A little 😀 goes a long way: examining the limits of immediacy cues on students’ perceptions of instructor credibility, immediacy, liking, and clarity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines how textisms, defined as cues that facilitate interaction in text-dominant communication (e.g., emojis), as a type of immediacy cue, may increase perceived immediacy in instructor–student mediated out-of-class communication (e.g., a welcome email). Using an experiment manipulating cue number and placement and instructor gender, we examined how emojis impacted participants’ (N = 443) impressions of instructors’ closeness, credibility, liking, and clarity. Results suggest that using emojis in instructor–student communication is best done sparingly and strategically, but if done this way, emojis can be potentially useful. These findings have implications for current instructors; limitations and future directions are also discussed.