So much has been said about the talking head and many studies have shown that the talking head has no instructional value. Suzanne and I often discuss this. For a while, I subscribed to this argument, but now I am slowly realizing that the talking head is not just a talking head, it’s a human being that helps us establish rapport with the content.
I wanted to brush up on CSS skills yesterday and accessed my monthly subscription at Lynda.com. Lo and behold the screen capture tutorials that I once upon a time thought were so efficient were replaced by a high production video! A warm instructor welcomed me and promised to guide me through the learning process. I was hooked! When I previously couldn’t watch more than five tutorials in a row, I was able to view the whole introduction series. My 21 inch screen also really helped me connect with my instructor and I listened carefully to what he had say. I even took notes!
With the push to move courses online, the human factor will become more and more of a focus when designing and developing courses. If you think about it, in this MOOC we moved slowly from asynchronous to synchronous sessions. Deep down, we are social human beings who value the human connection.
What do you think? Do you see value in the talking head now?
Here’s a perk for reading this post 
I wouldn’t have thought it matters too much but I’ve noticed that there is some
thing different when I watch an online presentation that has a head shot, still or video included. It’s not really something I can quantify though. It seems especially effective when there is audio too.
I’ve been an avid learner since long before there was the Internet as we know it today, so I have done a lot of learning from books, and books don’t have an animated head talking to me as I read. I think it would be distracting. Yet I’ve managed to learn a lot from books anyway. But even many books do have a picture of the author on the book jacket somewhere, so maybe there’s something to that, even if its not essential.
So have you got any favorite software that you use to accomplish the talking head effect? I’d like to know more about what people are using for this.
Thanks for your reply, Norm. It’s interesting that you mention books and the picture of the author. I personally was never really good at just learning from books, especially ones that don’t organize the information visually well and adhere to information design principles.
Camtasia Studio has recently become my favorite software. It captures everything you’re doing on the screen and captures a video of you at the same time. My favorite rapid video recording tool, however, is definitely the iPhone 4. It’s so easy to capture a high definition video of yourself with the front camera and upload it immediately to your YouTube account.
First of all, thanks for the perk, good music is always appreciated. As for your post, I think I would appreciate, like you did, a “talking head” to extensive voice recordings. I took a couple of online courses about two years ago for a certificate program in TESOL and both instructors did record lectures along with their slides, which is certainly preferable to slides alone, but towards the end of the semester I could only take those powerpoints in small doses. Thinking about it now, it would have really helped to see a person speaking once and while. I believe, like you, that the human element will always be important in relationships between students and instructors and will necessitate technology that can bring individuals together rather than allow them to feel overly isolated.
Jacqualine
Now that you mention it. what a great idea to offer a little video treat at the end of the blog. Kind of “Thanks for reading all the way through, now take a short break and let it sink in”
Hi Jacqualine! I’m glad you like the music video
I really like what you wrote about “technology that can bring individuals together rather than allow them to feel overly isolated.” I think we’ll all feel more connected if we remember that principle.
I also relate to your isolated online experience. I took an online critical thinking teaching certificate with a university located in Oregan, and the whole experience just relied on text documents within an LMS. It was a disaster! I soldiered on and got the certificate but boy was I doing it begrudgingly!
I make use of Lynda.com also, great learning resource.
I think that there is a place for the talking head. If not overused it can be effective as with the case of your” warm instructor”. As you pointed out, the “human connection” is something we all appreciate. In an online environment that “human connection” can go a long way to put the student at ease, especially a student that is uncomfortable and apprehensive about taking an online course.
Hi Walter! I couldn’t agree more
Maybe instead of calling them talking heads we should start referring to them as the human touch 
Loved it and your point. I run into trouble with students that join me for a FTF class and then, take another section in the online environment. I have not voice recorded all of my lectures and they hate Mac Speech Pr and the robotic voices. These students already have a memory of the professor and the voice that do not connect with what they are receiving.
Tami
Great point about the robotic voice, Tami. I don’t know if you encountered “Siri” from the iPhone 4S but I think they could have done a better job at humanizing the personal assistant.
In this isolated online learning, we really need more of the human touch. It’s not because we are enamored with the online environment that we stay there so much, but because it’s so darn convenient
Lana,
I completely agree! I think the “talking head” tends to get a bad rep. Frankly, I see your point and wholeheartedly agree that the live person is necesarry to online courses. I also think a live person with some encouraging words (as you pointed out) and maybe a lame joke or two to show he or she is human can go a long way in making students feel as if they are not simply submitting their work to the computer terminal itself.
It is funny because I have had several students who wanted to sign up for an online class complain after finding out it was full. They remark, “How can an online class get full? There aren’t any seats!” I always chuckle a bit to myself because it is apparent to me that they really do not connect with the idea that there is a living and breathing person on the other end of the computer reading all of those papers, grading all of those quizzes, and supplying all of the content. It is as if the course is magiaclly run by computer as well. I think a video of an instructor welcoming them to the class might also cement in their heads that not only is someone “real” at the other end, but someone who actually knows what they are talking about and cares.
Erica, thank you so much for your comment. I can’t believe the misconceptions that people have online. Your students in particular seem to think that everything is automated and there is no need for a human being to do all the work behind the scenes. I was just wondering, is your class synchronous or asynchronous?