Effects of Familiar Faces in Video Modelling on Learning Effectiveness

In the past decade, it has become popular to use instructional videos for teaching and learning in online and blended learning environments. While researchers have studied how the presence of an instructor in an instructional video affects learning effectiveness, the influence of an instructor's visual familiarity toward students' learning is unclear. This experimental study explored how face familiarity in instructional videos affects the learning effectiveness of college students (n=47). Two sets of instructional videos were produced that adopted video modelling to teach business etiquette. The forty-seven college students each viewed one of the two video sets with cast that are respectively familiar faces and unfamiliar faces to the students. The results showed that participants can learn effectively from both sets of videos. Further examination showed face familiarity significantly reduced learning effectiveness, only when the participants had full-time work experience; otherwise, face familiarity does not have effect on learning effectiveness. These findings were explained in accordance to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and indicate that face familiarity may hinder learning effectiveness.