The increasing growth and popularity of online learning is forcing faculty to examine the role of multimedia within their online course content. Research indicates that effective online multimedia is content-relevant and pedagogically intentional; as such, appropriately integrated multimedia components become a valuable teaching tool for facilitating student learning. While there is considerable evidence supporting the cognitive value of multimedia in the online classroom (for a multitude of studies on this topic, see journals such as New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, Multimedia System, Journal of Multimedia, Advances in Multimedia, Journal of Interactive Media in Education or, the previously published, Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning), there is little information on the role of multimedia in influencing essential motivational variables such as student engagement. The purpose of the current study is to examine the impact of instructor-personalized multimedia supplements (i.e.,
Effect of Instructor-Personalized Multimedia in the Online Classroom
Mandernach
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multimedia that features the face and/or voice of the course instructor)