Should Instructional Videos Include a Talking Head?

Existing research on the presence of talking heads in videos has produced mixed results.

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Highlights:

• A ‘talking head’ refers to a visual of the instructor in an instructional video, often placed in a sub-window in one of the corners of the screen.

• The research on talking heads in instructional videos has produced mixed results.

• Some argue that their presence is an unnecessary source of extraneous cognitive load while others claim that talking heads can enhance teacher presence, especially in asynchronous online courses.

• In the absence of a clear answer, content creators should practice caution and take cues from cognitive load theory and multimedia principles.

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Instructional videos are frequently used in formal and informal learning. There are various forms of instructional videos ranging from educational videos for school children (like Khan Academy) to skill-building videos that share DIY recipes or health and wellness tips. Despite their ubiquitous use, there remain many unanswered questions about the design of these videos. One such question is whether there is any value in including a visual of the instructor by means of a talking head. We've searched the literature to see if there is a clear answer to this question. It turns out that talking heads have both advantages and disadvantages. Here are the two lines of thought that we observe:

Disadvantages: Some scholars (e.g., Mayer et al, 2020) argue that the presence of a talking head is an unnecessary source of extraneous load, i.e. a seductive detail¹ that does not directly contribute to learning. It can distract the learner from the visual content displayed on the screen. This problem is further magnified if the talking head does a lot of gesturing, which could further distract the learner from the content being taught. Therefore, it's not advisable to include a "talking head" in instructional multimedia materials. In a recent study, Sonderman and Merkt (2023) conducted an online experiment in which N=112 participants watched eight short videos with narrated slides on different topics, each lasting about 1 min and each consisting of one slide. The videos covered factual information about two geographical, two biological, two physical, and two historical topics. For each topic, they produced eight content-equivalent formats systematically varying talking head (present vs. absent), slide type (graphic vs. text), and presentation type (sequential vs. static). They investigated effects of these design features on learning outcomes (factual knowledge), learners' ratings of the videos (e.g., perceived learning, satisfaction), and selection behaviour (selection of videos by participants based on format). Results revealed detrimental effects of talking heads on the recall of factual knowledge covered in the videos. Interestingly, participants rated their perceived learning as being higher for videos with talking head. Furthermore, participants assigned higher satisfaction scores to videos with talking heads and selected them more frequently when choosing between different formats.

Advantages: A competing theory is that a "talking head" can contribute to a sense of "teacher presence". Online courses are challenging for many students. Some learners struggle because they feel isolated - they feel detached from the teacher and the class. Including a talking head can increase the learner's sense that the teacher is a tangible, caring, supportive human being. Higher levels of teacher presence have been positively associated with student satisfaction and student perceptions of learning. The evidence for teacher presence is pretty robust. Therefore, from a "teacher presence" point of view, adding a talking head is thought to be a good idea. It may be particularly valuable in fully asynchronous courses where there are no other opportunities to see the teacher. Garcia and Yousef (2023) recently conducted a comparative study involving N=200 students and 72 videos with varying designs such as regular videos, videos with face, videos with annotation, or videos with face and annotation. They conducted a randomized controlled trial within a 14-week academic period with four cohorts of students enrolled in an asynchronous web design and development course. They recorded a total of 42,425 total page views (212.13 page views per student) for all web browsing activities within the online learning platform. Findings suggest that combining talking heads and annotations in asynchronous video lectures yielded the longest watch time, and highest satisfaction, engagement, and attitude scores.

So far, research on the effectiveness of talking heads in instructional videos has produced mixed results. Some claim that having a talking head doesn't seem to help and can even negatively impact recall. Other research suggests they may increase learner motivation and engagement, perhaps at the cost of increasing cognitive load (Alemdag, 2022).

Bottom line: 

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a really clear answer to the question whether talking heads are effective or not. Researchers need to conduct more experiments in this area. However, we'd like to tentatively make a few suggestions based upon the research we've seen so far.

• If you're creating a multimedia lesson, it is sometimes helpful to add a "talking head" of yourself in one of the corners of your screen. It is probably the most useful when you're teaching an online course that is delivered entirely asynchronously. In such cases, a talking head might help increase students' sense of instructor presence.  

• If you are teaching an online course synchronously, and if the students regularly see your face (perhaps you meet regularly on Zoom), there may be less value in adding a "talking head" to your multimedia materials. In those cases, your narrated voiceover may be sufficient for fostering a sense of teacher presence.

• If you're filming yourself as a talking head, try not to make too many gestures with your arms, or have other distracting elements in the "talking head" portion of the multimedia presentation. Be verbally expressive but not visually distracting.

• If you're using a talking head, and if you get to a point in your multimedia lesson where you want learners to carefully inspect something on the screen (e.g., a graph or a table), then temporarily turn off the talking head visual and continue with audio narration only. This can better focus the learner's attention on the contents that you want them to study. A talking head doesn't have to be on screen for the full lesson. You can switch it off whenever there's material that might be cognitively taxing. 

• If you are using a narrated screencast to provide a student with targeted feedback on one of their assignments, then consider whether it might help to add a "talking head" to the screencast. It's likely that students will be more receptive to feedback if they can see the instructor's facial expressions (assuming those expressions are friendly and supportive!)

• When you record a "talking head" video, use short sentences, informal language, and talk in the first and second person (use pronouns like "I", and "you") rather than using formal or academic language. You want students to perceive that you are talking directly to them.

Do you use talking head in your instructional videos? If so, how do you make the decision whether to have it or not? Share in comments.

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References

Alemdag, E. (2022). Effects of instructor-present videos on learning, cognitive load, motivation, and social presence: A meta-analysis. Education and Information Technologies, 27, 12713–12742.

Caskurlu, S., Maeda, Y., Richardson, J., & Lv, J. (2020). A meta-analysis addressing the relationship between teaching presence and students’ satisfaction and learning. Computers & Education,157.

Garcia, M. & Yousef, A. (2023). Cognitive and affective effects of teachers’ annotations and talking heads on asynchronous video lectures in a web development course. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 18(20).

Mayer, R.E., Fiorella, L. & Stull, A. (2020). Five ways to increase the effectiveness of instructional video. Education Tech Research Dev 68, 837–852.

Sondermann, C. & Merkt, M. (2023). Like it or learn from it: Effects of talking heads in educational videos. Computers & Education, 193.

1. The Seductive Details Effect suggests that people learn more deeply from multimedia when interesting but irrelevant details are excluded, such as animated gifs or talking heads.