Instructor presence in video lectures: Eye gaze matters, but not body orientation

The instructor's on-screen presence, rather than just voice, has rapidly become a popular feature in video lectures. Eye gaze and body orientation are core indicators of an instructor's attentional focus in classroom settings, but it is not well known how these factors influence learners' attention allocation and learning performance in video lectures with the on-screen presence of instructors presenting slides. This study tested the effects of the instructor's eye gaze and body orientation on attention and learning from a video lecture in a sample of 174 undergraduates. Specifically, the instructor's presence was manipulated in terms of eye gaze (direct, guided, or averted) and body orientation (frontal or lateral). Eye tracking data revealed that regardless of an instructor's body orientation, learners who viewed the video lectures with the instructor's guided gaze paid greater attention to the slides, and those who viewed the video lectures with the instructor's direct gaze paid greater attention to her face; paper-and-pencil assessments showed that learners who viewed the video lectures with guided gaze showed better retention and transfer. These results held regardless of body orientation, suggesting that an instructor's eye gaze has a stronger influence than body orientation on attention and learning from video lectures. The findings suggest that an instructor should not look directly at the camera continuously throughout the lecture, and should instead use guided gaze to draw learners' attention to the learning materials.