The Role of Entitlement in Online Education

1. The Role of Entitlement in Online Education Justin Cochran, Stacy Campbell, Hope Baker, Wes Rhea

2. Have you ever heard this?

3. Later in the Semester… Have you received any messages like these from your students?

4. Social Media • Facebook • Twitter • Blogs • YouTube

5. Increase in Entitlement • Research suggests that today’s college student is more entitled than ever before (Twenge, 2006) • Psychological Entitlement = the extent to which individuals believe they deserve more than others • considered a core component of trait narcissism

6. What/who facilitated this increase in entitlement? * New Media (Social networking, blogs, etc.) * Self-esteem Focused Education/Parenting • Celebrity Culture • Easy access to financial credit

7. Self-esteem Focused Education/Parenting • Parents and teachers have inflated children sense of entitlement through messages as they grow up “I am special” song for preschoolers (to the tune of "Frere Jacques") I am special, I am special, Look at me, You will see, Someone very special, Someone very special, It is me, It is me. Everyone gets a trophy

8. Self-esteem Focused Education/Parenting • Students enter college with a sense of entitlement and then are inundated with self-inflating messages (Twenge, 2006) • Teachers reinforce expectation of higher grade as evidenced by grade inflation (Mansfield, 2001)

9. Entitlement in U.S. College Students • Greenberger et al. (2008)

10. How is entitlement exhibited in students? • Externalized Responsibility • Believing another group member should pick up your slack – it’s okay to take a back seat and let someone else do the work • Believing that the professor doesn’t know what he/she is talking about • Believing schools/professors are obligated to ensure students success after graduation • Entitlement expectations • Expecting at least a B for just showing up for class • Expecting a high grade without much effort • Expecting special treatment

11. Research Questions • Are students in online learning less entitled or more entitled than those taking face to face classes?  • Are there gender differences ? • Does entitlement facilitate or hinder the success of students in an online learning environment?

12. Let’s take a step back…

13. How do we measure student success in online learning?

14. What impacts the success of students taking online classes? Classification of characteristics (adapted from Li, Swaminathan, & Tang, 2009

15. Our Current Research Internal Characteristics • Looking at the relationship between student’s personality and student success • Entitlement

16. Sample & Method • Sample: Undergraduates taking face-to-face classes, all online classes, or both types of classes • Method: • Time 1 and Time 2 survey • Measures: • Entitlement = psychological entitlement scale (Campbell, et al. 2004) • Satisfaction – 4 item scale • Retention – did the student withdraw from class? • Performance – what is the student grade in class?

17. Academic Entitlement Scale • Psychological Entitlement Scale is sensitive to the extremes while Academic Entitlement Scale is domain specific and may pick up students who behave entitled in academic coursework but not in general • New scale = Academic Entitlement = the tendency to possess an expectation of academic success without taking personal responsibility for achieving that success.

18. Preliminary Results No difference in entitlement within: • online vs. mixed vs. face to face • Gender • Age • GPA

19. Preliminary Results • Average entitlement score (31) for our sample higher than average in literature (28) • Significant difference in entitlement for those students who withdrew from class during the first two weeks vs. those who withdrew later p=.0473 • Students who withdrew early more likely to state “things should go my way” than those who have not withdrawn (p-value = .044) who are more likely to feel this way than those who drop later (p-value=.0453).

20. Implications for Institutions • Catering to entitled students can impact “non-entitled” students • Do we have a responsibility to accommodate entitled students? • Should institutions meet students on their turf, or should they come to ours?

21. Implications for instructors • Recent research has found a moderating effect of entitlement on the relationship between work practices and job satisfaction (Byrne, Miller & Pitts, 2010). • Entitlement may influence students’ expectations of what they deserve from a course – so that satisfaction may not be related to any course adjustments or policies for some students

22. Implications for instructors • Other research has found that supervisor communication (i.e. evaluative and informative) moderates the relationship between entitlement and work-related frustration (Harvey & Harris, 2010) • Evaluative communication from instructors may frustrate students with high entitlement even more. So what are instructors to do? How should social media be used in the classroom?

23. Suggestions for instructors • Set expectations regarding the class experience and effort required • Set expectations early • Be consistent and firm with class policies • Grade frequently so expectations are kept in check • De-emphasize the “me” component of social media and emphasize the sharing/collaboration aspects • Take a deep breath before responding to flaming emails about flaming hoops

24. Going Forward Modern Distance Education – Negative aspects of technology Student Responsibility – Instructor Flexibility Student Resources – Student Shortcuts Expert Power – Crowd Power

25. Thank you! You deserve an A for just showing up today

26. Our Research External Characteristics: • Used course engagement strategies and found no significant difference on retention Demographic Characteristics: • Looked at the relationship between gender, race, GPA, SAT scores and retention – no significant relationship Internal Characteristics • Looked at the relationship between past withdrawals in online classes – found significant relationship