Enhancing web-based learning by sharing affective experience

We suggest that the real-time visual display of affective signals such as respiration, pulse, and skin conductivity can allow users of Web-based tutoring systems insight into each other's felt bodily experience. This allows remotely interacting users to increase their experience of empathy, or shared feeling and has the potential to enhance telelearning. We describe an implementation of such a system and present the results of a preliminary experiment in the context of a Web-based system for tutoring the writing of Chinese characters.