ENTERTAINMENT-EDUCATION

VIDEO-BASED LECTURES WITH

VIRTUAL REALITY LECTURERS
Increasing student engagement and attention.
A Literature Review
Diana Polanco
Curriculum & Instruction | Learning, Design, & Technology
University of Houston 2023
Cuin 7347 Professor Ahlf
 Abstract

Students today have a rapidly decreasing attention span from growing up with an

unending stream of scrolling distractions. The modern learner today has easier access to an

endless amount of information thanks to laptops, tablets, iPads, and smartphones. Yet they are

also subject to more distractions than ever before. (Almufarreh 2023). Teachers need to be able

to capture their slowly decreasing attention spans but also keep said attention with engaging and

effective methods of presenting information to them. How is a teacher supposed to compete with

social media, mobile applications and the infinite possibility of distraction that is the internet?

This literature review aims to review three proven strategies of education, entertainment-

education, video-based lectures, and virtual reality avatar lecturers. Then this review will explain

the necessary future studies for proper combining of the 3 factors to create an effective tool that

can be used to capture the attention of the modern learner during lessons. By mixing these

learning strategies together to produce a new tool that works with the changing environment for

teaching and learning, teachers can take advantage of developing technological trends

influencing teaching and learning rather than try to compete against it for the attention of today’s

modern learners (Almufarreh 2023). Breaking down the three vital factors of this topic will

make up the context of this review.

• What are video based lectures.

• What is entertainment-education.

• What is a virtual reality lecturer.

 Along with the gaps in the proper methods to combine all 3 components necessary to

create a product that not only can compete with distractors but can overcome said distractions

and present information to a learner in a way that is both engaging and attentive. Leading not

only to the need but the necessity to continue further research into the implementation and

creation of entertainment-education video-based lectures with virtual reality lecturers for the

modern classroom. Along with explaining the need of creating studies and training finding

solutions to streamline the heavy user unfriendliness that comes with using these technologies

together when presented to a technologically inexperience educator who wishes to create their

own media following these methods.

Introduction

In today’s modern media endless scrolling has affected the new generations of learner’s

attention span. Dr, Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University of California stated

that, “research has shown that over the past couple of decades people’s attention spans have

shrunk in measurable ways”. Students are struggling across not just the nation but also around

the globe to keep their attention on their teachers. Modern educators need to reach students on a

level they can understand.

Educators can combat this growing issue with the use of entertainment-education video-

based lectures (VBL). When combined with VR technologies of a virtual lecturer educators can

change the way the lesson and lectures are presented to the modern-day learner. Increasing

engagement and attention as the student learns new material or recalls already presented

material. Along with being a tool for reviews of old material a student may have missed.
 The consumption of modern media has changed with every generation. The modern

learner has laptops, tablets, iPads, and the ever-present cell phone all at the tips of their fingers.

In 2014 78% of teenagers ages 12 to 17 had cellphones. With the average being 1 out of every 4

teenagers consuming most of their media through their phones. (Pew Research Center, 2013)

American students are spending on average over 6 hours a day scrolling on their media (Roberts,

2008). Children as young as two to four years old are averaging half an hour to 2 hours of screen

time (Mark 2023). Children in the two-to-four-year age group are mainly watching television

programing or browsing through YouTube. Collectively the many hours spent online browsing

from a young age has contributed to the fall of the modern student’s attention spans (Mark2023).

The father of psychology William James defined attention as “the taking possession by the mind,

in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains

of thought.” In 2004, Dr. Mark started measuring attention spans and found the average attention

span to be two and a half minutes. Annual studies were conducted gathering data on students’

attention span. The study found that the average attention span of the modern learner had

dropped to 75 seconds. (Mark, 2023).

