More than words: using digital cues to enhance student perceptions of online assignment feedback

Providing online written feedback for assignments permits the inclusion of digital cues (e.g., emoticons, profile pictures, and informal tone of language) which may improve student perceptions of both feedback and instructor. Using a between groups experimental design, we conducted a series of 2 (Emoticons present/absent) x 2 (Profile pictures present/absent) x 2 (Language formal/informal) ANCOVAs to explore the effect of each cue on student perceptions of feedback and of the instructor (N = 188 university undergraduates). Including emoticons enhanced student perceptions of social presence within the feedback, as well as student ratings of instructor proficiency, accessibility, and personal characteristics. Language formality had no main effect, but interacted with emoticons, such that instructors were perceived to be most proficient when emoticons were embedded within formal language feedback. Our findings suggest that including emoticons in written feedback may improve student perceptions of instructors and feedback, without impacting on the integrity of feedback.