The development of representational competence was investigated by using 3D (concrete and virtual) models as feedback in teaching organic chemistry students to translate between 2D diagrams. In two experiments, students translated between diagrams of molecules and received verbal feedback in one of three intervention conditions: with concrete models, with virtual models, or without models. Learning was measured in three posttests (with models, without models, and after a 7-day delay). Virtual models had either low (Study 1) or high (Study 2) congruence between actions performed with the input device and resulting movements of the virtual model. In terms of learning outcomes, model-based feedback was superior to verbal-feedback alone, models functioned as a scaffold rather than as a crutch, and learning with model-based feedback was resilient over a 7-day delay. Finally, concrete and virtual models were equivalent in promoting learning, and action congruence did not affect learning.

Do students learn better from video lectures when an on-screen instructor is socially presentthat is, when students can seethe instructor’s face and eye gaze during the lecture? The present study explores how access to the instructors face andeye gaze affects students feelings of social rapport, attention to the lesson, and learning outcomes. The study comparesa video lecture about the human kidney where students either have access to the instructors face and eye gaze during thelecture or do not (i.e., the instructor does not face the camera). Students reported higher levels of engagement, directedmore eye fixations to the lecture material rather than the instructor (based on eye-tracking metrics), and performed betteron both retention and transfer posttests after viewing a video lecture with a socially present, on-screen instructor. Resultssuggest that social cues play a role in guiding academic learning from instructional video.