You’re My Only Hope: An Exploration of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Lecturers as Holograms

Abstract

Guest lectures are a valuable part of a university education but can be expensive. New forms of display can give the illusion of a hologram enabling a remote lecturer to be ‘present’ with a group of students, but there are questions regarding how students perceive and respond to such a lecture delivered this way. In an exploratory study, we surveyed and videoed 12 volunteer students who attended two short lectures in succession, given by two full-sized hologram lecturers. Social presence was high, with the students believing strongly that the hologram speaker was ‘in the room’, sentient, conscious of them and, essentially behaving as an authentic lecturer. Moreover, the students’ perceived satisfaction, engagement, and sense of learning suggested the experience was much closer to an in-person lecture than a video conferencing session. Video analysis indicated that students’ behaviour was consistent with the lecturer having control over the teaching session, although there was some evidence for distraction effects. We conclude by providing some initial recommendations on how best to use holograms in a university setting to maximise the student learning experience.