Emotion in Online College Classrooms: Examining the Influence of Perceived Teacher Communication Behavior on Students’ Emotional Experiences

• In Event: What's Going Online? Effectiveness of Digital Learning

Abstract

This study examined student’s perceptions of emotion (involving teachers’ emotional support, students’ emotional work, and student’s positive emotional valence toward class and teacher) as influenced by a variety of predicting variables: perceptions of teacher affinity-seeking as well as teachers’ positive behavior alteration techniques, verbal immediacy, and teacher online presence (involving the three factors of instructional design, organization facilitating discourse, and direct instruction). Although this study uncovered multiple significant relationships, students’ perceptions of their teacher’s verbal immediacy and presence in their instructional design were found to be most predictive relative to students’ emotions in online classrooms. Ultimately this study addresses the need to more fully examine students’ emotions and related social experiences with virtual teachers and course content in higher education.

Authors

• Catherine F. Brooks, University of Arizona

• Stacy L. Young, California State U - Long Beach