Academic emotions in the AI learning era – Situational, individual and social aspects of emotional processes in technology-mediated learning

ongoing

Emotions are an integral part of learning. While the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in learning processes is constantly growing, critical gaps remain in understanding its impact on students’ emotions, wellbeing, and ultimately, learning outcomes. The AI-EMOTION project aims to uncover the potential and pitfalls of AI that extend beyond cognitive learning outcomes by investigating the affective processes and mechanisms of such technology-mediated learning. By employing a multidisciplinary approach that integrates educational sciences, computer science, and psychophysiology, the project seeks to understand the complex daily dynamics between technology-mediated learning, academic emotions, and students’ well-being. To ensure robust results in real-world settings, students’ emotional experiences and related physiological states are captured across authentic learning situations in real-time using smartphone questionnaires and wearable biometric sensors. The resulting data will provide a rich information source for analysing within-person emotional processes and individual and group-level differences, covering three educational levels from middle school to university. The findings of the AI-EMOTION project are expected to generate new theoretical leads for both academic emotion and human-computer interaction research. Furthermore, the project will develop novel multimodal methods for emotional data collection and analysis, making significant methodological contributions to the interdisciplinary science of human emotions. Ultimately, AI-EMOTION will provide insights for designing AI tools that are not only cognitively effective but also emotionally supportive for learners.