Despite the popularity of online courses, many faculty members harbor deep reservations about their quality. Perhaps most fundamentally, they have concerns about the experience of online students. Those of us who teach online wonder: Can such courses provide the kind of student experiences that help develop critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity?
We have struggled with this question for many years. However, new thinking and research in our field, psychology, have convinced us that all courses — online versions included — have the potential to elicit powerful emotions that inspire the long-term creation of knowledge.
Paul J. Silvia, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, suggests that there are four major “knowledge emotions” important in this regard: surprise, interest, confusion, and awe. Although they differ in some ways, surprise, interest, and confusion are similar in that they are typically evoked by something novel. Those emotions often function to catch someone’s attention, a prerequisite for learning to occur.
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Awe may be the most powerful knowledge emotion. It involves a response to something so vast or great that an individual’s previous way of thinking about a phenomenon is no longer adequate. When students change their fundamental beliefs, gain a newfound appreciation, or change their self-identity because of an encounter during a course — when education has been a transformational experience — it is likely that awe was evoked. Only in the past few years have scientists started to investigate awe. In fact, preliminary research suggests that awe helps inspire greater critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity.
In one study, for instance, research participants were instructed to identify with a main character as they read about that person either climbing the Eiffel Tower to see Paris from on high or ascending an unnamed tower to see a plain landscape. Those assigned to read the Eiffel Tower passage felt more awe. Remarkably, they also had a more expansive view of time and reported more satisfaction with their lives.
Additionally, several studies show that watching a video about something vast elicits awe and causes significant positive effects. One study revealed that participants randomly assigned to watch a five-minute video of vistas, mountains, plains, forests, and canyons reported feeling more humble in the presence of something greater than themselves, compared with those who watched an amusing or neutral video. Those who experienced that sense of awe also displayed greater generosity when given the opportunity to help another.
These studies are important because reading and audiovisual assignments often are recurring activities for students in online courses. When added up, this research suggests that the emotional experiences that help shape students’ critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity hinge mainly on the stimuli they encounter and the tasks they engage in, irrespective of the type of course.
So what, specifically, can faculty members do — in any type of course — to help evoke knowledge emotions among their students?
Research suggests that awe helps inspire greater critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity.
In his classic book, The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer suggests that there are certain “great things” that naturally intrigue us as humans — including the genes and ecosystems of biology, the shapes and colors of music and art, and the novelties and patterns of history. Palmer argues that such things — “not the disciplines that study these subjects, not the texts that talk about them, not the theories that explain them, but the things themselves” — are “sacred” in the sense that they inspire surprise, mystery, and amazement, and therefore should be central to teaching.
Some texts and audiovisual materials can transport students to meaningful encounters with “great things” and can be assigned in any kind of course. For example, we have often required students in both our introductory and advanced courses to read texts, or view TED talks, that bring them closer to the phenomena they are studying.
Experiential activities that help students develop knowledge emotions can also be assigned, sometimes maybe even more effectively outside the ordinary constraints of a traditional classroom. In both face-to-face and online courses, depending on the subject, students can:
- Record observations of some vast, ancient, or intricate aspect of the natural world.
- Visit museums or historical sites that are repositories of “great things.”
- Interview others who possess great virtue or life experience.
- Witness various kinds of astounding human skill.
- Personally experiment with phenomena that cause them to wonder.
- Work through controversies or “big” questions — such as how to interpret a religious phenomenon, or what caused fellow human beings to participate in the Holocaust — that provoke passionate discussion.
- Grapple with the complexities of a particularly intriguing personal story.
We have used all these strategies in our courses, but we often emphasize the use of compelling personal stories. In an online “Introduction to Psychology” course, for instance, we have asked students to view videos that highlight cases of people who display remarkable resilience, including one man who had split-brain surgery (a procedure used to treat epilepsy) and another who courageously shared his honest struggle with clinical depression.
Ask students to work through ‘big’ questions, such as what caused fellow human beings to participate in the Holocaust.
Other online assignments require students to interview people who display an admirable work ethic or have been in successful personal relationships for decades. Students then are asked to apply key concepts to these cases, to compare and contrast perspectives with classmates, and to discuss unanswered questions stimulated by their exploration.
Sure, there are challenges to online courses, including the difficulty that some students have in feeling connected with their professors or classmates without having shared experiences in person. However, that does not mean that online courses cannot be transformational.
We believe that the modality in which a course is offered may be less important than the assignments given to students. The key educational challenge for faculty members is to provide the experiences crucial for students in all kinds of courses to become critical, creative, and curious, years after their formal education has ended.
Andy Tix teaches in the psychology and religious-studies programs at Normandale Community College, in Bloomington, Minn. Myles Johnson is a retired faculty member from Normandale. See their blog for more writings on mystery and awe.
