Complexity of academic emotions in online video-based learning: Implications for Asian learners

The main goal of this chapter is to discuss the conceptual and methodological approaches for studying academic emotions and how to design affect-sensitive mechanisms to help learners regulate their affective states in online learning situations, using examples from Asian learners. The openness and flexibility of online video-based learning require learners' high level of monitoring skills for sustaining attention and motivation. The self-directed and isolated nature of online learning tends to lead learners to experience various states of academic emotions, including some negative emotions that may inhibit their learning process and outcomes. However, little is known about how to detect and mediate learners' emotions in self-directed online video-based learning. Furthermore, most existing studies on classifying academic emotions have been conducted with Western learners, which lead to questions of how universal such classifications are to be applicable to Asian learners. First, the chapter presents the theoretical framework for understanding academic emotions and the methodological approaches to detect and measure them in learning situations. Next, we discuss research in the Asian context and present our research attempts to design feedback mechanisms to help Korean learners regulate their affective states during online video-based learning. We particularly focus on three discrete emotions that have important effects on learner motivation and achievement, namely confusion, frustration, and boredom. Lastly, we conclude the chapter by proposing the need for more empirical research in Asian contexts to better understand Asian learners' affective experiences.