Problems and Benefits | A Study of the Problems | Rating Changes | The Future | Works Cited Changes over time of Students' Ratings of the Web and Hypertext When examining the problems students have with hypertext and Webtext, changes over time could be an important factor. By examining the Web changes and the hypertext changes we can  see how time might influence students' rating. As Figure 1 shows, overall the students rated the Web easy to navigate (4 of 5), comfortable (4.6 of 5 for 2000, and 4.25 for 2001 both of 5), and interesting (4.25 of 5). They did not seem to find the level of problems with parts missing, confusion due to lack of closure, or problems with closure in general as might be expected one when sees the lists of problems student have with hypertext. However, it is interesting to note that the students who were surveyed in the Spring of 2001 had more problems with lack of closure (2.6 of 5) than those in 2000 (1.4 of 5).  It seems like problems with lack of closure would decrease overtime as students become familiar with the new types of writing and reading common for hypertext and Webtext. However, this sample size is small enough that these results can only be suggestive. Figure 1: Student Ratings of the Web in a 1-5 Likert Scale By looking at Figures 2A and 2B, we can see the comfort levels with the Web are not reflected in the comfort levels the students had reading hypertext. However, these figure do show an improvement over time. Students surveyed in 2001 in every case rated hypertext more positively, in many cases more than a whole point. In Figure 42B the graph shows how confusion with lack of closure has the smallest change (a deduction of 0.15), but student problems with the feelings that parts were missing decreased 1.4 points. Figure 2A: Student Ratings of Hypertext in a 1-5 Likert Scale Figure 2B: Student Ratings of Hypertext in a 1-5 Likert Scale Comparing Figure 1 and Figures 2A and 2B, it is interesting to see that students rated hypertext more positively over time, but the ratings for the Web mostly stayed about the same. It seems like the concepts of hypertext are becoming more familiar to students. Perhaps the students of the 2001 survey have been using the internet, and other forms of networked  and electronic writing, for longer (if we say they students of 2000 and 2001 began using the net around the same time, then the 2001 students have almost a full year of experience). There many be other factors that have caused this increase in the rating of hypertext, some of which could be examined in future research.