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We conducted a field study using Tobii Glasses 2.0 eye-tracker to assess 11 experienced university teachers' eye gaze patterns in classrooms, and the impact of these patterns on 293 students' engagement, motivation and satisfaction. Independent-samples t tests showed that compared to teachers who gazed primarily at students, teachers who showed a balance of eye gaze towards students and teaching content had students who were more engaged, motivated and satisfied. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that there were significant mediating roles of engagement and motivation in the association between teachers' eye gaze pattern and students' satisfaction. Our results have practical implications for educational practice: teachers are encouraged to allocate their attention both to students and teaching content to enhance students' learning experience.

The study investigated the effect of an instructor's positive (vs. neutral) emotions in video lectures on student learning using either easy or difficult geography topics (i.e. easy: the Earth within the universe; difficult: understanding time and date calculations of Earth). The results showed that, first, students responded more positively towards the video lectures in which the instructor demonstrated a positive emotional state, compared to videos with a neutral instructor, regardless of content difficulty. Second, the content difficulty of the video lecture moderated the effect of the instructor's positive emotion on students' retention performance. Notably, for the easy content, the instructor's positive emotion significantly enhanced retention performance. Third, the instructor's positive emotion in the both easy and difficult video lectures improved students' transfer performance. This beneficial effect was found to be mediated by students' perceived attention during the learning process. These findings contribute to our understanding of the effects of emotional design in video lectures. Practical recommendations drawn from these findings should be interpreted with consideration of the study context and complemented with other empirical evidence, however one interpretation of these results can be that instructors should consider displaying positive emotions while teaching, particularly when delivering easier content, to improve both retention and transfer performance among students.

Synchronous online learning via technology has become a major trend in institutions of higher education, allowing students to learn from video lectures alongside their peers online. However, relatively little research has focused on the influence of these peers on students' learning during video lectures and even less on the effect of peer familiarity. The present study aimed to test the various effects of peer presence and peer familiarity on learning from video lectures. There were three experimental conditions: individual-learning, paired-learning with an unfamiliar peer, and paired-learning with a familiar peer. ANCOVA results found that students paired with a familiar peer reported higher motivation in learning and more self-monitoring behaviors than those paired with an unfamiliar peer or who learned alone. Furthermore, students paired with both unfamiliar or familiar peers demonstrated better learning transfer than those who learned alone. Together, these results confirm the benefits of and support learning alongside a familiar peer during video lectures.

Instructors' speech and gestures are tightly integrated. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms by which different types of gestures affect learning. We conducted two experiments on the effects of gestures in video lectures that included an instructor and slides, with English vocabulary as the topic. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the instructor's gestures (beat gestures vs. pointing gestures vs. depictive gestures) on neural oscillations and learning performance. The electroencephalogram results showed that students had higher alpha power and higher beta power when the instructor used pointing gestures, suggesting lower sensorimotor involvement in processing. Pointing gestures produced lower learning performance than beat gestures and depictive gestures. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the instructor's pointing gestures and the richness of visual materials in video lectures. The results showed that the effectiveness of pointing gestures was moderated by the richness of the visual materials on the slide. Specifically, pointing gestures were more effective for complex versus simple learning materials. The findings suggest that electroencephalogram oscillations and learning performance vary with the type of gesture the instructor uses and the richness of visual materials in video lectures. This study has applied value for designing effective video lectures in many disciplines: (1) When a video lecture includes simple visual materials, a beat gesture and depictive gesture would be better; (2) when a video lecture includes complex visual materials, the instructor can produce pointing gestures to single out the learning content they are talking about.

Instructional videos risk overloading learners' limited working memory resources due to the transient information effect. Learner control is one way to mitigate this concern, but has shown almost zero overall effect and considerable heterogeneity. Consequently, it is essential to identify when learner control is most beneficial. The present study examined the influence of cues on learners' behaviour, cognitive process, metacognition and learning performance in an interactive learning environment. Employing a 2 (temporal cues: without vs. with) × 2 (organizational cues: without vs. with) between‐subject design, 117 participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: no cues, temporal cues, organizational cues and temporal cues + organizational cues. Among these, temporal cues (ie, progress bar) serve as time‐related signals designed to regulate pacing, and organizational cues (ie, table of contents) provide a structural framework for the content. Significant cueing effects were observed for both cue types at germane cognitive load and transfer. Notably, our results indicate that organizational cues effectively guide learners' attention towards the underlying structure, thus promoting cognitive processing. These unique benefits are evident in improved topic recall, retention and monitoring accuracy. Importantly, combined temporal cues and organizational cues were seen to not only allow learners to exhibit more engagement behaviours (ie, skimming) but also assist learners in accurately judging their learning. These findings strongly support the recommendation to use cues to enhance the effectiveness of learner control. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Instructional videos may overload limited working memory resources due to the transient information effect.The overall effect of including learner control within educational technology was almost zero (g = 0.05) but showed higher heterogeneity.It is unclear whether embedding various cues in an instructional video improves the effectiveness of learner control.What this paper adds Both temporal and organizational cues aided in increasing learners' germane cognitive load and enhancing their transfer.Organizational cues helped learners understand the underlying structure, thus facilitating deeper cognitive processing, improved metacognition and ultimately boosted learning performance.Combined temporal and organizational cues lead to engagement behaviours and accurate self‐monitoring.Implications for practice and/or policy Providing instructional support is important in assisting learners with the complexities of learner‐controlled instruction.Embedding cues help learners process the content deeply by giving learners control over the instructional video. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Leaderboards are a highly popular gamification component used in student learning to enhance motivation, attentional engagement, and learning performance. However, few studies have examined the effects of individual leaderboard elements on English vocabulary learning through video lectures. Objectives: The present study aimed to examine how different leaderboard elements (i.e., points and rank) may affect students' English vocabulary learning through video lectures. Methods: A total of 34 students were assigned to groups using different leaderboard elements in a counterbalanced order. Participants' motivation, eye movements, and learning performance were measured and analysed. Results and Conclusions: Students' leaderboard rank was shown to increase their motivation regardless of whether other elements were present. Eye movement tracking revealed that the presence of the leaderboard increased students' saccades between the questions and the options, and lengthened their dwell time on the learning materials while reducing their dwell time on the non‐learning‐related screen areas. Presenting students' rank alone also improved their learning performance. Implications: Our findings strongly support the use of video lectures for English vocabulary learning, with the following recommendations: (1) Instructors should present students' rank on the leaderboard to enhance students' motivation and engagement; (2) Instructors should present only the students' rank on the leaderboard to also enhance students' learning performance. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: While learning English vocabulary from video lectures, students might experience low levels of motivation and engagement, and pay less attention to the lectures.Leaderboards are a highly popular gamification component used in student learning to enhance motivation, attentional engagement, and learning performance.It remains unclear which leaderboard elements (i.e., points or rank) contribute most significantly to the effectiveness of the leaderboards. What this paper adds: Leaderboard elements have different effects on English vocabulary learning.The rank on the leaderboard benefited students' motivation and engagement.The rank also enhances students' confidence and learning performance. Implications for practice and/or policy: Instructors should present students' rank on the leaderboard to enhance students' motivation and engagement.Instructors should present only the students' rank on the leaderboard to also enhance students' learning performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]