Investigating the Associations Between Emotion, Cognitive Load and Personal Learning Goals: The Case for MOOCs

The purpose of this study was 1) to validate the measures for achievement emotion as well as the measures for perceived cognitive load and 2) to explore the relationships between achievement emotions, perceived cognitive load and personal goal achievement in MOOCs. Participants were 1361 students who completed a survey at the end of the MOOCs. Rasch analyses confirmed the construct validation and dimensionality of all measures. Results of the SEM analyses revealed no statistically significant relationships between any of the variables with personal goal achievement except for enjoyment. Enjoyment positively affected cognitive load in the sense that enjoyment resulted in 1) the investment of more mental effort rather than less mental effort and 2) the perception of low mental load rather than high mental load. Boredom also positively affected cognitive load but in the sense that boredom resulted in 1) the investment of less mental effort rather than more mental effort and 2) the perception of high mental load.