The Effects of Three Browsing Devices on Learner Structural Knowledge, Achievement, and Perceived Disorientation in a Hierarchically Organized Hypermedia Environment

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative effects of three different browsing devices on learner structural knowledge, achievement, and perceived disorientation in a hierarchically organized hypermedia system. For this investigation, a Completely Randomized Factorial-322 experimental design was employed. The two independent variables chosen for this study were browsing device (i.e., hotwords, spider maps, and hierarchical maps) and post-treatment lesson structure task awareness (i.e., aware and unaware). The three dependent variables were structural knowledge (as measured by the learner's ability to construct a pencil and paper representation of the organization of the major concepts in the lesson), achievement (as measured by the learner's ability to recall detailed information from the text of the lesson), and perceived disorientation (as measured by the Non-Linear Text Disorientation Assessment). The three nuisance variables identified for this study were concept mapping knowledge and use (i.e., has learned to use concept maps and uses them, has learned to use concept maps but does not use them, and has not learned to use concept maps), hypermedia experience (i.e., experienced and inexperienced), and gender (i.e., male and female). Sixty-one subjects participated in the study.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Beasley, Robert Eric

Contributors dc:contributor

• Waugh, Michael L.

• Education, Technology of

Identifier

(UMI)AAI9503138

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71963