ministry of Education) at Shaanxi Normal University (SNNU). Her research interests include science of learning, educational psychology, and collaborative learning.

Yi Zhang

Yi Zhang is a Ph.D student in the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education at Central China Normal University (CCNU). Her research interests include online learning and instructional design.

Fangfang Zhu

Fangfang Zhu is a Ph.D student in the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education at CCNU. Her research interests include blend learning, educational psychology and instructional design.

Louqi Chen

Louqi Chen is a master student in the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education at CCNU. Her research interests include educational psychology and online learning.

Xin Guo

Xin Guo is a master student in the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education at CCNU. Her research interests include instructional design and distance learning.

Jiumin Yang

Jiumin Yang is a professor in the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education at CCNU. His research interests include instructional videos teaching and learning, instructional design and online learning.