Ask HN: Why are the most MOOCs videos showing the lecturer in the video?

4 pointsbor1000034 comments

For me, HN has a positive attitude toward MOOCs overall. Since I'm talking about videos on programming, why do so many videos show part of the screen the trainer during the whole time while they teach or write code?

What is the point of that?

I assume that's relatively something new, since KhanAcademy old tutorials are not like this?

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because videos with a "talking-head" are more engaging that slides alone.

as was reported in this study:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2556325.2566239

"Our main findings are that shorter videos are much more engaging, that informal talking-head videos are more engaging, that Khan-style tablet drawings are more engaging, that even high-quality pre-recorded classroom lectures might not make for engaging online videos, and that students engage differently with lecture and tutorial videos."

Yes, some research is welcome.

I wonder the same thing as well. This goes for any sort of screencast. I reckon that it's something that was adopted from the gaming world? The short answer is likely: because branding.

Being recognizable is a point for sure.

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