Audience engagement in multimedia presentations

Engagement in training and educational presentations facilitates learning. This paper describes engagement and proposes that it is conceptually similar to the state of playfulness, a construct increasingly applied to studies of human-computer interactions. It then describes how multimedia technologies can influence listeners' engagement during presentations. Results from pilot and main studies suggest that students' engagement in multimedia presentations can be increased by developing presentations that provide more challenge, feedback, presenter control, and variety. The paper concludes by discussing implications for research and practice.