Perceived Credibility of Information Across Delivery Modalities

Abstract

AbstractDuring the past few decades the increase in use of digital media for communication has had a tremendous impact on the field of education and has changed the way students and teachers interact. This research examines whether or not, all else being equal, the modality of information delivery has an impact on its perceived credibility among college students of two age groups: (a) 25 years and younger and (b) over 25 years of age. A piece of fabricated information was formatted into three modalities; (a) face-to-face lecture (b) print via paper, and (c) print via World Wide Web. The formatted information was delivered separately to three randomly assigned groups of undergraduate and graduate students. After the information was delivered the students completed a self-report survey instrument that recorded their perceptions of the credibility of the formatted information. To investigate whether modality of information delivery had an impact on perceived credibility across the two age groups a 2 X 3 ANOVA was conducted. No significance was found between the mean differences in the credibility scores of participants under the age of 25 and over the age of 25. F(1,66) = .056, p = .813, np2 = .001. However, significant main effects for modality F(2,66) = 5.82, p = .005, np2 = .150, were found. The credibility scores were significantly higher for the print via paper modality than both the face-to-face lecture and the print via World Wide Web modalities. Keywords: information technology, education, modality, credibility, perception