An approach to assessing stress in e-learning students

Abstract: On-line collaboration is becoming more and more common in education and with organisations. Many institutions encourage the use of E-learning platforms, as a complementary tool to support learning or, as in many cases, as the primary tool to do it (possibly the only one). It is believed that the sole use of such a platform can in itself be a cause of stress for students. Stress is a normal part of studying, but if not managed it the proper way, stress can grow, become a problem and greatly influence learning success. This is particularly true when in an E-learning environment, where students typically may work alone, thus more susceptible to stress. Stress detection in an E-learning environment thus becomes a crucial factor to success, with Elearning students. Estimating, in a non-invasive way, the students’ levels of stress, and taking measures to deal with it, is then the goal of this paper. We do not consider the use of dedicated sensors (invasive) such as special gloves or wrist bracelets because we intend not to be dependent on specific hardware an also we believe that such specific hardware can induce for itself some level of stress. Our work focuses on the developing of a new module to incorporate in Moodle E-learning platform, to accommodate stress detection in E-learning students