Context

Video-Based Lectures (VBLs) and Entertainment-Education

Video-Based Lectures follow the same aspects of Video-Based learning in that it presents

knowledge or skills via video presentations and the key feature of the video is the use of both

auditory and visual cues. (Sablic, 2020). Video-Based Lectures are an effective method that

enhances the traditional learning approach to improve learning outcomes. (Yousef, 2014). Videos

are one of the most powerful virtual learning media. Video-Based Lectures can capture and

present information in a way that can also provide a stimulating learning environment where
students can better understand and retain data longer (Fern, 2011). Examples of video-based

lectures can be seen in the 1943 American instructional animated shorts, “Private Snafu”. The

Video-Based Lectures were created to instruct service personnel about security, proper sanitation

habits, and other military subjects by showing what could go wrong when said military subjects

were improperly followed or implemented. These Video-Based Lectures helped present

complicated subjects in easy-to-understand short clips tailored to enlisted men with weak literacy

skills. Surveys given to soldiers of the time listed their favorite films to be Snafu cartoons. The

Video-Based Lectures of Private Snafu are also an example of Video-Based Lectures mixed with

entertainment- education.

Entertainment-education is defined as, “the process of purposely designing and

implementing a media message to both entertain and educate in order to increase audience

members’ knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, shift social norms

and change overt behavior” (Singhal, Pg 155, 2003). When creating entertainment-education for

possible VBLs the method of communication must be chosen appropriately and designed to suit

the intended audience. The message design and presentation should be simple, consistent, and

focused. (Singhal 2003).

Virtual Reality technology

Virtual reality has come a long way since its infancy with Sir Charles

Wheatstone construction of the stereoscope in 1840. Virtual Reality technology often refers to

the technology that combines computer technology with an artificial environment and simulates

a three-dimensional virtual world that increases user immersion This allows students the

opportunity a new level of interactivity with presented subject matter. (Ding, 2022).
 Virtual reality programs have applicable uses in several fields including medical care,

nursing, tourism, culture, military, architecture and design, engineering, entertainment and of

course education. The “STEAM-6E model” has shown that Virtual reality education has helped

learners increase their learning motivation and learning activity satisfaction effectively (Lin,

2021).

The 3 basic characteristics to VR technology.

1. Immersion

2. Interactivity

3. It is imaginative.

(Ding, 2022)

The Virtual Reality avatar often called a Vtuber touches on all 3 characteristics. Since

2016, a rapid increase in the number of Virtual YouTubers or VTubers have flocked to live

streaming and video sharing platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and Bilibili (a Chinese video-

sharing and streaming platform) to create and contribute content to self-curated online audiences.

The practice of using a 2D or 3D virtual avatar that is animated and voiced by a human actor is

called Virtual YouTubing or VTubing. (Wan, 2023)

A Vtuber model or a virtual youtuber is an online entertainer that use a virtual avatar to

present their media. A Vtuber model uses real-time motion capture software to animate the

digital avatars in order to present a much more entertaining live presentation. Animated avatars

offer more identity and performance flexibility than traditional live streaming where presenters

use their own body. The use of a Vtuber model to present information to a captive audience has
drawn research attention into topics of viewers engagement behaviors and perceptions. (Wan,

2023)

Why a Virtual Reality Lecturer

Virtual reality lecturer has a precedence for how having an avatar-based presenter has

increase student engagement versus having a live lecturer.

Affective engagement to lectures often needs external stimulation (Kasperiuniene, 2016).

Kasperiuniene tested the engagement of learners in the empirical study ‘Affective Engagement to

Virtual and Live Lectures’. University students were examined, and data was collected on the

student’s engagement level and changes to live presenters and avatar-based presenters. The live

presenter was a traditional based presenter at the front of a classroom that presented a lesson. The

avatar-based presenter was created and animated with Crazy Talk software. The avatar took the

form of the head and shoulders of the live presenter. The avatar was stationed at the corner of the

online presentation. The avatar was recorded with the use of a green screen so that the avatar-

based presenter did not obscure the presented slides, images and video material(Kasperiuniene,

2016).

