Do emotions influence how students learn with technology?

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Research from CEAD has found that emotions play a strong role in how students learn with technology. In an empirical study conducted by researchers from Maastricht University and Dr Bart Rienties and forthcoming in the prestigious journal Internet and Higher Education, students’ learning choices for mathematics and statistics in a blended learning environment were investigated, composed of both online and face-to-face learning components. The students (N = 730) were university freshmen with a strong diversity in prior schooling and a wide range of proficiency in quantitative subjects. In this context, we investigated the impact that individual differences in achievement emotions (enjoyment, anxiety, boredom, hopelessness) had on students’ learning choices, in terms of the intensity of using the online learning mode versus the face-to-face mode. Unlike the general level of learning activities, which is only minimally influenced by achievement emotions, these emotions appear to have a moderately strong effect on a student's preference for online learning. Following this, we explored the antecedents of achievement emotions. Through the use of path-modelling, we conclude that while goal setting behaviour only marginally impacts achievement emotions, effort views—a crucial component of the social-cognitive model of implicit theories of intelligence—have a substantial impact on achievement emotions. More information can be found at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.10.003