This study tested whether creating drawings helps students generate higher-quality oral explanations during learning by teaching, thereby enhancing learning outcomes. 120 college students studied a scientific text about the human respiratory system. Students then either taught the material on video to a fictitious peer by orally explaining (explain-only), creating drawings (draw-only), or creating drawings while orally explaining (explain-and-draw). A control group of students spent the same amount of time restudying the lesson (restudy). One week later all students completed a posttest consisting of retention, transfer, and drawing questions. All three teaching conditions significantly outperformed the restudy condition on the posttest (d′s ranging from .80 to 1.46). Critically, the explain-and-draw group also significantly outperformed the explain-only (d = .99) and the draw-only (d = .65) groups. Consistent with our primary hypotheses, the explain-and-draw group produced more elaborative oral explanations than the explain-only group, which partially explained the benefits of drawing while explaining on learning outcomes. Overall, this study demonstrates that drawing facilitates explaining and enhances the effectiveness of learning by teaching.

This study tested 3 instructor presence features in learning from video lectures: dynamic drawings, eye contact with the camera, and instructor visibility. In 2 experiments, college students watched a video lecture about the human kidney, which consisted of a series of drawings and a spoken explanation from the instructor, and then took a written posttest assessing retention and transfer. In Experiment 1, students viewed a lesson consisting of a spoken explanation coordinated with static, already-produced drawings (static drawings group) or with drawings dynamically created by the instructor (dynamic drawings group), both without the instructor visible. In support of the dynamic drawings hypothesis, a t test indicated the dynamic drawings group significantly outperformed the static drawings group on the posttest (d ϭ .54). In Experiment 2, students viewed 2 new versions of the kidney lesson, in which the instructor was visible on the screen and either did not provide eye contact with the camera (conventional whiteboard group) or did provide eye contact (transparent whiteboard group). In support of the social agency hypothesis, a t test indicated the transparent whiteboard group significantly outperformed the conventional whiteboard group on the posttest (d ϭ .54). Finally, consistent with the instructor visibility hypothesis, analyses comparing the dynamic drawings group and the transparent whiteboard group indicated no significant differences in posttest performance. Overall, these findings suggest that learning from video lectures is enhanced by specific instructor presence features, such as instructor dynamic drawing and instructor eye contact, rather than by merely having the instructor visible on the screen. Educational Impact and Implications StatementHow should we design online instructional video to maximize student learning? In the present study, students learned better from an instructional video about the human kidney when they could see the illustrations being drawn by the instructor rather than seeing already drawn illustrations, and when they could see the instructor's eyes looking at them rather than having the instructor not directly face them as she lectured.

This study explored ways to foster generative learning during a narrated video lesson about the human kidney. In a 2 × 3 between-subjects design, 196 college students were randomly assigned to a video format condition and a learning strategy condition. Students listened to oral explanations from the instructor as they viewed either a series of static diagrams (static visuals) or the same diagrams dynamically drawn on the screen without the instructor visible (instructor-generated visuals). After each part of the lesson, students either wrote verbal explanations (explain) or created drawings (draw), or they rewatched that part of the lesson (rewatch). All students then completed retention and transfer tests on the material. Results indicated a significant main effect of learning strategy for retention and transfer: the explain group significantly outperformed the draw group (retention: d = .60; transfer: d = .67) and the rewatch group (retention: d = .58; transfer d = .87). There was also a significant video format by learning strategy interaction for transfer: explaining was most effective for students who observed instructor-generated visuals (ds > 1.0) rather than static visuals (ds < .5). These findings suggest that when learning from narrated video lessons with complex diagrams, students benefit most from viewing dynamically generated drawings and then verbally explaining what they learned. In contrast, creating drawings may not be appropriate for learning from diagram-heavy lessons. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of aligning instructional methods with appropriate learning strategies.

This study tested the effects of implementing a narrative computer-based educational game within a middle-school math class. Gameplay consisted of navigating through a virtual spaceship and completing missions by periodically engaging in learning-by-teaching activities that involved helping an avatar solve math problems. In a pretest/posttest matched-groups design, 58 middle-school students either played the game for 10 hours over 4 days in place of their typical math instruction (game group), or they received conventional math instruction that consisted of a matched set of practice problems (control group). Contrary to our hypotheses, results from posttest measures indicated no significant differences in learning outcomes or motivation between the two groups. Importantly, supplementary observational data indicated that students in the game group spent much of their time during gameplay engaging in activities unrelated to the educational content of the game (e.g., navigating the virtual world) and only 20% of their time engaging in learning-by-teaching activities. These results highlight the importance of designing educational games that effectively balance features intended to entertain learners and features intended to promote learning. Implications for implementing educational games into classroom instruction are discussed.

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