Creation and validation of the Online Self-Disclosure via Educational Platforms Scale

Globally, higher education (HE) institutions now implement some element of hybrid learning, heightened since the COVID-19 pandemic and temporary shift to online learning. To communicate, online self-disclosure (revealing information about the self) is required. The majority of HE students are aged between 18-24 years, which is considered the developmentally sensitive period of ‘emerging adulthood’. Having only ever known a digitally-connected world, emerging adults self-disclose differently to other generations when communicating via an online environment. Whilst communicating online with HE staff, students may self-disclose in a way that misaligns with the expectations of staff; this may result in miscommunication or over-disclosure (revealing inappropriate information to a misjudged audience). Over-disclosing via online educational platforms (e.g., Moodle, MS Teams, and e-mail) may result in negative feedback from staff and this may impact student experience, engagement and attainment. Problematically, no standardized measure exists that captures student self-disclosure via online educational platforms and so research on this topic is currently limited and theoretically unstable. Via a three-phase study, comprising four studies and 283 participants, we have created and conducted an initial evaluation of the online self-disclosure via educational platforms (OSDEP) scale. The OSDEP scale is the first psychometric tool to specifically measure HE students’ online self-disclosure behaviors specifically within an online educational context. The OSDEP scale can be used for future educational and pedagogical research to further understand HE students’ online self-disclosure behaviors and to what extent these may be associated with topics such as mental health, engagement, attainment, and student experience.