Abstract
AbstractThis study aims to investigate secondary school students' reading comprehension and navigation of networked hypertexts with and without a graphic overview compared to linear digital texts. Additionally, it was studied whether prior knowledge, vocabulary, verbal, and visual working memory moderated the relation between text design and comprehension. Therefore, 80 first‐year secondary school students read both a linear text and a networked hypertext with and without a graphical overview. Logfiles registered their navigation. After reading the text, students answered textbased multiple choice questions and drew mindmaps to assess their structural knowledge of each text content. It was found that both textbased and structural knowledge were lower after reading a networked hypertext than a linear text, especially in students with lower levels of vocabulary. Students took generally more time to read the hypertext than the linear text. We concluded that networked hypertexts are more challenging to read than linear texts and that students may benefit from explicit training on how to read hypertexts.
Highlights
Digital texts on the internet are being used widely to gain knowledge
Research in adult readers has shown that networked hypertexts, but not hierarchical hypertexts, are more difficult to comprehend than linear digital texts (Destefano & Lefevre, 2007) and that navigation in networked hypertexts is related to higher feelings of disorientation (Müller‐Kalthoff & Möller, 2006)
Students' scores on prior knowledge were above chance level, indicating that they had some prior knowledge about the text topics they had read
Summary
Digital texts on the internet are being used widely to gain knowledge. The majority of these texts has hyperlinks that are interconnected as a network (networked hypertexts), whereas some have hyperlinks being connected in a hierarchy (hierarchical hypertexts). Research in adult readers has shown that networked hypertexts, but not hierarchical hypertexts, are more difficult to comprehend than linear digital texts (Destefano & Lefevre, 2007) and that navigation in networked hypertexts is related to higher feelings of disorientation (Müller‐Kalthoff & Möller, 2006). Less is known about hypertext reading in secondary school students. To our knowledge, no study has focused on secondary school students'
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