Recognition of online learner emotions through facial expressions: online learner facilitator

Abstract

Emotions play an essential role in decision making, managing, perceiving, learning and influencing the thinking process of humans. Emotions are also important in teaching and learning and often find expression in particular ways, such as interactions with others, as well as interest and motivation in learning. However the influence of emotions on learning is still under-emphasized. Continuous and increasing exploration of the complex set of parameters surrounding online learning reveals the importance of the emotional states of learners and especially the relationship between learning and affective behavior. Automated learner facilitator is a system that has ability to capture the learners’ facial expression and comprehend that data. The system always detects a user’s facial expressions and recognized the changes in those facial expressions. The proposed actions were based on an experiment carried out among in the Sri Lankan university system regarding online learner behaviour during learning. The system focuses on investigate the current approaches in facial expression recognition and application them into the field of online learning to solve the problems related to learner facilitation. The results of the experiment have been used for new developments in e-learning courses and thereby the performance of e-learners is expected to be enhanced.