EDUCON 2021_Students' Emotions Using an Algorithm Experimentation Tool in the New Normal J. Ángel Velázquez Iturbide, Davis Palacios Alonso

1. Students’ Emotions Using an
Algorithm Experimentation Tool
in the New Normal
. J. Ángel Velázquez-Iturbide, Daniel Palacios-Alonso
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain

2. • Form a constructivist point of view, the most
important issues have traditionally been:
• Sequencing of contents
• Alignment of goals, activities and assessments
• Active learning
• Recently:
• Importance is also been given to students’ motivation
and emotions
• Our group has evaluated the emotional effect of some
algorithm visualization tools
Introduction

3. • We wanted to conduct a study of our students’
emotions:
• October 2020, course “Advanced Algorithms”, elective for senior
students, Degree in Computer Engineering and Degree in
Computer Science
• Research questions:
• What is students’ emotional level in the current pandemic
situation?
• What is the emotional impact of algorithm benchmarking system
OptimEx on students?
Introduction

4. • Familiarization session with
the OptimEx system, to
benchmark optimization
algorithms:
• System that will be used in
future assignments
• First face-to-face session at
the lab
• Voluntary attendance
Methodology

5. Methodology
• PANAS questionnaire:
• 20 questions in a 5-valued
Likert scale intended to
measure the level of 20
emotions
• 10 positive and 10 negative
emotions
• It was ended with two open
questions:
• Remark anything positive,
remark anything negative
Interested Irritable
Distressed Alert
Excited Ashamed
Upset Inspired
Strong Nervous
Guilty Determined
Scared Attentive
Hostile Jittery
Enthusiastic Active
Proud Afraid

6. • The questionnaire was filled twice:
• At the start of the session
• At the end of the session
• Questionnaires gathered:
Methodology and Results
Face-to-face group Online group
Pre-test 8 35
Post-test 8 28
Both 7 27

7. • Pre-test results:
• Moderate level of positive emotions and low level of negative:
• Higher levels in the face-to-face group:
• Oustanding positive emotions:
• Similar results in both groups:
Results
ALL Face-to-face group On-line group
Mean 2.35 2.58 2.29
Mean – positive emotions 3.05 3.23 3.01
Mean – negative emotions 1.64 1.93 1.58
Face-to-face group On-line group
Proud, Attentive, Determined (3.63)
…
Excited, Enthusiastic (2.63)
Alert (4.00)
Proud (3.46)
…
Excited (2.71)
Enthusiastic (2.69)

8. • Pre-test results:
• Oustanding negative emotions:
• Heterogeneous results:
• Open comments:
• More comments by the members of the face-to-face group
• Positive comments on the course
• Negative comments on the pandemic
Results
Face-to-face group On-line group
Jittery (3.00)
Nervous (2.38)
…
Hostile (1.25)
Upset (1.13)
Distressed (2.31)
Jittery (1.94)
…
Ashamed (1.17)

9. • Variation from the pre-test to the post-test:
• Increase in positive emotions, especially in the face-to-face group:
• Variation in positive emotions:
• Similar results in both groups:
Results
ALL Face-to-face group On-line group
Mean pre-test 3.17 3.26 3.15
Mean post-test 3.32 3.64 3.23
Variation 0.15 0.39 0.08
Face-to-face group On-line group
Proud (0.86)
Inspired (0.71)
Excited, Enthusiastic (0.57)
Strong (0.43)
…
Determined, Attentive … (0.14)
Excited (0.35)
Strong (0.24)
…
Attentive (-0.12)
Determined (-0.15)

10. • Variation from the pre-test to the post-test:
• Variation in negative emotions:
• Heterogenous decrease in both groups, without a common pattern:
• Open comments:
• More comments by the members of the face-to-face group
• Positive comments on the session
• Heterogenous, negative comments
Results
Face-to-face group On-line group
Jittery (-1.00)
Irritable (-0.71)
Distressed, Nervous (-0.43)
…
Upset (0.00)
Distressed (-0.65)
Jittery (-0.42)
…
Guilty (0.04)
Ashamed (0.08)

11. • Emotional levels, low to moderate:
• Face-to-face students experienced higher emotional levels, both at
the start and at the end of the session
• Higher level of positive emotions than negative ones
• Apparently positive effect of the session with
OptimEx:
• Positive emotions increased in the face-to-face group
• Negative emotions decreased in both groups
• The only significant variation was a global decrease of the
negative emotions Distressed and Jittery
Conclusions

12. • May the pandemic context be a hidden factor which
had similar or greater influence on students’
emotions than OptimEx?
• We’d rather consider our study as exploratory
• It is convenient to replicate the study:
• With stronger control of the conditions (e.g., face-to-face) and with
more students
• In other contexts, e.g., in lower courses
Conclusions

13. ¡Muchas gracias!
Thank you very much!