Student engagement and attention to the lecture materials were measured using the

following indicators:

1. Monitoring through a Muse Portable headband device

2. Cognitive self-regulation measurements

 3. Behavioral regulation (Kasperiuniene, 2016)

Kasperiuniene found that students had the highest concentration levels, attentiveness, and

active engagement measures during the avatar-based lectures. Data presented that students who

were watching the avatar-based lecture responded to more stimuli than during the live lecture.

The results of the study found that avatar-based lectures had a greater level of concentration,

active engagement, and attentiveness compared to live lectures. (Kasperiuniene, 2016).

Kasperiuniene’s recommendations following the study is that educators should use

various forms and methods of stimuli to evoke and strengthen learners’ concentration and active

engagements to learning materials.

Conclusion

A Combined Product

Video based lectures have the key features of a video’s auditory and visual cues to

enhance the traditional learning approach to improve learning outcomes (Sablic, 2020).

Entertainment education has a purposely designed and implemented, simple, consistent, and

focused media message. Which is presented to the intended audience to both entertain and

educate (Singhal 2003). Finally virtual reality avatars have shown that its inclusion has increased

concentration, active engagement, and attentiveness (Kasperiuniene, 2016). Combining these 3

strategies together to create Entertainment-education video-based lectures with virtual reality

lecturer or VBLs for a shorten term, VBLs have the potential to be an integral part of any

teacher’s tool belt. Allowing teachers to be able to capture students slowly decreasing attention

spans. Keep their attention with engaging and effective methods of presenting information to
them. Along with competing with the never-ending distractions that present themselves to the

modern learner. The issue is the proper combination of the 3 separate strategies,

Further study would need to be conducted to effectively combine all three strategies

together to create the next generation of education strategies. Kasperiuniene’s study, ‘Affective

Engagement to Virtual and Live Lectures’, is the first step in the evolutionary process of

developing entertainment-education video-based lectures with virtual reality lecturers. Instead of

using the recorded head and shoulders of a live presenter, the presenter would be replaced with a

Virtual reality lecture using a Vtuber model. The same measuring methods would be applied to

effectively collect data monitoring the student’s attention and engagement to the presented

lecture material. Added variants to the study would be to fill in the gap of diverse student ages.

Kasperiuniene’s study, focused on the attention and engagement levels of college students, this

future study would benefit from the use of students in high school, middle school, and

elementary school age brackets. Further studies would need to be conducted to reduce cost and

streamline the process of recording entertainment-based video-based lectures using a virtual

reality lecture.

The software required to record virtual reality models depends on the type of model being

used. There are 2 types of VTubing models 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional. 2 dimensional

models require motion capture software such as VTube Studio. The program has a cost of 14.99

dollars. 3 dimensional models will require motion capture software such as az3D, Blender, and

Vroid Studio, which can have monthly subscription cost. Specially designed rigs for live

recordings and Vtube models have a sliding scale on cost, ranging from 1000 all the way to

15,000 dollars for more advanced models. (Rokoko 2022)

 Hardware required to record virtual reality models includes but is not limited to a motion

tracking webcam, smartphone, tablets, mouse, microphones, greenscreens, dual monitors, PC

desktops with a minimum 16 gigabytes of random-access memory although some users argue of

the necessity of 32 to 64 gigabytes of random-access memory. All of which is not a common set

up of technology for the modern educator.

Another gap which necessitates future study is the lack of consensus on the proper

method to record a VBL with an avatar lecture along with the necessity to find what would be the

conclusive program necessary for recording the vtube model. Many experienced Vtubers have

learned their craft from trial and error along with various tutorials in Youtube. YouTube can be

used as a technological resource for different educational levels along with being a potential host

for where VBl’s may be presented. We have seen YouTube grow as an educational resource

becoming more frequent in formal education and increasingly widespread at all levels of

education. But there has not been empirically compared studies on the value of informal learning

that takes place on YouTube, and there has been even less research on its use for formal

education. (Colas-Bravos 2023)

All these gaps and future studies must also have educators at the forefront of every step.

