Learning strategies and hypermedia instruction

Students are frequently being asked to learn from hypermedia. Some characteristics of hypermedia, including the use of multiple media and the increased control over sequence provided to the learner, may impede learning for the less strategic student. This study investigated the potential of incorporating learning strategy instruction into hypermedia learning materials. Using an intact high school computer class, a sixweek intervention was conducted where the experimental group participated in learning strategy training in conjunction with hypermedia computer networking lessons. Pre and post measures of metacognitive awareness and achievement are reported. The results indicated that student's regulation of their own cognition benefited from strategy training but their knowledge of cognition and achievement was commensurate with a control group. The discussion includes reasons why strategy instruction through hypermedia may not be successful and provides suggestions for future research. Learners are being asked to use hypermedia instructional materials more and more in today's educational communities. This increase in use has outpaced understanding of how students can learn effectively in such environments. Several characteristics of hypermedia may serve to impede some learner's ability to comprehend the material presented. These characteristics include novelty, the multiple modes of presentation (e.g., excessive cognitive load), the nonlinear paths, and increased learner control. Most of these characteristics have been cited as reasons to be encouraged by the potential of hypermedia for instruction, but they also raise numerous questions about the learner's ability to use the environment to promote his or her understanding. It is likely that only the "strategic" learner will benefit from hypermedia instruction. Learning strategies, often referred to in the literature as cognitive and metacognitive strategies, have been intensely researched in the past 20 years. Learning strategies such as summarizing text prior to reading and setting goals have been demonstrated to be effective in traditional environments (Pressley & Woloshyn, 1995). As in other learning situations, it is important that the student effectively use learning strategies in an environment that makes extensive use of hypermedia. Unfortunately, little is known about the use of strategies in this mode of learning that is quickly becoming commonplace (Alexander, Graham, & Harris, 1998). The goal of this study was to determine if learning strategies can be taught in a hypermedia learning environment and if the learning strategy instruction has a positive impact on achievement. Hypermedia learning environments provide opportunities to incorporate diagrams, video clips, sound bites, and text into instruction. A common approach to designing hypermedia instructional materials is to have a main path, similar to sequential pages in a book that students should follow. In addition to this main path, other features provide alternative representations of the same concept or related information. Each of these additional features is intended to increase student comprehension by providing more information when the student needs or requests it. A common example is linking a recently introduced word to its definition. If the learner does not remember the term, they can select the word to see a definition. Other features that are commonly available include a links to objectives, site-maps, and self-check questions. However, these features are of little value if they are not used or used inappropriately. Learning Strategies Increasing comprehension when reading from text has been studied extensively. A great deal is known about how good readers learn from text (Baker & Brown, 1984) and about how text should be formatted to encourage comprehension (Keller & Burkman, 1993). Reading comprehension depends in part on the effective utilization of cognitive resources (Baker &Brown, 1984). …