Assessing instructors’ usage of emojis in distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic

This research assessed instructors’ usage of emojis in distance education for high diploma students. A quantitative approach was employed comprising an e-survey consisting of 11-items, one closed-ended question, and two open-ended questions. The participants were a randomly selected sample of 343 high diploma students, 243 attending Al al-Bayt University (AABU) in Jordan and 100 students attending the Arab Academic College in Haifa (AAC). The results indicated that instructors’ usage of emojis in distance education was moderate in both universities. All students strongly preferred instructors to use emojis to express what is on their minds as an alternative to facial expressions, and female instructors were more active in using emojis in virtual lectures. The emoji used most frequently by distance education instructors for the sample was the thumbs-up emoji (). Based on the results, several recommendations are put forth that will be of value to researchers and workers in this field.