Regular Emotional Self-Reflection Reduces Stress, Increases Engagement and Improves Academic Performance

In this interview, Dr. Yegiyan shares how she tracked students' emotional state throughout the 2020 Spring Quarter and how this affected students' academic performance and class engagement. The course she taught had four sections, in which three sections were asked to report their emotional states every time during class meetings, while the fourth section was just asked to report on a news of the day via the Canvas quizzes tool. She tracked anonymous student data and compared student grades and engagement in class and Canvas content, which showed steady improvement in performance for those encouraged to assess their emotional wellbeing.