An interesting perspective on the massive open online courses (MOOCs) topic has the potential to change the delivery format and possible retention rates. This paper reports on research that collected the emotional feelings of students working through an introductory statistics course. The research requested students to self-report their emotions at several points during the course. The authors acknowledge the limitations of the research, as the high attrition rate of students from the course could not be reported.

The data from students who withdraw would be of significant interest to all educators working in the area. However, the positive outcome from this paper is the possibility for educators to identify students who are experiencing problems and offer support before they decide to withdraw.