The student comes to the Web site with roughly the same expectations she brings to a textbook. She expects to be able to understand quickly what the work is about, to be able to move through it readily, to have a clear idea of the boundaries of the work, and to be informed by the content. A site that is filled with hyperlinks violates almost all these expectations. While in theory we are offering the student the opportunity to explore, in practice the site consists of an unknown number of reading assignments. Most of my lectures therefore have no links at all except to the next page, previous page, and Table of Contents.
Students learn quickly that a lecture is a known quantity and can plan their time accordingly.
Many of the lectures have sound file links, but these are simply to help the students pronounce names and do not take the student away from the page. I do not embed pictures in the lectures because the download time would disrupt the rhythm of the reading. The important lesson is that a form works best with a conscious pedagogy underpinning it. We are simply putting content on the Web, we are putting it there in a particular form. And, even more important, we ask the students to address that content in particular ways.