Student perceptions of marker personality and intelligence: The effect of emoticons in online assignment feedback

Online marking is playing a growing role in universities, affording a new range of communicative opportunities through paralinguistic textual cues (such as emoticons). However, little is known of how the impression of a marker's personality might be formed using this extra-linguistic information provided in assignment feedback. In this study (N = 210 university students), the inclusion of emoticons in feedback on a faux assignment was manipulated between groups. For both groups, the assignment and the marker's feedback were identical, but for one group, three emoticons were embedded in feedback, as well as in the overall comments (in total: 4 × ☺; 2 × :/). Participants then responded to questions about the marker's personality and intelligence. When emoticons were used, the marker was perceived as being significantly more extraverted, agreeable, and open to experience, suggesting that only minimal cues are necessary to manipulate perceptions of an educator's personality online.