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In a field study on distance education and communication we varied the social presence of a tutor in four degrees: a tutor mediated by verbal, written information (condition 1), the same tutor mediated by written information and various personal views (condition 2), the same tutor mediated by written and spoken information (condition 3), and the same tutor mediated by text, views and spoken language (condition 4). Three hypotheses derived from cues‐filtered‐out (e.g. Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976; Spears & Lea, 1992) and adaptation theories (e.g. Clark & Brennan, 1996; Walther, 1992) were tested: (1) To experience the tutor with less social presence leads to extremely emotional evaluations as well as more task oriented, informal, and tense reactions compared to conditions in which the tutor can be experienced with greater social presence. (2) Adaptation to the medium takes place via the use of typographical sideways symbols. (3) Time is an important factor in adaptation: with passing time, differences between groups converge. We recorded data from 98 German male students who participated for 9 weeks in an off‐campus online seminar on certain topics of General Psychology. Instruction took place via 6 virtual rooms (Web pages) on the Internet (library, virtual classroom etc.). The analyses of students's online activities and their communication style are based on a large amount of data: Altogether, students logged in 3608 times, read 1240 mails, and composed 160 mails. The communication style observed in the mails partly confirms hypotheses (1) and (2). We also noticed significant changes in the communication style with progressing time. The data of the investigated sample, however, could not fully support hypothesis (3). Here, further research seems to be necessary.

This study investigates the structuring and sequencing of a special type of verbal-pictorial learn ing mat erial, namely "exp lanative illustrations" (Mayer. 1993). In such illustrations verbal and p ictorial parts form an integrated whole with text embedded in the pictures and vice versa. Due to their complexity such instructing illustrations impose high demands on infor mation processin g. From the viewpo int of instruction on e may ask how the recep tio n of such exp la nativ e illustrations may be supported by an app rop ria te st ructure and sequence ofthe content.In two emp irical investigations three types of content structures and sequences were compared to each other: (1) a top-do wn sequence (based on assumptions ofthe "Elaboration Theory ", Reigeluth, 1987b) from the whole to details which shows how details are embedded within the larger context), (2) a bottom-up sequence fro m details to the whole.(3) the presentation as a whole (as in print).In the first investigation the time for information processing was determined by the experimenter whereas in the second investigation the learners themselves could decide on their learning time.The results show stable learner pref erences f or the top-down sequencing but different learning results in both studies. The crucial variable explaining for the differences in learning res ults was the learning time and not the type of sequencing. However, the learning time is not independent from a certain type ofsequencing. Only with the top-down sequ ence (1) learners took sufficient time f or inf ormation processing. Structuring and sequencing of complex text-picture combinationsThe reception and understanding of pictorial and verbal material may be regarded as a complex process of probl em solving (Weidenmann, 1994; Schnot z, 1994). Hence, when looking at texts and pictures from the viewpoint of instruct ion the quest ion arise s how learners are to be supported in such complex problem solving and how the learning material This study was financially suppo rted by the Deutsche Forschungs-Gemei nschaft.