The Emotification of Pedagogy: Bridging the Gap in Digital Learning

Abstract

Traditional classroom learning has extended its cognitive transaction to the virtual mode. The increasing level of affective distance and emotional disconnection in the digital learning process has pointed out by many teachers and learners. According to David Krathwohl’s taxonomy, affective domain along with cognitive and psychomotor domains are inevitable for meaningful learning. Virtual classrooms provide excellent content delivery with individual pace, but fail to transact emotional support to retain meaningful learning and character building. This study focuses on the emotification of pedagogy; the affective version of digital learning experiences; that is the purposeful incorporation of emotional intelligence and empathy in the pedagogy. The data were collected from 53 participants including both educators and students through a descriptive survey at Gandhigram Rural Institute Deemed to be University, Tamil Nadu through a Community of Inquiry Framework. A 5-point Likert scale was used to measure the factors influencing affective domain such as the emotional connection, meaningful participation, empathy, motivation and digital isolation; followed by qualitative reflections on digital learning experiences. The findings substantiate that how current platforms prioritize effective content transaction over emotional engagement that results a high prevalence of digital isolation. And propose emotional integration as vital  in learning for significantly improving the learners’ motivation and participation.