Instructor's direct gaze not body orientation affects learning

Background: Little is known about the effectiveness of instructors when presenting content in videos alone. In recent years, researchers have increasingly begun to explore the effects of instructors' social cues (e.g., eye gaze, body orientation, etc.) on learning. However, previous studies exploring the effects of eye gaze have confounded the role of body orientation, while studies exploring body orientation have confounded the role of eye gaze. Objectives: To explore the role of direct gaze and body orientation in learning with instructional videos, absent an instructional screen, in a less confounded manner. Methods: A total of 63 subjects were presented select concepts regarding schizophrenia. Eye-tracking technology combined with current theories of parasocial interaction and social agency was used to explore different social cues that affect learning performance. Students were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: frontal body + direct gaze group (FD group), frontal body + no direct gaze group (FND group), and lateral body + no direct gaze group (LND group). Result and Conclusions: Direct gaze facilitated students' immediate retention and transfer scores, reduced learners' extraneous cognitive load, and guided students' attention to the instructor. However, counter to our expectations, parasocial interaction did not affect social cues. Implications: In both online and offline classes, instruction is expected to be enhanced by focusing on the camera to the extent possible, particularly when instructional screens are absent.