Hypertext Design Issues

Hypertext is a computer technology for “nonsequential reading and writing” in which chunks or nodes of information are connected by fixed links. Users access hypertext by selecting cross-reference (or “buttons”) in the context of a given node that is connected via links to other nodes. Such an “associative” strategy for information storage and retrieval differs from the indexing and searching technology of conventional database management and text retrieval systems, and offers significant advantages when used instead of or in combination with search systems. Hypertext is an ideal medium for making job aids, reference materials, and ‘just in time training’ available online to information-based workers. This article reviews five commercially available hypertext systems, and discusses several key hypertext design issues. Among the most important of these issues are the critical role of navigational aids in preventing users from becoming “lost” in the hypertext, the application of structured writing techniques to hypertext development, and the potential contributions of the human performance technology approach to hypertext in the form of systematic analysis, design, and evaluation methods.     

Hypertext computer study guides and the social studies achievement of students with learning disabilities, remedial students, and regular education students

Hypertext is a relatively new term for today's teachers, who work hard to stay abreast of the quickly changing field of computer technology in education. Hypertext as an educational tool is very different from traditional computer-assisted instructional software, offering the reader immediate access through its computer format to supplemental information. Two related studies were conducted to design and field-test hypertext computer study guides. In Study 1, 40 students (10 with learning disabilities, 15 remedial, and 15 regular education) worked in three different treatment groups (lecture, lecture/computer study guide, and computer study guide). Study 2 involved the five lowest achieving students (two with learning disabilities and three remedial) from Study 1 in an A-B-A design. Results indicated that (a) the computer study guide treatment was as effective as lecture, (b) the lecture/computer study guide treatment was as effective as lecture, (c) posttest scores were higher for the computer study guide group, and (d) retention test scores were higher for the computer study guide group.     

Hypertext and compact discs: the challenge of multi-media learning

The role of the computer should be organising and representing knowledge to give the user easy access and control, rather than trying to create a model of the learner and seeking to prescribe her route through it. Hypertext is high-level software through which the learner explores and interacts with knowledge. Users can pursue a variety of suggested trails through the material, or they can create new pathways for themselves and others to follow, by forging new links and even by extending the material. Hypertext is inherently multi-user, blurring the distinction between author, editor and reader. Hypermedia is a name sometimes given to the multi-media capability of hypertext, emphasising the way in which users can combine, edit and orchestrate sounds, graphics, moving pictures, texts and computer software, at the click of a mouse.
Compact disc technology provides the perfect partner to hypertext, offering extremely dense, robust and flexible storage. Products such as CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory) and CD-I (compact disc interactive), and technologies such as DVI (digital video interactive), offer immense scope for multi-media learning. Educational technologists face an urgent challenge to harness the power of this combination.     

Hypertext as instructional design

In this article, hypertext is compared with instructional design principles and processes. Contrary to initial perceptions, hypertext can be considered to be theoretically and operationally consistent with instructional design in that both share theoretical foundations in cognitive and systems theory and practical elements of learning environment design. The ability to tailor and extend the functionality of hypertext systems makes them powerful environments for authoring, designing, and displaying most instructional designs. Hypertext systems also can combine the roles of designer and learner by creating a collaborative environment in which the learner can annotate, amend, or author both content and structural elements of the hypertext.     

TEA: An Agrarian Economics Instructor System

In the present paper, we describe the TEA system, a multimedia instructor system for distance learning of agrarian economics. TEA is based on the last 3 years of the courses held in the Spanish School for Agrarian Foremen. This tutorial system follows the hypertext philosophy ( in the widest sense, including textual and hypermedia information), which has been widely used in the educational field. In the development of TEA, we have tried to overcome the classical problems of hypertext education ( disorientation during navigation, cognitive overload, etc. ) using graphical and textual ‘;clues’ to improve user orientation. Internet is a new medium with great potential in the educational field. Perhaps the main benefit of Internet is the possibility of making learning material available to people all over the world. Within Internet, World Wide Web ( WWW) is the most natural solution for remote access to multimedia distance learning services. The system was developed on WWW, using the Netscape User Interface, Hypertext Mark-up Language and some external Common Gateway Interface programs.     

