Online learning is likely to take over traditional classroom attendance in the coming years. The outbreak of the pandemic has helped to spearhead the development of online education.
Many parents have likely opted for this form of learning even after the end of the pandemic in the world. E-learning is quite affordable and convenient for learners regardless of their age.
But the development of this education system is still facing some challenges. Many educators are finding it difficult to meet the emotional needs of the learners.
The emotional connection between learners and teachers is impersonal. It is something that affects the performance in their assessment tests.
A lot of research is being undertaken to address the emotional connection through online learning. Most of these studies demonstrate emotional intelligence as a predictor for success in online learning.
We have compiled a detailed guide to help you understand the role of emotional intelligence in online learning. The purpose of the study is to help you with personalized online teaching models and emotional connections.
Take time to read through the article and see the essence of integrating emotional intelligence in online education for kids. The concept might also work well for adults undertaking online courses.
Impact of Emotional Intelligence in Online Learning
The primary issue affecting online education is the emotional connection between learners and educators. Keep in mind that emotional intelligence determines the success of the student pursuing e-learning.
Here are the roles of emotional intelligence as a predictor for success in online learning:
Social Awareness and Interpersonal Relationship
Emotional intelligence allows learners to acquire social and interpersonal relationship management skills. These skills help the students to support and manage conflicts during their online classes.
Keep in mind that online education brings together students from all over the world. The cultural differences make it difficult to handle social relationships.
But emotional intelligence helps to boost proper communication and cooperation. This can be achieved through the integration of social skills and learning in online courses.
The student will be able to build strong relationships with others regardless of their culture. The bond will help the kid to even do well with others outside the virtual classroom.
The educators need to create a conducive environment to enable learners to build strong bonds, collaborate, and manage conflicts during a group discussion online.
Emotional intelligence guarantees productive relationships, trust, motivation, and commitment in the virtual classroom.
Self-Awareness
It is one of the ways to help learners identify their emotions and thoughts. The tutors will also get to know the impact of emotional intelligence on the students’ behavior.
Self-awareness usually assesses the strength and weaknesses of the learner. It is an incredible way to improve the confidence and optimism of the student.
Teachers have the responsibility of stimulating the feelings of the kids during the online learning session. The educators need to design an online forum for asking the learner their feelings.
The feedback usually describes the emotions of the children about the virtual learning sessions. It will be the responsibility of the instructor to help learners identify and channel their emotions in the right manner.
Online institutions need to introduce journal lessons to help learners express their feelings through assessments and feedback.
These journals help to support the mental health of online classroom learners. The discussion and sharing of feelings tend to motivate the learners by the end of the day.
Self-Regulation
It involves monitoring individual positive and negative feelings. Management of our emotions helps to deal with challenging situations without giving up.
Online education is marked by boredom, anxiety, and many other frustrations involving the handling of assignments. These are some of the things that can drain the mind of learning in the virtual classroom.
The tutor has the responsibility to help online learners overcome negative feelings and develop positive vibes during their classes.
Guide the learner to learn how to cope with challenging situations. This can be achieved by analyzing the learner and coming up with relevant e-learning goals to eliminate the frustrations.
Integrate a special unit in the e-learning program to help monitor the progress of the learner. The unit should contain information that helps to boost self-management skills.
Also, integrate several assessments that allow the learners to offer regular feedback about their feelings regarding online classmates and tutors.
Self-Motivation
Motivation is a crucial component that helps to drive the child to be successful in their academic realm. E-learning needs more intrinsic motivation over extrinsic motivation.
Self-motivation allows the child to generate positive vibes in an online classroom and have the zeal to succeed in their online exams.
The best way to foster self-motivation is by providing resourceful materials to the learner. The engaging materials help learners to connect their personal feelings with their professional lives.
The learning materials should relate to the real-world benefits of the classroom atmosphere. The motivation creates enthusiasm and optimism among the learners.
But this can be achieved by coming up with an e-learning course that helps learners identify their strengths and weaknesses.
The online learning unit enables learners to get motivated and never think of giving up. The students will be able to learn from their mistakes.
It is now clear that emotional intelligence is a predictor for success in online learning. It provides positive feelings that drive the learner towards success.
Encourage Empathy
Empathy is a skill that helps children understand the diverse world well. It can be learned through socialization with other students from different backgrounds and cultures.
The online study usually attracts learners from all walks of life. Cultural tolerance and interaction foster the adoption of empathy by learners.
The development of empathy in the child helps them to resolve conflicts. The experiences and feelings create a platform for conflict resolution.
Empathy is a crucial component of emotional intelligence. It creates an environment that encourages a win-win scenario in case of an outbreak of conflict.
The good news is that empathy is an inherited trait. Teaching the child the skills help to boost and improve the emotional stability of learners in virtual classrooms.
Authentic and Transformational Leadership
Authentic leadership spearheads good conduct inside and outside the virtual classroom. It is something that starts from the heart and is expressed outside genuinely.
The introduction of the authentic leadership course in online classes helps the learner to build trust and believe in themselves. The course outreach will help to raise individuals who are not rude.
On the other hand, transformational leadership is truly controlled by emotions. Infusion of positive vibes helps the learner to interact with minority communities and people from different cultural backgrounds.
Transformational leadership helps to inspire and motivate learners to undertake the responsibility of making the world a better place for everyone.
Build Patience in Learners
Online classes and daily routines result in the accumulation of stress. The condition can make an individual irrational even from small things.
But the development of patience helps the learner know how to manage stress and identify ways to eliminate the stress in their daily routines.
Educators also need to exercise patience and alleviate stress among online learners. It creates an ideal atmosphere for learners to control their emotions and pursue their online learning with minimal challenges.
Enhance Adaptability
Online institutions provide reality testing for learners. The environment validates an individual feeling and thinking about online learning.
Besides that, it allows the learner to cope up and adapt to new situations. The opportunity enables the learners to embrace the diversity of the world.
The change management skills are a crucial part of emotional intelligence as a predictor for success in online learning. It helps learners solve intrapersonal and interpersonal problems with ease.
Conclusion
Online learning is becoming the perfect option for many learners around the world. Comfort, flexibility, and convenience are some of the things that have lured many students.
The virtual classroom forms a bridge of uniting learners from different backgrounds and cultures. It creates an ideal environment for students to learn from each other and boost their socialization skills.
But online studies do pose a lot of challenges to the learners and educators. Most of these challenges are brought about by emotional changes.
Every online institution needs to recognize the role of emotional intelligence in online learning. It is the roadmap of solving problems related to the emotions of the learners and teachers.
The inclusion of online courses and learning materials in the curriculum is key for demonstrating emotional intelligence as a predictor for success in online learning.
