A recent search of academic databases turned up a hole in the knowledgebase. For learning professionals who are currently developing avatars for use in eLearning projects – the question of whether there is any learning impact from the presence (or absence) of avatar mouth movements is not answered yet.

If you are aware of research that can help answer this – please post a comment below to help us find it.

Until empirical research is available – it’s essential for us to share our personal experiences with this kind of work. Please post below to help us arrive at some preliminary insight about learning effectiveness of lip-synched avatars.

Have you developed an avatar who did lip sync? How much difference of impact is there between a simple sync of a jaw movement without lip pursing? How about the difference between an avatar that moves jaw and lips – but not cheeks? Did you pair the speech-related facial movement like smiles or frowns?

We’ll continue to develop this article as new information comes in – Irene T. Boland, Ph.D.

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