Learners Learn More and Instructors Track Better with Real-time Gaze Sharing

Shared gaze visualizations, where the real-time gaze location of group members is shared with one another, have become increasingly studied over the last decade by HCI researchers. Shared gaze studies so far have found improved outcomes and better collaboration for peer collaborators. Less is known, however, about how gaze sharing may aid learners and instructors. In our study, an instructor teaches a learner how to assemble and program a simple microcontroller, communicating either through a webcam feed (webcam condition), a field-of-view video feed (HMC condition), or a field-of-view video feed with a gaze location pointer (gaze condition). We find that learning gain is highest in the gaze condition, especially for low achievers. Moreover, instructors predict learner post-test scores more accurately with gaze visualizations, suggesting gaze sharing can help instructors track the cognitive state of the learner. This effect was also most salient for low achievers. We find that in the HMC condition that only lacked this single dot, many of the benefits for both learning and teaching were lost. The paper concludes with discussions on how gaze visualization may support learning and teaching, and on the tool's limitations and conditions for usefulness.