Does Navigation Always Predict Performance? Effects of Navigation on Digital Reading are Moderated by Comprehension Skills

Johannes Naumann,Ladislao Salmerón

doi:10.19173/irrodl.v17i1.2113

Abstract

<p align="left">This study investigated interactive effects of navigation and offline comprehension skill on digital reading performance. As indicators of navigation relevant page selection and irrelevant page selection were considered. In 533 Spanish high school students aged 11-17 positive effects of offline comprehension skill and relevant page selection on digital reading performance were found, while irrelevant page selection had a negative effect. In addition, an interaction between relevant page selection and offline comprehension skill was found. While the effect of relevant page selection was strong in good offline comprehenders, it was significantly reduced in weak offline comprehenders. The effect of offline comprehension skill was strong in students showing high rates of relevant page selection, while it was weak and insignificant in students showing low rates of relevant page selection.</p>

Highlights

In learning scenarios where materials are delivered online, e.g. in distance education programmes, students frequently need to progress on their task by navigating through a network of linked materials
This article aims at a contribution to clarifying how navigation processes and offline comprehension skills interact in online learning scenarios
To rule out the possibility that this index merely reflects the length of a navigational path, we considered in addition the percentage of irrelevant pages that were accessed by a student in each task

Summary

Introduction

In learning scenarios where materials are delivered online, e.g. in distance education programmes, students frequently need to progress on their task by navigating through a network of linked materials (or nodes). Even before enrolling in a study program, they will need to access a number of hyperlinks, and read and integrate the documents opened by these, to find out about course contents, fees, terms of application, etc After having enrolled, they will need to complete study assignments sent to them online. Traditional or offline comprehension skills are needed to process the documents accessed through the navigation process (e.g., Salmerón & García, 2011) This means that in online learning scenarios as well, students need to decode words, parse the syntax of sentences, and execute local and global coherence processes to understand a document’s contents (e.g., Kintsch, 1998). We first review the existing literature on this interaction

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