Kansei semantic space for emotion in online learning

Even though cognition is heavily emphasized in the learning world, but quite recently there has been a spurred interest to study the emotion of the learners, as the previous researchers unveil that emotion is as important as cognition in learning traditionally or online. This paper discusses mainly about the first finding out of four findings expected from this research. The aim of this research is mainly to identify the design elements of the online learning materials that connect to a specific emotion. Kansei Engineering (KE) is being performed as the methodology for this research. In this research, 16 online learning materials specifically for the Database course were evaluated with 55 emotions selected based on the findings from previous studies conducted for this research. 48 respondents from one of the public institution of higher learning in Malaysia performed the evaluation. The finding as discuss in this paper reveals the important pillars of emotions or kansei semantic space of emotions for online learning materials. Based on Factor Analysis, it reveals 4 important pillars and 1 additional pillar for kansei emotions in online learning. In addition, the paper also discusses the possibility of the important design that might evoke certain emotions based on the first two pillars that are engaged-motivated and challenging-thinking.