Students' Perceptions of Professional Short-Messaging Education in Undergraduate Courses

Abstract

The popularity of short-messaging formats, like text and chat, is on the rise in the workplace with many employees preferring this style over long-form options like email. While many businesses expect employees to communicate using short messages, students may be ill-equipped to effectively use these methods due to a lack of formal training. This study sets out to understand students’ experience, confidence, and education related to professional short messaging. Results indicate a correlation between confidence and experience levels in writing text and chat messages. Further, the participants who indicated they had training on writing short messages, indicated they learned it in a business communication class. Thus, this study highlights a need for education on short messaging in the business communication classroom to increase student experience, and thus, their confidence in writing these messages.

Keywords

• short messaging
• text message
• chat
• business communication
• higher education