Understanding the effects of teacher credibility on students' cognitive engagement in online learning: The mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and motivational regulation strategies

Teacher credibility is one of the most critical drivers of students' engagement in online learning. However, discussions about how and to what extent teacher credibility affects students' engagement are lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect of teacher credibility on students' cognitive engagement by adopting source credibility theory and social cognitive theory. 368 graduate students enrolled in online courses were surveyed. Results of partial least squares structural equation modeling showed that teacher credibility positively affected students' academic self-efficacy, motivational regulation strategies, and deep and shallow cognitive engagement. Both academic self-efficacy and motivational regulation strategies positively mediated the effect of teacher credibility on students' deep and shallow cognitive engagement. Furthermore, the effects of teacher credibility and both deep and shallow cognitive engagement were sequentially mediated by academic self-efficacy and motivational regulation strategies. Interestingly, the direct effects of teacher credibility on both deep and shallow cognitive engagement were not observed. Implications for facilitating teacher credibility were discussed.