The Effects of Instructor Credibility, Grade Incentives, and Framing of a Technology Policy on Students’ Intent to Comply and Motivation to Learn

This experiment assessed whether instructor credibility (low or high) moderated the effects of grade incentives (rewards or punishment) and advantage framing (gain or loss) of technology policies on students’ intent to comply and motivation to learn. Results indicate that credibility increased motivation to learn. Significant moderated moderated mediation was found: a three-way interaction affected both intent to comply, and motivation to learn as mediated by attitude toward the policy. Specifically, credibility positively influenced learning outcomes via attitude when the syllabus used opposing frame-incentive structure (i.e., gain-framed punishment and loss-framed reward).