Hypermedia learning environments limit access to information

Audit trails and questionnaires were used to evaluate students' use of a highly interactive hypermedia learning environment. The learning material under investigation had similar functionality to a WWW interface and was composed of images and text combined with rollover and clickable maps, hypertext links and interactive questions. Every interaction a student made was logged in the audit trail, and a method of analysing the audit trails was applied to measure the amount of information accessed by each student. The most successful student accessed only 32% of the available information in 93 minutes, and each student studied different material to the others. Students overestimated how much information they had accessed from the total available, with those accessing the least overestimating comparatively more. The interactive strategy adopted by learners affected the amount of information accessed, and it was concluded that the increasing use of interactive hypermedia in teaching highlights the need for further research in order to ensure that some students are not systematically disadvantaged.