Immersive telepresence systems offer a new standard of high definition video, high resolution audio, life size displays, camera and microphone arrays that together create a new level of seamless video conferencing experiences. The result is a communication and learning environment that virtually recreates the immediacy of face-to-face group conversations. However, few quantitative research studies have been conducted to test the return on investment compared to the impact on students. This presentation presents the early findings of an experimental study that investigated the learning effectiveness and student perceptions of instructor credibility and immediacy. These results were compared to other online multimedia treatment groups, using the same content, instructor, and presentation slides. Analysis of Variance and post-hoc comparisons indicated several statistically significant differences between the Immersive Telepresence treatment group and the other presentation trials. The findings strongly suggest technology and instructional systems design best practices based on student preferences for multimedia environments.
