By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
Granted, the online environment does not have face-to-face
communication. Nevertheless, the emotional intelligence that one
uses to effectively interact with others can be both developed and
utilized to help one achieve learning goals and to have a very
satisfying, motivating experience.
After Salovey and Mayer devised the term in 1990, emotional
intelligence was popularized by Daniel Goleman. Salovey and Mayer
(1990) sum up emotional intelligence as the ability to master the
following cognitive domains and skills:
- Know your emotions and develop self-awareness to the point that
you know when you are feeling a feeling, and you can recognize what it
is;
- Manage your emotions and develop strategies for dealing with feelings in ways that are appropriate;
- Motivate yourself so that you can deploy your emotions as you pursue a goal;
- Recognize emotions in others so that you have empathy and social awareness;
- Manage personal relationships through being aware of the emotional response you elicit in others.
There are a number of avenues for developing and employing emotional intelligence in an asynchronous online course.
1) Monitor your emotional responses to the course. Ask yourself
the following questions in response to the course components.
These will help you develop emotional intelligence, and will help you
motivate yourself.
- Required work. Does it confuse you? Frustrate
you? Work to resolve your frustration. Realize that once
you have mastered one course, the others will allow you to use your new
skills, and you have a great chance of success.
- Required readings. Do they intrigue you? Do you feel
curious about what you will learn? Do you feel
enthusiastic? Recognize what it is that is interesting to you and
keep that in mind in the future. Communicate this to your
instructor.
- Images. Do you feel comfortable when you see them?
Stop for a moment and analyze what it is about them that makes you feel
interested, confident about the course, or included as a part of a
learning community. On the other hand, are you offended?
Why? Do they make you feel comfortable about the content you are
reading?
- Audio. Do you feel focused an able to concentrate when you listen to the lectures? Why? How?
2) Managing your emotions when you interact with others in the e-learning environment.
- Discussion Board. Student comments can be harsh. They
can be taken the wrong way, since there are no non-verbal gestures to
soften the message. Tone of voice is not a factor, either, any
inflections or ironies will likely be completely lost. When you
find yourself reacting emotionally, think about it. Are you
reading the words as they are, or are you adding a tone of voice to
it? Take a look at how your classmates react to each other.
When do they tend to miscommunicate? When do they seem to annoy
each other? When you are an objective third party, do you see
things differently? Why?
- Before you post your thoughts on the discussion board, pause a
moment and think about the response it will most likely elicit (Bryan,
2005). By imagining the interaction, you are engaging in a
hypothetical simulation, which will help you develop multiple responses
to actions. You are also developing empathy.
- Response to the Instructor's comments. Whether you
feel elated or outraged by your instructor's comments on your work, it
is important to step back for a moment and think about what it was
about the comments that made you feel the way you do. Are some of
your emotional responses based on previous experiences? Are you
bringing emotional baggage to the e-learning space (Emmerling &
Goleman, 2003).
On the other hand, are you feeling too dependent on what you perceive
as the instructor's estimation of you? Keep in mind that online
communication tends to amplify emotional responses -- usually in a
negative way. This is one reason it is very important to start
all communications with a positive comments or thought.
The online environment is often thought of as a very dehumanized
place. On the other hand, some consider a dangerous playground
where one can invent one's identity and creative an alternative self
and ignore ordinary decency and rules of self. Thankfully,
the typical online course does not allow that to happen. After
all, there is too much transparency, and the students have their own
learning goals and needs. They are unlikely to play the kinds of
games you might see in chat rooms and discussion forums, or even in
webrings and in social networking such as in Xanga or MySpace.
Goleman's Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998) contains a number
of suggestions for developing one's emotional intelligence.
Perhaps the most valuable short-term benefit to bolstering your
emotional intelligence in an online course is the feeling of
self-confidence that you have after you successfully negotiate
challenges and hurdles. In reminding yourself of your success at
overcoming hurdles and conquering anxiety, you are marshaling your
emotions in the pursuit of an objective. You are learning how to
keep yourself motivated. With that skill, you have a great chance
of success.
References
Bryan, S. P. (2005) Emotional intelligence and intrapersonal
conversations. Issues and Recent Developments in Emotional
Intelligence. 1(5). Retrieved May 5, 2006 from
http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/emotional_intelligence_and_intrapersonal_conversations.htm
Emmerling, R. J. & Goleman, D. (2003). Emotional Intelligence:
Issues and Common Misunderstandings. Issues and Recent Developments in
Emotional Intelligence, 1(1). Retrieved May 2, 2006 from
http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/ei_issues_and_common_misunderstandings.htm.
Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence . New York : Bantam.
Goleman, D., Boyatis, R., & McKee. A(2002). Primal Leadership:
Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Boston : Harvard
Business School Press.
Salovey, P. & Mayer, J.D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9, 185-211.
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