Engagement in multimedia training systems

Two studies examined user engagement in two types of multimedia training systems-a more passive medium, videotape, and a less passive medium, interactive software. Each study compared engagement in three formats: the text format contained text and still images, the audio format contained audio and still images, and the video format contained audio and video images. In both studies, engagement was lower in the text condition than in the video condition. However, there were no differences in engagement between text and audio in the videotape-based training and no differences between audio and video in the computer-based training.