Exploratory Research on an Affective e-Learning Model

This paper explores how emotion evolves during the learning process with the longer term aim of developing learning systems that are able to recognize and respond appropriately to emotions exhibited by learners. We undertook this research by designing and building an experimental prototype of an emotion aware learning system conducting experiments and studying the relationship between emotion and learning. We report on our initial results which not only indicate there is a usable relationship between affect and learning, but by using the emotion states in Russell’s affective model, we have been able to make some significant progress towards experimental validation of Kort’s learning spiral model, which has not been empirically validated to-date.