Hyperlink format, categorization abilities and memory span as contributors to deaf users hypertext access

Sixty deaf and hearing students were asked to search for goods in a Hypertext Supermarket with either graphical or textual links of high typicality, frequency, and familiarity. Additionally, they performed a picture and word categorization task and two working memory span tasks (spatial and verbal). Results showed that deaf students were faster in graphical than in verbal hypertext when the number of visited pages per search trial was blocked. Regardless of stimuli format, accuracy differences between groups did not appear, although deaf students were slower than hearing students in both Web search and categorization tasks (graphical or verbal). No relation between the two tasks was found. Correlation analyses showed that deaf students with higher spatial span were faster in graphical Web search, but no correlations emerged between verbal span and verbal Web search. A hypothesis of different strategies used by the two groups for searching information in hypertext is formulated. It is suggested that deaf users use a visual-matching strategy more than a semantic approach to make navigation decisions.     

Hypertext and Instructional Design: Some Preliminary Guidelines

Hypertext is a nonlinear way of presenting content consisting of nodes and links that a person can access using a variety of search and browsing strategies. In this article, we focus on the use of hypertext as an instructional tool. We compare hypertext instruction with traditional instructional formats. We offer some initial guidelines relating to guidance and control, development and implementation, multiuser management, user interface, and content representation. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations of learner control as an instructional strategy, and the need for careful instructional design of hypertext instructional programs.     

超文本理念与现代文学理论的聚合

超文本是一种全局性的信息结构和文本模式,它以自身超链接、多向和非线性的特性改变着传统的阅读方式和理念。依据改变阅读理论的三个重要因素"作者之死"、意义的不确定性、文本的片断化对超文本理论进行分析,可以看出,超文本理论并未完全脱离传统的文学理论,相反,它的雏形早已显现在传统的文学理论中。     

论网络艺术的意义生成

网络艺术是以网络为载体、以超文本(Hypertext)的形态存在的,因而网络媒体在传播手段、内容、主体、对象、方式、环境6个方面呈现出新的特点,并使网络艺术意义生成具有了交叉生成、建构生成、化人化生成、对话生成、播撒生成和虚拟化生成等新的特性。     

Effects of Cognitive Flexibility Theory‐based instruction on Korean high school history teaching

Understanding complex conceptual relationships is crucial for Korean high school history learning. The motivating hypothesis for this study is that a Cognitive Flexibility Theory‐based Hypertext instructional module will promote acquisition of advanced knowledge associated with complex conceptual relationships. This study focussed on improving Korean history teaching and learning in terms of these learner characteristics based on Cognitive Flexibility Theory, an influential constructivist approach in the field of educational technology. A referential hypertext program based on Spiro and his colleagues’ (1988, 1990) Cognitive Flexibility Theory (CFT) was developed for this study. Three learning programs were presented: (1) Cognitive Flexibility Theory‐Based Hypertext (CFTH), (2) hierarchical hypertext, similar to CFTH except for its hierarchical node connections, and (3) a textbook representing the typical Korean high school history instruction process. The effects of these three treatments on history achievement were examined in terms of post‐test item characteristics. Independent variables were students’ IQ, and prior knowledge and motivation toward each learning program that was measured after the treatment. Students’ achievement was the highest among three groups, especially in complex items: comparison, analysis and synthesis. In the CFTH group high IQ and low PK students’ achievement was most improved, and motivation was the chief influential factor in explaining the achievement.     

网络时代的超文本解析

由于计算机技术的应用和万维网的普及,昔日仅是观念形态的文本的互文性,已经借助超文本获得了具体的展示.在网络中一切文本都是互文本,传统的印刷文本形式在网络时代被超文本取代.超文本的阅读可以在不同的媒体和不同的文本形式中自由地转换,读者的能动性被充分地发挥.超文本允许读者直接参与文学创作,空前地提高了读者的地位,从而改变了传统的作者与读者二元对立的状态.     

