Email Etiquette for Undergraduates at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Abstract

Email etiquette is an important aspect of communication that ensures that an email message conveys its meaning clearly and professionally. At the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM), students struggle with email etiquette as they do not have sufficient resources from the university to develop those skills. Existing resources are instructor-curated/created for certain courses and are limited to providing immediately actionable tips to students within a single context. The longterm effects of leaving this problem unaddressed may affect students’ employability and career success. To address this issue, this project aimed to design a self-paced online module that was informed by the instructional analysis and associated design objectives. The instructional strategy utilized Keller’s ARCS model and the microlearning approach, which was evaluated through pre-, embedded, and posttest, as well as a retrospective survey. The project prototype was developed using Google Sites and instructional materials included interactive presentations created through Genially and curated images and videos. Participants (n = 14) consisted of UHM undergraduate students and stakeholders who took part in the usability and learning assessment portion of the project evaluation. Evaluation data was codified and test scores were compared to evaluate the usability and learning effectiveness of the project. The evaluation results revealed the online module was usable and effective.