Cognitive and emotional challenges facing students of the Open Education College
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/eduj.Vol64.Iss2.5107Keywords:
Cognitive Challenges, Emotional Challenges, Open Education CollegeAbstract
This study aimed to identify the cognitive and emotional challenges facing students at the Open Education College and to explore statistically significant differences based on gender and age groups. The researcher adopted a descriptive-analytical approach, developing two specialized scales: the Cognitive Challenges Scale (20 items) covering concentration, memory, processing speed, and self-regulation; and the Emotional Challenges Scale (25 items) covering academic anxiety, frustration, motivation, self-efficacy, and fear of social comparison. The study was conducted on a sample of (200) male and female students at the Wasit center for the academic year 2025-2026
The results showed that students suffer from a high level of cognitive and emotional challenges, as the arithmetic means exceeded the hypothetical mean. The results also revealed no significant differences attributed to the gender variable, while significant differences were found attributed to the age group variable in favor of the older groups (41-55 years), indicating an increase in the intensity of challenges with advancing age and the accumulation of life obligations. The study recommends the necessity of designing academic and psychological support programs that take into account the characteristics of adult learners to reduce the cognitive load and improve the quality of open learning.
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