When learning hands-on skills like, let’s say proper culinary knife skills, do you think it would be better to learn by watching an expert demonstration head on, or from the perspective of the expert? Watching the expert head on can help you see things like posture and arm positioning, but trying to match the mirrored hand position and see exactly where to put your fingers can be tough. The third person perspective can give a viewer the big picture, while the first person perspective can help them imitate modelled skills more easily.
Presenting demonstrations from mixed perspectives—both first and third person angles—may help learners engage and perform better (Fiorella & Mayer, 2018; Boucheix, Gauthier, Fontaine, & Jaffeux, 2018). That said, as tasks become increasingly difficult, the first person perspective becomes critical, and cutting between the two can be distracting. The first person view allows students to imitate skills alongside the model and reduce the cognitive load of having to mirror a third person demonstration (Fiorella, van Gog, Hoogerheide, & Mayer, 2017).
If you have a hands on skill to teach learners like creative drawing skills or physical patient examination and manipulation, consider setting up your camera to capture the demo from your perspective. This could be accomplished with an inexpensive camera tripod or stand, some creative rigging, an inexpensive neck mount, or even by investing in wearable technology like a GoPro with head strap.
Boucheix, J.-M., Gauthier, P., Fontaine, J.-B., & Jaffeux, S. (2018). Mixed camera viewpoints improve learning medical hand procedure from video in nurse training? Computers in Human Behavior, 89, 418–429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.017
Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. E. (2018). What works and doesn't work with instructional video. Computers in Human Behavior, 89, 465-470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.07.015
Fiorella, L., van Gog, T., Hoogerheide, V., Mayer, R., & Fiorella, L. (2017). It’s all a matter of perspective: Viewing first-person video modeling examples promotes learning of an assembly task. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(5), 653–665. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000161