A fuzzy logic-based emotional intelligence framework for evaluating and orienting new students at HCT Dubai colleges

Academic institutions across the world face the challenge of providing new intakes of students with appropriate orientation and counseling services to better help students cope with the changes and challenges of life at university or college. These sessions are often based on measurements of the students´ technical skills or Intelligence Quotient (IQ) levels such as mathematical computation and communications abilities. However, Emotional Intelligence (E.I.) tests, which have become an essential tool and an integral part of the recruiting, orientation, and counseling strategies of many individuals and organizations, are not often part of these evaluation schemes. At some academic institutions, a partial test of those skills is conducted but may not provide a holistic view of the emotional intelligence of each individual. In this paper, a set of EI tests covering four general areas of EI is proposed to evaluate the emotional intelligence of the new intakes at the HCT Dubai Colleges. These tests will help identify students who lack experience with non-cognitive capabilities including competencies and skills that may influence their abilities to succeed in coping with educational environmental demands and pressures. A fuzzy-based emotional intelligence modeling and processing framework is also proposed to better model and capture uncertainties in surveys of new intakes, and which will deal well with the complexities of the classification system. This new system is expected to help the HCT Dubai Colleges better design and prepare orientation and counseling interventions which will help students develop their abilities to perceive, to access and generate emotions to promote their emotional and intellectual growth.