Emotions in Practice: Studying Lectures and Seminars in On-Line and Offline Education

The educational experience is undergoing a transformation as studies increasingly emphasize the importance of emotions in various relationships, with individual feelings towards and about others proving crucial for the overall quality of the educational relationship and supporting students’ development. The growing exploration of the role of emotions in learning and teaching, particularly in higher education, heightened the interest in the significant impact of emotions and the quality and effectiveness of student learning. This study aims to shed light on the elicitation of emotions that promote successful learning experiences and to investigate the intricate relationships between emotions and teaching practices within an academic framework. Building upon the foundational role of the educational experience and drawing from classic socio-cognitive and pragmatic-cognitive studies, this research undertakes a comparative exploration of the connections between emotions and specific teaching practices in two distinct university settings: a traditional setting and a remote learning environment. Methodologically, the study adopts an exploratory approach, employing 160 questionnaires administered to students in two university courses – one at Politecnico di Torino and the other at eCampus online University. The investigation provides insights into the emotional dynamics of teaching practices in both traditional and remote learning environments, thereby enhancing our understanding of how emotions shape the learning experience in higher education.