Impacts of Cues on Learning and Attention in Immersive 360-Degree Video: An Eye-Tracking Study

Immersive 360-degree video has become a new learning resource because of its immersive sensory experience. This study examined the effects of textual and visual cues on learning and attention in immersive 360-degree video by using eye-tracking equipment integrated in a virtual reality head-mounted display. Participants (n = 110) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) no cues, (2) textual cues in the initial field of view (FOV), (3) textual cues outside the initial FOV, and (4) textual cues outside the initial FOV + visual cues. The results showed that the cues (annotations or annotations + arrows) helped learners achieve better learning outcomes and spend more time focusing on the areas with cues. In addition, the study found a serious imbalance in the distribution of learners’ attention in each region of the video. The attention directed to textual cues in the initial FOV is much higher than the attention directed to textual cues outside the initial FOV. Adding visual cues can effectively direct attention to textual cues outside the initial FOV and alleviate the imbalance of attention distribution. Consequently, adding cues to immersive 360-degree video can be an appropriate approach to promote learning and guide attention in immersive 360-degree video learning environments. This study provided new insights into the design and development of immersive 360-degree video instructional resources.