Summary: Locating specific information in a hypermedia environment.

Title: “Locating information within extended hypermedia”

Name: Debbie DeRoma

Date: 12/17/09

Reference:

Cromley, J.G. & Azevedo, R. (2009). Locating information within extended hypermedia. Educational Technology Research and Development 57, 287-313.

Problem:

Students are often asked to locate specific information in computer-based settings, such as the Internet or CD-ROM/DVD resources. In order to support students in finding information, it is important to know what characterizes a successful search. These findings can then be used to design effective scaffolds. The authors aim to answer the following questions:

1. How is prior knowledge related to finding or failing to find the key page?

2. How is time spent searching related to finding or failing to find the key page?

3. Which search moves are associated with finding the key page?

4. What is the relationship between finding the key page and the quality of answers to researcher-posed questions?

Context:

The authors studied 51 seventh-grade, ninth-grade, and undergraduate students. The participants completed a single videotaped session of approximately 60 minutes, in which they searched a DVD version of Encarta encyclopedia for answers to ten researcher-posed questions about the circulatory system. Participants were asked to think aloud throughout the session. Before engaging in the search task, the participants completed a questionnaire to assess their prior knowledge of the circulatory system.

The authors scored the participants’ verbal answers according to a weighted scale. They used the videotape to calculate the time the participants spent searching for answers and to code 11 specific search moves such as scrolling, free search, and back arrows.

Findings:

· Prior knowledge was significantly correlated with locating information in hypermedia for all age groups. Students who had higher levels of prior knowledge consistently located necessary information more efficiently.

· Time spent searching was negatively correlated to finding key information. Students who clicked on the highest number of irrelevant pages had the lowest scores on the researcher-posed questions.

· While “scrolling” was the most frequent search move employed by all participants, the authors did not find any specific move that was more successful than others. Instead, the authors suggest that the best strategy for locating information within extended hypermedia depends on the specific question that is being asked and the text itself.

Recommendations:

The findings have a significant impact for instructional designers and teachers.

Teachers:

· Hypermedia pages may be more useful for student exploration after the content has been introduced using another medium. For example, students might use hypermedia to answer student-generated questions or to write a report on a specific topic.

Instructional Designers:

· Instructional designers who wish to improve students’ searching skills using CBLEs could measure students’ prior knowledge and then embed prior-knowledge building activities into the CBLE.

· CBLEs could also be designed to inform students how relevant the current page is for answering their questions.

· CBLEs could warn students when they have spent too much time on an irrelevant page, or warn students when they bypass a key page.