The Effect of Bifocal Modeling on Students’ Assessment of Credibility

Introduction The availability and diversity of educational materials have greatly evolved over the past decade. In particular, resources such as online content and simulation tools more pervasively have been used by students as learning materials. Although this opens up greater access to a variety of educational resources, it also introduces the need to critically evaluate the accuracy and underlying assumptions of these educational materials. Thus, it is crucial for learners to meticulously evaluate the credibility of these new resources that technology offers them. The literature suggests that new technologies with different affordances could affect and somehow diminish their audience’s credibility judgment. Couture [4], for example, suggests that many design characteristics of a simulation environment would affect users’ evaluation of credibility. Sundar [7] also discusses the fact that different technological features such as modality, agency, interactivity and navigability can influence credibility. In his study of simulation credibility, Winsberg [8] warns that learners tend to overestimate the credibility of scientific computer models.