Computer-Mediated Word-of-Mouth Communication on RateMyProfessors.com: Expectancy Effects on Student Cognitive and Behavioral Learning

The purpose of this study was to experimentally test the influence of expectancies formed through computer-mediated word-of-mouth communication (WOM) on student learning. Increasingly, students rely on computer-mediated WOM through sites such as RateMyProfessors.com to aid in the process of information-gathering and course selection. It was hypothesized that students who received positive computer-mediated WOM about a course would demonstrate greater levels of cognitive and behavioral learning than would students who received no information or negative computer-mediated WOM. Results demonstrated the predicted effects for cognitive and behavioral learning. It was further hypothesized that observed expectancy effects would be mediated by affect toward learning. Results supported a partial mediational role for affect in the context of positive expectancies, but not negative expectancies. Results were discussed in terms of the role of computermediated WOM in generating expectations, the expectations-affect-behavior hypothesis, and the influence of student expectations on learning outcomes.