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Educator's Voice

Volume 4, Issue 6
June 11, 2003

EMOTIONS IN THE CYBER CLASSROOM

YOUR STUDENTS NEED TO GET EMOTIONAL!
Did you just say, "Not in my class!"? If you are like most educators, indeed most people, emotions are dreaded, dreadful territory. Just the word "emotions" conjures up emotions in most people. How ironic! Yet you need to get a grip, grab your courage, and read on. In the end, there are key opportunities to improve your understanding of learning, teaching, and the play of emotions in your cyber classroom.

EMOTIONS MEDIATE ALL LEARNING
Brain research has demonstrated that learning depends on emotions. The process of learning therefore cannot be separated physiologically from the processes of the brain and body that are responsible for emotions. We may like to think that emotions are superfluous, but that is not the way it works. To think otherwise not only deludes us, but keeps us from understanding how best to work with cyber learners.

Which of your memories are most profound and easily accessed? A quick inventory might include where you were when you heard of the loss of the Colombia Shuttle; your first kiss; or the day you got your driver's license. All of these were implanted deeply in your mind by their intrinsically emotional component. Brain studies over the last quarter century have confirmed that not just inherently emotional memories, but, in fact, all memories and all learning have this same characteristic. Learning involves not just the left-brain, the logical fact-oriented side, but indeed the whole brain, from amygdala to limbic system to the cortex. The impact of emotions cannot be separated, for better or worse, from even the most dry, rote learning.

As Eric Jensen points out, "Emotions drive the threesome of attention, meaning, and memory." In essence, that just about sums up what we know about learning: attending to information, constructing meaning, and lodging it in our memory. Brain researchers have shown that emotions are critical to patterning, which is the way that information is organized in the brain, how we are able to retrieve that information. Emotions assist in both evaluating and integrating information and experiences.

However, as we know, not all emotions facilitate learning. Stress, frustration, anger, fear--all can overwhelm the brain with hormones and thought patterns that totally shut down one's ability to learn. When major emotional flooding occurs it is true that one literally cannot think straight. Therefore, the best cyber-learning environment is one that prevents highly-charged or negative emotions from undermining learning.

CYBER LEARNERS HAVE EMOTIONS TOO!
Now that we know that learning is dependent on emotions, we should look at our classes through the learner's eyes for a moment. What aspects of online learning can generate feelings--either positive or negative?

For the sake of discussion, we can look at the learner's emotions related to learning itself, to the content, to the technology, and to the interactions occurring in the cyber classroom. Let's look at each of these briefly.

Emotions About Learning
Past experiences related to learning, such as grades, successes, failures, and personal expectations met or dashed, all have major impact on the student's current ability to learn. Emotions related to competence, self-assurance, fear, frustration and so forth will each play a role in how a student approaches learning and what, in fact, is learned. We should therefore recognize that learners come to our classrooms with emotions and a predisposition about being a student.

Interacting with the Content
Learners are similarly predisposed with emotions about the subject matter of a course. Learning the content of a course requires organizing and building on previous knowledge and skills, all of which have their emotional components. A math whiz approaches statistics with a different emotional frame of reference than a novice. No content is emotion-free because learners are not blank slates. Making content relevant and meaningful to a learner is a well-established means of enhancing learning. It is the role of the learner's emotions that make this a tried and true approach. Simply put, that which we value, we attend to, and attention makes learning easier.

Interacting with the Technology
Technology is another often unrecognized source of learner emotions when all is going well in the cyber classroom. But when the navigation is tangled, or links are dead, let alone when the computer crashes, the connection is dropped, a draft papers disappears down the electronic drain, then we see emotions rise unmistakably. Our goals to support learning then are to keep the mechanics transparent, the course accessible, and the overall interaction between learner and technology positive.

Personal Interactions
Personal interactions in typical courses come in two varieties: with the instructor and with other learners. These personal interactions, like all interpersonal relations, can be highly emotive. Positive interactions greatly enhance the opportunities for learning. Negative responses can virtually shut down learning for affected students. A positive interaction does not mean solely, "Good job," or "I agree." For deeper engagement, postings and questions that spark the learner's curiosity or help the student integrate content with experience are helpful too. In fact, the research shows much learning is social. Therefore, interactions online with fellow students and with the instructor can be key motivators for learning.

An instructor approaches the cyber classroom and learners with a set of expectations, tied to emotions and bound in experience. If learners are viewed as uncooperative, lazy, or disinterested, the very human teacher will undoubtedly react differently than if the students are viewed as eager, interested, dedicated, and hard working. Interestingly, students readily perceive, or at least believe they perceive, the teacher's emotions and react according to those perceptions. If students begin to feel alienated or threatened, you can be sure that they will stop learning, start arguing, cease participating, or perhaps drop out. This is simply the fight or flight reflex in the cyber world. This potential student reaction puts a special burden on the instructor to communicate clearly with a learner's emotions as well as with content in mind.

BEST PRACTICES
What best practices do NOT deal with human emotions, directly or indirectly? When we talk about adding a human element, a personal touch surely the common denominator is to add emotion! Test the notion for yourself. Think about a piece of advice you would give another online instructor. You might say, "Be sure to do X." Now ask yourself--does your suggestion to do X require emotional presence from the instructor, or do you expect it to create an emotional response in the learners? Upon examination you are likely to find your suggestion assumes an emotional component. Your suggestion, for instance, might work to smooth interaction, increase learner understanding, clarify expectations, or motivate the learner.

