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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Learning Innovations
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1528443
This article is part of the Research Topic Interactions and Intersections in Education: Challenges and Trends to foster Learning and Wellbeing View all 11 articles
Using Emoji to Ascertain Student Emotional Responses to Technology-Based Human Anatomy Instruction
Provisionally accepted- 1 Creighton University, Omaha, United States
- 2 University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, United States
- 3 South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, United States
Despite the increase of three-dimensional (3D) technological integration into academia, little consideration has been given to the emotional responses of students to such pedagogy. Both pleasant (high valence/sentiment) and unpleasant (low valence/sentiment) emotions influence the cognitive processes involved in learning, and emotional sentiment can be exemplified by particular facial emoji. A survey with ten emoji stratified into three categories (positive, neutral, and negative sentiment) was administered to high school students completing a human anatomy course which utilized 3D visualization technology (3DVT) and augmented reality (AR). The survey was administered before and after each class session (technology-based learning sessions, non-technology-based learning sessions, and examination sessions) to measure the change in student emotional sentiment over each class session. Additionally, pre- and post-course questionnaires were administered to clarify student reactions to the course. Results indicated that students reported positive and neutral emotions nearly exclusively, although students reported a reduction in emotional sentiment after technology-based learning sessions as compared to after non-technology-based learning sessions (Z = -2.557, p = .011). Students also reported lower emotional sentiment before and after the examination sessions as compared to either of the learning session types. Students additionally reported an increase in emotional sentiment after the examination sessions (Z = -2.066, p = .039). The present study revealed that the integration of an emoji survey can aid instructors in monitoring student emotional responses to pedagogical interventions.
Keywords: emotion1, emotional valence2, emoji3, anatomy education4, technology5, augmented 13 reality6, 3D learning7 14 to collect study data As hypothesized, B…nefits of an aA…gmented rR…ality mM…gic Meta-cognition Pekrun
Received: 10 Dec 2024; Accepted: 10 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Magrum, Bird and Snow. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shawn M. Magrum, Creighton University, Omaha, United States
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