Instructor Misbehaviors as Digital Expectancy Violations

Abstract

This study examines students' motives for communicating with their instructors when the instructor exhibits inappropriate or unprofessional online behavior. To understand the relationship between what we call instructors' digital expectancy violations and students' motives for communicating with instructors, students' levels of task, social, and physical attraction are measured. Pearson correlations were used to assess relationships among the presence of digital expectancy violations, motives to communicate, and attraction. Results revealed that students' motivation to communicate with instructors who commit digital expectancy violations differs based on preexisting social, physical, and task attraction to the instructor.Technology has changed the way we live, learn, work, play, and communicate. The use of electronic messages by students and faculty is encouraged or required by most universities (Waldeck, Kearney, & Plax, 2001). Journalism and mass communication programs teach students how to use digital channels for communication, but research has yet to explore whether instructors use digital channels appropriately to communicate with students, and whether their inappropriate behaviors in such contexts affect