Improving the Effectiveness of a Short-term Remote Programme on Emotional Intelligence

Traditional long-term, in-person emotional intelligence (EI) education programmes had to be reoriented towards short-term remote learning during the pandemic. This raises the question whether statistically significant results can be achieved relatively quickly through remote EI education, while maintaining key theoretical and methodological principles. The study aimed to develop the structure and content of a remote programme and assess its effectiveness across the individual dimensions of EI (understanding and managing one's own emotions, understanding and managing the emotions of others). The programme’s effectiveness was tested in a quasi-experiment involving 36 students from different Lithuanian universities (Mage = 22.86, SD = 3.22). Participants were divided into two groups of 18: an experimental group and a control group. EI measurement and change assessment were performed using the Schutte et al. (1998) scale. A short-term programme consisting of three remote sessions, each lasting two hours, was designed with clearly defined training methods. An independent samples t-test showed that the EI level of the students who participated in the programme was significantly higher than that of the students in the control group, t(34) = 4.203, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.31. The study revealed significant differences between the groups before and after the intervention. Analyses of the individual dimensions of EI showed a positive effect of emotional intelligence training when comparing the experimental and control groups (p < 0.001). It can be concluded that the developed, relatively short duration remote EI education programme is effective among Lithuanian students.