Children’s Macro-Level Navigation Patterns in Hypermedia and their Relation with Task Structure and Learning Outcomes

Abstract

This study investigated macro-level navigation patterns in children's hypermedia learning, and how they related to task structure and learning outcomes. For this purpose, 5th and 6th grade learners performed a hypermedia assignment in which a high (n=57) versus a low (n=54) level of structure was provided. By means of qualitative analyses of their navigation activities, 6 macro-level navigation patterns were distinguished: linear reading, selective reading, video viewing, massed writing, late onset writing, and unpredictable reading. Results showed that the linear reading pattern was more frequent in the high structure environment, and that both the high structure environment and the linear reading pattern were associated with the highest quality of the children's written assignments. Navigation patterns and task structure did not clearly predict children's declarative knowledge gains or knowledge transfer. These findings show that there are multiple ways to navigate through a hypermedia environment, but that these are not all equally successful for learning. Moreover, the provided task structure in the environment may affect the occurrence of successful navigation patterns.

The effect of audio-support on strategy, time, and performance on reading comprehension in secondary school students with dyslexia

“…We, therefore, considered their reading behaviour as strategic. Nevertheless, future research could incorporate (retrospective) think-aloud interviews (Paans et al, 2020 ) based on students’ eye-moves through the text. This could provide information on the level of consciousness of possible reading choices.…”

Impact of audio on navigation strategies in children and adults with dyslexia

“…A recent hypermedia study confirmed this line of thought and found that learners more often used a linear reading pattern in higher structured learning environments with more external regulation (Paans et al, 2020 ). Another study showed that learners’ approach of a task can be affected by task conditions (Pieschl et al, 2012 ).…”

“…An example of a study using such log data to examine learners’ navigation activities in a (hyper)media setting used plotted graphs in which was shown when learners moved to a different page in the multimedia environment. Paans et al ( 2020 ) showed that various navigation patterns could be distinguished, e.g., linear reading, selective reading, and unpredictable reading. These navigation patterns differed in terms of linearity with which students went through the online learning material.…”

“…When going through a multimedia document, multimodal information (spoken and written text) must be integrated and combined to form a coherent mental model (Caccamise et al, 2015 ; Juvina & Van Oostendorp, 2008 ). Learners follow different navigation strategies to build such a mental model, as seen in the level of linearity with which they go through the material (Paans et al, 2020 ). Audio-support guides learners in a linear way through the material.…”

‘Supporting socially shared regulation during collaborative task-oriented reading’

“…Another way to gain insight into groups' depth and social sharedness of metacognitive regulation during TOR is by looking at the learning process (Malmberg et al, 2013;Paans et al, 2020). For this reason, we executed an exploratory qualitative analysis to visualize the depth and sharedness across the four lessons.…”