Whether or not students can see the instructor, or on-screen pedagogical agent, alongside the course material does not affect the effectiveness of the video lesson (Fiorella & Mayer, 2021). In fact, students may find the instructor’s image distracting (Kizilcec et al., 2015) because their attention is divided between the course material and looking at the instructor.
The style of language refers to the manner of speaking of the instructor or on-screen agent as well as the manner of written instructions. Formal tone speaks from the third-person perspective, while a conversational tone speaks from the first- or second-person perspective to reference the learner explicitly. Instructions given in a direct tone sound commanding; however, when delivered in a polite tone, they may be reworded as suggestions or questions.