Given the current economic and subsequent employment uncertainty, people are returning to college to update their skills and acquire the credentials they need to be competitive in today's workforce. As a result, faculty must be prepared to facilitate the learning process for an ever-changing and more diverse student body.

The purpose of this research is to further the extant body of research in the area of effective student engagement. The variables being used to represent credibility are competence, goodwill and trustworthiness. They were measured using McCroskey and Teven's (1999) Source Credibility Questionnaire. The data for this study were provided by students attending a community college located in the metropolitan area of a Midwestern city. Using competence, trustworthiness and goodwill as the antecedents to represent instructor credibility, this research tests the relationship between instructor credibility and student self-efficacy.

Conducting a study of this type will provide faculty and administrators looking for new approaches to teacher leadership with data to help them enhance student engagement and increase their rate of persistence to graduation.