The Effect Of The Instructor On Learning Process And Effectiveness In Online Video Courses

With the development of internet and multimedia, video courses have been widely applied in online learning. However, there is little empirical investigation concerning about video courses from the perspective of psychology, and thus the effective application of video courses is limited. In this dissertation, the author explores the effect of the instructor in video courses on learners’ learning process and outcomes from the perspective of self-perception and autonomic-cognitive-processing. The findings refine online learning theories, especially online video courses learning theories, and provide useful suggestions for design and development of online video courses.The dissertation begins with the examination of online video courses in China and worldwide by analyzing the main characters of them, and thereby clarified research questions which will be answer in the following. The author explores the effects of the presence size of the instructor and the instructor’s gestures on learner’s social presence, cognitive load, learning satisfaction and learning effectiveness, which is based on social presence theory and cognitive load theory. Then, the author explores the effect of the instructor’s gestures on learner’s visual attention allocation by eye-tracking technique. Finally, based on the findings from the investigation above mentioned, the author compares the different effects of the instructor in the online video courses concerning declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge on learner’s social presence, cognitive load, and learning effectiveness, in regarding to the different contexts of online video courses and traditional classroom.In the first study, through investigating207online video courses in China and worldwide, the author analyzes presenting modes of instructors, the presenting size of instructors, and the application of instructors’hand gestures appeared in these courses. The goal of this study was to examine the application of instructor’s image in online video courses in all around world. The findings provide practical evidence for research questions being explored in the following. The author finds that the instructor is presented in94.20%of online video courses; the presenting size of the instructor ranges widely, from1%to60%; almost instructors in online video courses use several types of hand gestures.In the second study, the social presence questionnaire and video courses learning satisfaction questionnaire were modified by surveying320undergraduates in Central China Normal University (CCNU). The goal of the study was to provide reliable tools to measure learner’s social presence and learning satisfaction in following studies. The social presence questionnaire and video courses learning satisfaction questionnaire had good construct validity and internal consistency reliability, basis on confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis. The social presence questionnaire included two dimensions:"arrival" and "departure". The video courses learning satisfaction questionnaire included four dimensions:teacher and teaching, course contents, teacher-student interaction, and learning environment and equipment.The third study was to examine the effects of the presenting size of the instructor in online video courses on learner’s social presence, cognitive load, learning satisfaction, and learning effectiveness through a single factor and between-subject experiment design. The goal of the study is to explore the effects of the presenting size of the instructor on learning process and effectiveness. Participants were88undergraduates from CCNU. Three video courses with different presenting sizes of the instructor. The first video course included the small presenting size of the instructor (8.4%); the second one included the moderate image of the instructor (26.1%); the third one included the big image of the instructor (41.8%). The learning topic of those video courses was "the adjustment of curve command in Photoshop". The video courses lasted about7minutes and29seconds. It found that the video course with the smaller image of the instructor (8.4%) improved their learning satisfaction and facilitated learner’s learning effectiveness. Whereas the video course with larger image of the instructor (41.8%) reduced their learning satisfaction and hindered learner’s learning effectiveness. The presenting size of the instructor had no significant effect on learner’s social presence and cognitive load.The fourth study explored the effects of different types of cues, including the instructor’s gestures and non-gestures cues, on learner’s social presence, cognitive load, learning satisfaction, visual attention and learning effectiveness by eye tracking technique through between-subject design. The goal of this study is to explore the effects of the instructor’s gestures in online video courses on learning process and effectiveness. Participants were113undergraduates from CCNU. There were four video courses:1) the video course without any cues;2) the video course with the instructor’s gestures;3) the video course with non-gestures cues;4) the video course with the instructor’s gestures and non-gestures cues. The topic of the video courses was the same as that of the third study. The instructor was presented in all the video courses. It found that the instructor’s gestures in video courses had a positive effect in guiding learner’s visual attention and fostering their learning. The instructor’s gestures had no effect on learner’s social presence, cognitive load and learning satisfaction.The fifth studies examined the effects of the image of the instructor on learner’s social presence, cognitive load, and short-term and medium-term learning effectiveness in declarative knowledge video courses and procedural knowledge video courses. A mixed design was used in this study. The learning approach was the between-subject variable with3levels (the video podcast with the mode of PPT slides, the video podcast with the mode of PPT slides and the instructor, and traditional classroom). The type of knowledge was the within-subject variable with2levels (declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge). Participants were96undergraduates from CCNU. Two presenting modes were applied in video courses about declarative knowledge:one only with PPT slides, and the other with PPT slides and the instructor’s image. Those two presenting modes were also used in video courses about procedural knowledge. The declarative knowledge was the concept of educational technology; and the procedural knowledge was digital image processing in the study. It found that when learning declarative knowledge, participants in the group with the mode of PPT and the instructor had the highest learning effectiveness. Furthermore, when learning procedural knowledge, participants in the video podcast with PPT group achieved the same learning effectiveness as those in the video podcast with PPT and instructor group, and those in traditional classroom group. The instructor in the video courses teaching declarative knowledge and the video courses had no effect on learner’s social presence and cognitive load.Based on above studies, we made the following conclusions:1.the small image of the instructor and the instructor’s several kinds of gestures in online video courses facilitated learning process and effectiveness.2. As procedural knowledge, the online video courses with the image of the instructor was the best way to learning. And as procedural knowledge, the image of the instructor did not influence learner’s learning effectiveness in online video courses.3. Social presence and cognitive load were not important factors influencing learning in the online video courses with the image of the instructor. We formulated that learner’s perceived feeling, such as social presence and cognitive load, played not important role in online video courses learning as traditional online learning theories and multimedia learning theories emphasized. On contrary, learner’s automatic cognitive process play vital role in online video courses learning. Therefore, the characters of learner’s automatic cognitive process should be considered when online video courses were design and make video courses.The innovation of the dissertation was:the effect of the instructor in video courses on learners’ self-perception, autonomic-cognitive-processing, and learning effectiveness, based on analyzing online video courses, and the learning discipline of online video courses and traditional classroom. The dissertation enriched the results of previous relevant studies, especially for the role of the instructor in online video courses, and provided some suggestions to both design and make online video courses. The contribution to the learning theory was:earner’s perceived feeling, such as social presence and cognitive load, played not important role in online video courses learning as traditional online learning theories and multimedia learning theories emphasized. On contrary, learner’s automatic cognitive process play vital role in online video courses learning. The contribution to the practice was:the characters of learner’s automatic cognitive process should be considered when online video courses were design and make video courses.