Educational resources are an indispensable part of the training, education, and teaching system.

Teachers must be involved in the process of constructing, collecting, organizing, and the using of

the teaching resources they implement in their teaching process (Ding, 2022).
 References

Almufarreh, A., & Arshad, M. (2023). Promising Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning: Recent
Developments and Future Challenges. Sustainability, 15(8), 6917.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086917

Colás-Bravo, P., & Quintero-Rodríguez, I. (2023). YouTube as a Digital Resource for Sustainable
Education. Sustainability, 15(7), 5687. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075687

Ding, L., & Chau, V. (2022). Construction of Interactive Higher Education Model Based on “VR + Internet.”
Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, 2022, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/6444864

Fern, A., Givan, R., & Siskind, J. M. (2002). Specific-to-General Learning for Temporal Events with Application
to Learning Event Definitions from Video. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 17, 379–
449.https://arxiv.org/pdf/1106.4572.pdf

Kaprielian J., Jariwala M., Jasikevicius E., Satkauskas S. (2016) Affective Engagement to Virtual and Live
Lectures. ICIST 2016: Information and Software Technologies pp 499–508.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46254-7_40

Li, Y., & Liu, E. (2023). Research on the implantation and dissemination strategy of short creative advertising
videos in the new media era. International Journal of Communication Networks and Information
Security, 15(1), 66-74. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/scholarly-journals/research-
on-implantation-dissemination-strategy/docview/2812114573/se-2

Lin, Y.-H., Hao-Chiang Koong Lin, & Liu, H.-L. (2021). Using STEAM-6E Model in AR/VR Maker Education
Teaching Activities to Improve High School Students’ Learning Motivation and Learning Activity
Satisfaction. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 111–118.https://doi-
org.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/10.1007/978-3-030-91540-7_13

Madden, M. Lenhart, A. (2013). Teens and Technology 2013. Pew Internet Project
https://web.archive.org/web/20180807201443/http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old -
media/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_TeensandTechnology2013.pdf

Mills, K., & Mark, G. (2023). Speaking of Psychology: Why our attention spans are shrinking, with Gloria
Mark, PhD. Apa.org. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/attention-spans

Roberts, D. F., & Foehr, U. G. (2008). Trends in media use. The Future of Children, 18(1), 11–
37. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.0.0000.

Rokoko, (2022). The Expert Guide to Making Or Buying a VTuber Model.

(n.d.).https://www.rokoko.com/insights/the-expert-guide-to-making-or-buying-a-vtuber-
model#:~:text=VTuber%20models%20range%20from%20%2435,depending%20on%20complexity%2
0and%20customization.

Sablić S. Mirosavljević A., & Škugor A. (2021). Video-Based Learning (VBL)—Past, Present and Future: an
Overview of the Research Published from 2008 to 2019. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 26(4),
 1061-1077. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/scholarly-journals/video-based-learning-
vbl-past-present-future/docview/2586194392/se-2?accountid=7107

Singhal, A., Cody, M. J., Rogers, E. M., & Sabido, M. (Eds.). (2003). Entertainment-education and social change
: History, research, and practice. Taylor & Francis Group.
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uh/detail.action?docID=335485&pq-origsite=primo#

Wan, Q., & Lu, Z. (2023, July 20). Investigating VTubing as a Reconstruction of Streamer Self-Presentation:
Identity, Performance, and Gender. ArXiv.org. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2307.11025

Yousef, A. M. F., Chatti, M. A., & Schroeder, U. (2014). Video-based learning: A critical analysis of the
research. Future Visions. Conference Paper. https://www.fayou
m.edu.eg/SpecifcEducation/EducationalTechnology/pdf/Video-BasedLearning.pdf. Accessed 30
January 2020.