Be in touch with your Emotional Intelligence and connect better with your students while building community. Learn ways to apply and foment emotional intelligence in your and explore different ideas, using the emotional intelligent framework, to create and foment a learning community within your class.
Online education has been around for over 26 years and started with the creation of the World Wide Web in 1989 by Tim Berners Lee (Rodriguez, Sabino & Zhou, 2011). Since its conception most online courses were developed in response to a lack of educational opportunities in rural areas, and to address the needs of students who otherwise would not have the opportunities to access higher education (Coe Regam & Youm, 2008). Thus, online education made it possible for most to have access to academic opportunities
This increase access to online education has not been without its challenges; in fact research indicates that one of the main challenges of an online class environment is the creation of a sense of community (Rodriguez, Sabino & Zhou, 2011) which is reflective of the social need for interaction. These findings highlight the central role of the instructor as not only responsible for course content and materials, but also as the architect of class interactions. Additionally, it highlights the need of instructors to be aware and well trained to understand not only their own emotional needs but also the needs of their students. Thus, an instructor who is in tune with its emotional intelligent side will be perceived as an effective instructor.
According to Meyer and Salovey (1997), emotional intelligence is “the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth." This allows instructors to not only understand themselves in an online environment but also understand others, in this case, their students as they navigate their virtual experience. This is key to avoid conflicts and for instructors to be aware of the virtual social needs of the class.
Furthermore, a study conducted by Berenson (2008) found that the combination of Emotional Intelligence and personality served as a stronger predictor of online student academic success. Instructors understanding of Emotional Intelligence of themselves and their students are critical. Coleman (1998) identified five critical components of emotional intelligence that included: self-regulation, internal motivation, empathy and social skills. In this presentation, each component will be explored and tools on how to practice them will be discussed within the context of online class management and connection. The aim of the presentation is to help instructors be in touch with their own emotional intelligence to build community and for them to foment and nurture the emotional intelligence of their students.
References
Berenson, R., Boyles, G. & Weaver, A. (2008). Emotional intelligence as a predictor of
success in online learning. IRRODL, 9(2). Retrieved from
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/385/1036
Coe Regan, J., A., & Youn, E., J. (2008, Spring/Summer). Past, present, and future
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Coleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York: NY: Bantam Dell.
Meyer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovery & D.
J. Sluyter (Eds). Emotional development and emotional intelligence. New York:
Basic Books.
Rodriguez, J., J., P., C., Sabino, F., M., R., & Zhou, L. (2011). Enhancing e-
learning experience with online social networks. IET Communications.