Teaching Hypertext Composition

Composing hypertext documents can be an enriching path into the world of technical communication. In learning to produce hypertext, students are introduced to an important form of written composition that encompasses not only text generation, but also visual communication and information architecture. In this article, I provide a rationale for teaching hypertext composition and then some specific curricular suggestions in two parts, one for teaching beginners, and one for teaching more advanced students.     

浅析文字链接的知识产权问题

文字链接是网络链接的重要类型。文字链接对象具有知识产权。不同链接方式可能产生侵权。重视网络规范，对设链者和被链接者提出更高的要求可以避免侵权。     

对优化超文本阅读的思考

作为信息网络时代最流行的语义载体,超文本以其自身的超链接性、非线性等特点潜移默化地影响并改变着传统地阅读方式。这种超文本阅读方式给读者们带来便捷的同时,也导致了读者的心理认知负担等方面的问题。鉴于此,学习者要加强对认知策略和元认知策略培养的认识,同时通过大学英语网络多媒体辅助教学以减轻心理认知负荷问题,促进英语自主学习,实现超文本阅读的自主化、个性化。     

新闻编译的超文本因素——以《参考消息》涉华新闻为例

随着翻译研究的文化转向,超文本成分这一概念渐渐被应用到非文学领域研究中。新闻编译,是一种特殊的翻译活动,不仅受控于意识形态和中西媒体价值观等不同因素,同时还受到读者的知识结构与读者期待等外在因素的影响。本文将超文本概念引入新闻编译研究中,以《参考消息》的编译新闻为例,探究在具体编译新闻活动中影响译者翻译策略选择的超文本因素,更好揭示新闻编译工作的本质。     

Hypertext reading: novice vs. expert reading

This paper discusses some differences between linear reading and reading in hypertext, a non-linear medium. The investigations of hypertext form part of a research project on the design and use of multimedia systems, and hypertext in particular, for assessing planning applications for large scale building developments, such as chemical plants which are subject to the Air Pollution Laws (Immissionsschutzgesetz). The key question treated here is whether hypertext makes it easier to read and assess such planning applications for experts (officials of the regional government and advisers to interest groups) and for lay people who may be objectors (such as members of ecology groups or those living in the neighbourhood). The development and testing of a hypertext system for this purpose involves considering the literature in psychology on cognitive differences between reading conventional and hypertext documents and on advantages and disadvantages of hypertext. From the literature review and from interview data, it is concluded that hypertext has fewer benefits in this situation than it appears to promise; while there are some advantages for experts, who nevertheless also need to apply conventional reading strategies to conventional paper texts, it is of limited use to the lay non-experts who have an interest in planning inquiries.     

Exploring individual processes of knowledge construction with hypertext

This empirical study reports on cognitive activities when hypertext readers construct interpretations, appreciate multiple perspectives and become able to manipulate the knowledge-construction process itself. A variety of methods of data collection for exploring the cognitive activities of students were produced. Quantitative results show that, in general, all students profit from their learning activities. A more detailed analysis reveals that lowprior-knowledge students benefited more from working with the hypertext program than those with high prior knowledge. From qualitative data analysis, three typical hypertext reading patterns were discovered: (1) systematic reading, (2) systematic versus explorative reading, and (3) exploration due to individual preferences. Also, it was found that, on the basis of their hypertext reading behaviour, the students could be divided into two groups, which are called self-regulated and cue-dependent learners. It seems that information presentation with hypertext appears to be the most beneficial to self-regulated readers who are to a higher degree capable of using metacognitive skills and possess, at the same time, a lesser degree of test anxiety. It is the self-regulated learner who profits most from a hypertext program.     

Effects of academic training on metatextual knowledge and hypertext navigation

We investigated the effects of college training on students’ metatextual knowledge, hypertext navigation strategies and their acquisition of problem-relevant information. Ten psychology undergraduates and nine clinical psychology post-graduate students were asked to study a 3,400-word, 14-section hypertext with the purpose of drafting a short essay on a specific, complex issue in the area of teenage psychopathology. The specialists outperformed the novices on a metatextual knowledge test. They spent more time visiting relevant sections of the hypertext, and wrote essays containing more critical information. They also displayed a better incidental memory for the hypertext structure. We discuss the data in terms of the late acquisition of metatextual knowledge and study strategies.     

