Emotions in response to teaching online: Exploring the factors influencing teachers in a fully online university

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to understand the emotions associated with the experience of teaching online in an online university and the factors that influence these emotions. Nine hundred and sixty-five (965) online teachers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (www.uoc.edu) were surveyed. Three emotions linked to teaching online were identified: satisfaction, relief and pleasure. Multiple regression analyses were used to make inferential judgments and test the effects of the teachers' demographic and professional variables. Findings suggest that satisfaction is associated with the instructional design and learning support roles and with the knowledge building approach; relief is inversely related to the content acquisition approach; and pleasure is linked to variables such as academic background and amount of online teaching hours, as well as the knowledge building approach. The practical implications of these results are discussed.