The influence of multiple human factors on learner preferences using hypermedia systems

Abstract

There has been an increasing focus on web-based instruction (WBI) systems which accommodate individual differences in educational environments. Much of those studies have focused on understanding learners' preferences and behaviors using WBI systems. In this paper, we investigate the influence of multiple human factors on learners' preferences using a specially designed WBI program which accommodates learning needs of using navigation tools. Our WBI program logs all the navigational activities of each user, which we used to conduct our analysis. We studied three human factors (cognitive style, prior knowledge, and gender) to evaluate their effect on user preferences while acquiring knowledge. We analyzed each human factor individually and compared our findings with previous studies. We then analyzed several combinations of human factors to investigate how each combination influence the learning preferences based on our individual tests. We found that some human factors and their combination have an impact on learners' preferences when choosing navigation tools. The related human factors therefore altered a learner's preferences. Therefore, WBI applications need to consider the combination of human factors rather than considering them individually.