Characteristic(s) of Hypermedia and How They Relate to Knowledge

This article offers a redefining of three problem areas associated with the cognitive effects of the semiotic characteristics of hypermedia, highlighted by the first years of research on this objective: the hypertext associativity, the non-linearity and the rapprochement of real and hypertext navigation. We focus on the question of navigation, and try to show how this question arises in hypermedia, and why it arises in a way, which is more important than in other supports, such as books. In addition, we show how the semiotic characteristics of hypermedia which are identified in the first part of the article (non-linearity, absence of reading a default unique path, etc.) makes illusory the aim of completely understanding the ideas of the author, as can happen with a book. The relationship to knowledge offered by hypertext is no longer based on the understanding of a body of knowledge prepared in advance by the author, but on a users personal reconstruction. This reversal calls into question the way of defining the navigation mentioned above, which implicitly assumes the need for the users to mentally picture for themselves the formal organization of the whole of the document being studied. Spécificité(s) des hypermédias et rapport au savoir. Cet article propose un recadrage de trois problématiques propres aux effets cognitifs des spécificités sémiotiques des hypermédias, stigmatisées par les premières années de recherche sur cet objet : l'associativité hypertextuelle, la non-linéarité et le rapprochement entre navigations réelle et hypertextuelle. Nous nous arrêtons sur la question de la navigation, et tenterons de montrer comment cette question se pose dans les hypermédias, et pourquoi elle s'y pose de faÇon plus importante que dans d'autres supports, comme le livre. Par ailleurs, nous mettons en évidence comment les spécificités sémiotiques des hypermédias identifiées dans la première partie de l'article(non-linéarité, absence de parcours de lecture par défaut unique, etc.)rendent illusoire le but d'appréhender le propos de l'auteur dans sa totalité, comme on peut le faire dans le livre. Le rapport au savoir proposé par l'hypertexte se fonde non plus sur l'appréhension d'un ensemble de connaissances préconstruit par un auteur, mais sur une reconstruction propre À l'utilisateur. Ce renversement remet en question la faÇon de cadrer la navigation évoquée plus haut, qui suppose implicitement la nécessité pour l'utilisateur de se représenter mentalement l'organisation formelle de l'ensemble du document consulté. Die Charakteristikas der Hypermedien und ihre Beziehung zu Wissen. Dieser Artikel versucht drei Problemstellungen - aus den ersten Forschungsjahren auf diesem Gebiet resultierend - neu zu definieren, die mit den kognitiven Auswirkungen der semiotischen Charakteristikas von Hypermedia assoziiert werden : die Assoziativität von Hypertext, die Nicht-Linearität, und die Gegenüberstellung von wirklicher zu hypertextueller Navigation. Wir versuchen der Frage nach der Navigation in den Hypermedien nachzugehen, und warum diese Frage hier von grössere Bedeutung ist, als bei anderen Medien, wie bespielsweise Büchern. Wir zeigen überdies, wie die semiotischen Charakteristikas von Hypermedia (identifiziert im ersten Abschnitt) illusorisch das Ziel erreichen, die Ideen eines Autors vollständig zu verstehen, wie es bei einem Buch der Fall ist. Die durch Hypertext ermöglichte Beziehung zu Wissen basiert nicht mehr auf einem vom Autor vorkonstruierten Ensemble von Kenntnissen, sondern auf die Rekonstruktion durch den Leser. Diese Umkehrung wirft die Frage nach der Definition der oben beschriebenen Navigation auf, die implizit die Notwendigkeit voraussetzt, dass sich der Leser die formelle Organisation des Dokumentes verbildlicht.     

高校图书馆利用现状及对策分析

目前,一些地方高校图书馆的利用现状不容乐观,表现在学生的信息素质较低,对图书馆的认识较肤浅,文献供给不足与学生需求增多之间的矛盾加剧等。为此,加强大学生的信息素养教育,提高大学生的信息素质,加强图书馆的文献资源建设,最大限度地满足读者需求,显得尤为重要。同时图书馆自身也应树立以人为本的服务理念,在面对每个读者的个性化需求时,都能担负起一个导航员和咨询员的职责。