Open Access

Robert Kellner

• Instructional videos are the dominant mode of content delivery in higher education. They can be an effective tool for delivering educational content, providing flexibility in time and location and improving students' understanding of the material. The effectiveness of such videos may be enhanced by applying principles for multimedia design, which are based on a cognitive theory of multimedia learning. One way to adhere to those principles is by showing the instructor together with additional visuals on screen. Some studies suggest that this may have a positive effect on student learning and overall performance. The combination of the instructor and other visuals is usually done in post-production editing, which can be a time-consuming process. In this paper, a live composition video format is proposed, where the instructor is integrated into the presentation during recording. Using this approach, it is possible for the instructor to interact with added visuals directly, requiring little to no post-production. Furthermore, this method can also be used to enrich and increase the efficacy of synchronous live online lectures.