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Problems and Benefits | A Study of the Problems | Rating Changes | The Future | Works Cited Student Problems with Hypertext and Webtext: A Comparison In order to better understand why students have such trouble with "hypertext," but not nearly as much trouble with "Webtexts" I decided to study the issue. I conducted small research study in the summer of 2000 and Spring of 2001, and found that students are much more comfortable with the use of Webtext over hypertext. I compared student attitudes, through a survey using Likert scale, of navigation, closure (knowing when text is "done") and confusion with any lack of closure, audience, comfort, content interest, user-friendliness of the medium, and the feelings of missing text in readings on the medium between hypertext and Webtext. First, let's look at hours the students spend on the Web. As Figure 1 shows, of 31 students, 15 use the Web 1 to 5 hours per week. Fourteen students use the Web 6 or more hours, with 6 of those students use it more than 10 hours a week. This suggests they are experienced with the use of the Web and with Webtexts. Figure 1: Hours Students Spend on the Web Each Week Also important is the self-ranked experience level of the student. The self-ranked experience was only part of the second survey (Spring 2001). Despite the large number of hours the students spend on the Web they rank their general ability to use computers fairly low. Although there is only one non-user, the vast majority of students ranked themselves as beginner users, and none ranked themselves as expert. Only five students ranked themselves above beginner, five as intermediate and one as advanced. However, this ranking focuses only on general computer experience and not experience with Webtexts or hypertexts.
When we compare students' ratings of the Web and hypertext we can see some
clear differences. In Figure 3, we see that in every case the Web was ranked
higher (more positively) on a 1-5 Likert scale than hypertext. In most cases
these differences were less than one point, but comfort levels has
a difference of 1.1, which suggests students are far more comfortable
with the Web. Other large differences include ease of navigation (0.77),
feelings of closure (0.88) and confusion with the lack of closure (0.78).
These all seem to match with the problems mentioned by
Rouet and Levonen; Gary; Smith et al.; Dias, Gomes, and Correia;
and Clark et al. who mentioned problems with navigation,
comfort, and closure. This comparison allows us to see that students
are having more problems with hypertext. However, from Figure 1,
we know that students spend several hours a week on the Web, but
not necessarily using true hypertext (In 2000 38.5 % of the students surveyed
had heard of hypertext, 61.5% had not. In 2001: 11.7% had heard of
hypertext and 88.3% had not). So, perhaps the higher rating of the
Web are due to their experience with the Web, and lower rating of
hypertext due to their lack of exposure and use. One way to examine
this future would be to see the changes in time over
students' ratings. Figure 3: A Comparison of the Web and Hypertext
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