Narration in multimedia learning environments: Exploring the impact of voice origin, gender, and presentation mode

This study was designed to examine the differences between the use of human and computer voices, male and female voices, and the presence of an animated pedagogical agent coupled with narration or narration only on student learning and perceptions within a multimedia computer educational environment. It was also designed to examine how these different factors interact with each other to enhance learners' experiences. Participants in this study were taught the basic principles of relational database design in one of eight possible conditions: (a) Male/Human/Agent, (b) Male/Human/Narration, (c) Male/Computer/Agent, (d) Male/Computer/Narration, (e) Female/Male/Agent, (f) Female/Human/Narration, (g) Female/Computer/Agent, and h) Female/Computer/Narration. The 172 participants in this study completed a pretest, posttest, and attitude questionnaire during the course of the experience. Participants presented with a human voice demonstrated significantly greater gains in learning than their peers that listened to the same content presented by a computer voice. The results also indicated that neither the gender of the voice nor presentation mode of the material provided any significant learning advantages, whether analyzed alone or as part of an interaction analysis. The use of an agent was not significantly better than audio alone and the gender of the speaker did not have any significant impact.