Designing emotionally sound elearning environments opportunities and challenges

Designing emotionally sound e-learning environments: opportunities and challenges Ahmet Murat UZUN, Ph. D.

Previously, research postulated that emotion and cognition are two independent partially separable components of human perception (Barry, 1997). On the other hand, the newer research has argued that emotion and cognition cannot be separated from each other. If cognitive processing cannot be thought without emotions, then what is the nature of the relationship between emotion and cognition? The relationship between emotion and cognition could be addressed under two hypotheses: suppression and facilitation (Oaksford, Morris, Grainger, & Williams, 1996).

Suppression hypothesis argues that moods regardless of being positive or negative, may have dangerous effects on cognitive processing, since they lead to extra task or task irrelevant processing that may deplete limited cognitive resources Facilitation hypothesis, on the other hand, assumes the otherwise: positive emotions may facilitative cognitive processing by broadening the degree of the cognitive resources (Fredrickson, 1998) Cognitive scientists formerly stood aloof from using emotional design elements in e learning environments, since they thought that use of affective design elements may deplete cognitive resources. However, although emotional design elements may have a risk of depressing learning, their potential role on increasing motivation and thereby learning cannot be neglected (Park, Flowerday, & Brünken, 2015).

Norman (2004) postulated that we as human are naturally programmed to search for food, warmth and protection. Hence, circumstances that are connected with food, warmth and protection lead us to feel confidence and as a result induce positive emotions. The following some of conditions that elicit positive emotions are given: Warm, comfortably lit places, Temperate climate, Sweet tastes and smells, Bright, highly saturated hues, “Soothing” sounds and simple melodies and rhythms, Harmonious music and sounds, Caresses, Smiling faces, Rhythmic beats, “Attractive” people, Symmetrical objects, Rounded, smooth objects, "Sensuous” feelings, sounds, and shapes (p. 29).

Color Combinations different colors result people in feeling different emotions (e. g. , Boyatzis &Varghese, 1994; Kaya & Epps, 1998). cool colors like blue, green and purple are perceived as restful and quiet, whereas warm colors like red, yellow and orange are regarded as active and stimulating (Ballast, 2002, as cited in Kaya & Epps, 1998). Boyatzis and Varghese (1994) investigated students’ emotional relations to different colors and discovered that students ascribed positive feelings to bright colors and negative feelings to dark colors. In general, it seems that saturated, bright and warm colors tend to evoke more positive emotions in learners than other colors (Lohr, 2007; Um, Plass, Hayward, & Homer, 2012).

Baby Face Bias Baby face bias is defined as “a tendency to see people and things with baby-faced features as more naive, helpless, and honest than those with mature features” (Lidwell, Holden, & Butler, 2003, p. 28). Characters with large eyes, small noses, and high forehands are regarded as more likeable and receive more positive attention than other design (Lidwell, Holden, & Butler, 2003).

Anthropomorphisms Anthropomorphism or personification could be given example to another design technique to elicit positive emotions. This technique deals with attributing humanoid features to inanimate objects (Clark & Mayer, 2016) and found to be effective in terms of inducing positive emotions in students and enhancing learning by some studies (e. g. , Mayer & Estrella, 2014; Park, Knörzer, et al. , 2015; Plass et al. , 2014; Um et al. , 2012). Image 1. From Dobson, K. (1987). Coordinated Science: Introductory Book. London, Collins Educational (as cited in Watts & Bentley, 1994).

Use of humor is another strategy to increase positive emotions. In their study, Astleitner and Leutner (2000) referred to the importance of positive emotions enhancement by increasing sympathy and pleasure. One factor for increasing pleasure is to enhance students’ exhilaration levels with the help of humor, which can be achieved by comics, stories and cartoon production systems (Astleitner & Leutner, 2000). Using humorous messages may lead to higher levels of motivation when the humorous message draw students’ attention, induce positive emotions, increase clarity of the message without leading distraction (Wanzer, Frymier, & Irwin, 2010).

Interesting Sound Effects Use of interesting sound or music can be given as examples to another way of making e-learning environments more interesting. Previous research on multimedia, for example, incorporated background music or environmental sounds to augment positive emotions (Mayer, 2009; Thalheimer, 2004). Background music was used to supply a gentle instrumental background to the presentation of the material. On the other hand, environmental sound was added to enhance the visual messages. For instance, when audio narration mentions about the formation of ice crystals, cool wind sound or cracking of ice cubes was heard (Mayer, 2009).

Usability and Emotional Design Considering the perspective of human-computer interaction, it is considered that people feel various emotions when they interact with any systems. . For example, people feel enjoyment, if they perceive the systems as helpful, or they may feel disappointment, when their expectations are met. Negative emotions may affect users’ perceptions regarding any systems. If the learning interface is not liked by the users, it is probable that learners will not give their best effort to concentrate on and remember of the content that is being presented (Yang et al. , 2014).

Potential Dangers of Adding Affective Design Elements to E Learning Environments Use of emotional design elements in e-learning environments may also constitute a danger for learning According to Cognitive Load Theory (Paas & Sweller, 2014), incorporating affective design elements into e-learning environments could pose extraneous load for limited memory resources, which could impair learning non-cognitive elements may deplete cognitive resources and result in task irrelevant process which may impair learning Hence, according to less is more assumption, simple is better.

Discussion For this reason, instructional designers should be very careful in their consideration of using affective design elements in multimedia. They should be conscious of the potential benefits and drawbacks of such design elements and they should first promote students’ cognitive interest and then promote emotional interest, as simply augmenting emotional interest does not always lead to better achievement scores (Clark & Lyons, 2010).