Let's take an example. We are told, "Respond quickly to learner problems." By the time a learner has acknowledged a problem already there is an emotion content: confusion, frustration, anger, dejection, disappointment, and so forth. What happens if we are slow to respond? The emotional content escalates most likely and learning grinds to a halt as the problem overshadows whatever else the learner could be doing! What happens if you respond quickly? The learner feels acknowledged, validated, and probably grateful for the attention you have shown. If you solve the problem, so much the better! But even by itself, responding quickly will ameliorate the negative emotions in most cases. Learning can continue without the learner feeling isolated or being a failure!

Consider another example. We are advised to "Regularly inform students of their progress." How does this relate to emotions? Students crave attention that instructors can provide; they are curious or worried or proud about their work and need to know how there assessment lines up with ours; they can be encouraged, motivated, supported, or redirected with our evaluations of their work. In short, the emotions we tap with feedback can enhance the students' learning.

A FEW SPECIFIC HINTS

Starting with the course development process, make it interesting. Color, images, and visual congruity are tools to evoke a pleasant environment for learning. Look at the pages as a learner would. For instance, avoid like the plague slow downloads (exasperating), full pages of narrative (boring), awkward or inconspicuous navigation aids (frustrating), or nonstop animation (irritating). Well-designed courses in a user-friendly platform go a long way to setting up positive expectations and supporting learning.

Instructors have a special obligation to take care in how they respond to their learners. Check your own emotions first. When you find yourself irritated at a "stupid" question, disappointed in learner's misinterpretation, or frustrated with off-topic remarks in the classroom, write a response but hold it for a while. Reread your response, tone it down, and then send it. You can make your point yet decrease the likelihood of negatively impacting the learning process. When you can, use humor and keep it light. Remember that whatever you write is available to the learner or the whole class for days on end for them to read and reread.

Show your enthusiasm for the content and for learning. It is contagious. Give learners reasons to care about the topic by showing that you do. Encourage their understanding by helping them personally create meaning from the class material. Point out successes and give them goals to achieve in their learning. Such actions provide emotional and social support for their learning.

Personalize your communications. Use the learner's name. Use personal examples. Ask learners to relate their learning to real life or past experience. These techniques make the interpersonal aspects of the content more emotionally accessible and enhance learning.

Purposefully, express your own emotions. If it fits your classroom context, use emoticons : or ;-). These are shorthand ways to clarify your intent by including the facial expressions otherwise missing in cyber space. Another method is for you to name your emotions. For instance, you might say, "I was really impressed…," "I am confused…," "I was surprised…" or "I am happy…" Still another way to express emotions is to describe your body language or reaction. For instance, it is clear what you mean when you write, "I laughed out loud", "My eyes grew wide", or "My fingers are eagerly flying across the keyboard to respond."

CONCLUSION
We ignore emotions in the cyber classroom at our own risk. We may want to focus on learning outcomes, but we cannot ignore the process that facilitates or hampers those outcomes. Those who focus on cognition move in that direction when they speak of internal coding and structuring of information to understand learning. But they go on to discuss mental structures, processing, organizing, and so forth without much more than a glance at the mediator of all of these: emotions.

Many educators routinely acknowledge that thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and values influence learning. For instance, they may stress that information must be "meaningful," or "authentic," but they fail to tell us what mental process determines meaning. By and large, that is an emotion-mediated process.

Though our classes may physically consist of electrons on a computer screen, there are real people involved. That means emotions are present. Instructors and course developers who endeavor to do well in the cyber setting need to engage students in new ways as well as adapting those ways successful in the traditional classroom. Our best practices in cyber space all relate to connecting the learner positively to learning itself, the content, the technology, to ourselves as instructors, and to peers in the classroom. These connections work best when we consciously address the role of emotions in learning in the cyber classroom.

       --Charlotte A. Redden, Ph.D.

FURTHER READING
Gardner, Howard (1993). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books.

Herrmann, Ned (1996). The Whole Brain Business Book. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Jensen, Eric (1998). Teaching with the Brain in Mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Thomas, Kenneth W. (2000). Intrinsic Motivation at Work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

eCollege would like to thank Charlotte Redden for her continued contributions to Educator's Voice.

TIP

Don't be Afraid to Smile!

As our feature this month discusses the impact and importance of emotions, I thought of probably the most obvious tip: using emoticons.

I have to admit, when I first began online instruction, I was firmly opposed to the use of emoticons. Being an English instructor, I felt there must be a word or words that describe the ":)" better than the ":)".

After several years, though, I am a convert.

Sometimes there really isn't a better way to say something than with a smiley. Or a frowny.

I found that students were increasingly using emoticons in threaded discussions, email, and mostly in chatroom situations, where emoticons have, culturally, taken on lives all their own. And as I dabbled in using them--cautiously at first--I became more and more a fan. I use smileys to temper my sometimes sarcastic tone, and I will even reply to student emails with a simple ":P" or ":( " if there's bad news.

While there is no substitute for accurate, descriptive language, there is room for the emoticons in our online courses.

For more, see: www.smileydictionary.com

       --Errin Klein, M.A.