ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the instructor credibility construct. To begin, an overview of the instructor credibility construct is provided, followed by a brief review of the origins of the credibility construct. Several contemporary areas of instructor credibility research are then highlighted, and a new avenue for exploring instructor credibility is identified. Within the instructional communication context, instructor credibility is a perception that students make about the believability of any instructor. Historically, instructional communication researchers have probed the relationships that exist among instructor credibility, instructor behaviors, and student learning outcomes, but it is the relationship between instructor credibility and student learning outcomes that has garnered the most attention. In addition to learning, contemporary research has examined how student perceptions of instructor credibility are linked to instructor demographic variables, structural classroom components, instructor in-class communication, and student communication behaviors.
