Emotional Data Collection using Self-Reporting Tools in Distance Learning Courses

Emotions have a strong impact on learning processes and regulation strategies. Increasing learners' awareness on their own emotions and group ones, has the potential to significantly improve learning processes. However, the collection of emotional data is challenging, especially in ecological contexts like distance learning and MOOCs. The lack of generic methods and tools for emotional data collection is a crucial issue for the research community. In this paper we present two self-reporting tools we have developed for distance learning. EMORE-L enables to collect emotions from learners through a focused daily questionnaire. CATE supports emotions sharing via emoticons associated to annotations in documents. We conducted two studies in the same Psychology curriculum to compare the type, the number and the co-occurence of emotions reported by learners with each tool. We discuss the differences we observed according to the tool and to the learning situation, so as to bring researchers and practitioners with a list of factors that may influence the emotional data collection process.