Reading and Writing in Hypertext
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Reading in a hypertext environment



Similarities with reading printed text

        Reading in a hypertext environment shares many characteristics with reading in a linear print environment.  Digital text is still text, and not all linear text is always read in a linear fashion.  Reference books, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, are not generally read from beginning to end, and some readers read quite selectiviely in linear text.  People have different styles and approaches to reading in linear text as well as hypertext.  Some readers browse, scan, and scroll through text. Others read thoroughly, while still others reread and go back over sections of text, underlining, highlighting, or even making notes in the margin. 
 

Differences with reading hypertext

        Hypertext  readers frequently read differently from readers in a linear printed environment. Troffer (2000) cites to research showing that reading from the screen is about 30% slower than reading from paper. However, she notes that most online readers do not go online primarily to read. She says they often tend to scan a document rather than read word for word. 

Slatin (1991) and Burbules and Callister (1996) describe three types of hypertext readers 

  • Browsers, 
  • Users, and
  • Co-authors.
Browsers are casual, curious readers.  Users are goal-oriented, and know what they are looking for. Co-authors place the greatest demand on the hypertext system.  In a linear print environment, these readers would be writing in the margins, photcopying pages, quoting, and making citations.

        A number of studies have been conducted to determine if reading in hypertext has advantages or disadvantages over reading in in a linear printed text environment. The results of these tests are inconclusive. Frequently these studies have focused on tests used to evaluate reading ability in a linear environment and applied these  tests to a hypertext environment.  Research has shown, however,  that online reading can be quite different from linear print reading (Slatin,1991, Burbules & Callister, 1996, and Troffer, 2000).  Puntambekar (n.d.)observed that many of these tests focus on

  • Reading speed
  • Comprehension
  • Retrieval of facts
  • Recall of facts
However, Burbules and Callister (1996) state that we often learn nonsequentially, dynamically, and interactively.  These measure of reading effectiveness do not take this into account. McHoul and Roe (1996) criticize any analytical attempts of reading cognition, and do not believe that anyone can predetermine the characteristics that will comprise reading.
We will always find characteristics that we should not want to associate with reading as such, but are beneficial to the case. Reading is like soup or slime.  We should not want to specify its essence according to any neat digital calculus (McHoul & Roe, 1996,  Section 5 Just Reading ¶ 5).
They believe reading cognition was always "fluid, artful, nodal, and so on" (McHoul & Roe, 1996, Celebrating Hypertext section, ¶ 8) and hypertext reading is still reading. It is just a different mode of delivering reading that may facilitate some aspects of reading.
 
 

Challenges of reading hypertext

        Nonetheless, online reading of non-fiction poses challenges that are not faced in linear printed text. Keep, McLaughlin and Parmar (1993 -2000), Toffer (2000) and Morrison (2001) describe the main concerns with reading in a hypertext environment:

  • Disorientation
  • Missing context clues 
  • Cognitive load, and
  • Reading from the screen
Disorientation is most frequently experienced in poorly designed systems that lack context clues, good navigation aids, and structural conventions similar to those commonly used in books. Printed books use table of contents, indices, chapters, and section headings to orient readers in a printed text.

Context clues help provide cohesion in linear text (Keep, McLaughlin & Parmar (1993 -2000). The printed text uses context clues in sentences, paragraphs, chapters and the entire book to help readers follow the thesis or the story. Hypertext uses paths, or sequences of links or nodes to help provide continuity. 

Increased cognitive load
Because ot  the necessity of remembering location, deciding where to go next, and keeping track of what has been read or visited, hypertext reading increases the congnitive load of the reader.   The design of the hypertext needs to take these things into consideration to ease the cognitive load of the user in the hypertext environment.

Reading on the Screen
Reading hypertext is sometimes referred as hyperreading. The activity of hyperreading takes places on the screen and involves reading across links, often in a parallel fashion (Morrison,  2001). Reading on the screen poses different problems from reading from a printed page.  Troffer (2000) describes some of the problems associated with reading from the screen:

  • Screen glare which impairs reading
  • Screen resolution 
  • Letters on a computer screen can appear coarse, which slows down the eye movement.
  • Screen reading can cause eyestrain
  • Screen size can pose reading difficulties
  • Spatial and relationship abilities are called into play with reading from the screen
  • Documents that were never intended for the screen were dumped on the screen without any reformatting, which makes reading on the screen difficult.

The importance of design

"There are many ways that hypertext systems can be designed, and there is good reason to believe that a large number of those do not produce successful learning environments" (Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1991).

        The design of a hypertext learning environment affects the ability to learn and the type of learning that occurs in that environment (Puntambekar, n.d.). Just as some types of printed texts are better for some types of learning tasks than others, Puntambekar (n.d.) has pointed out that some types of hypertext environments are better suited to some learning tasks than others. Many factors should be taken into consideration in order to design a hypertext environment that facilitates learning. 

  • Learning styles
  • Intended audience
  • Type of learning activity intended
  • Context clues
  • Navigation
If design is important in print documents, it is more so in a hypertext environment (Toffer, 2000).

        Gleaves (1998) argues that the strategies and techniques that people use to learn from books can improve the effectiveness of learning with hypertext, and describes eight diffferent principles that are used in linear text that can improve learning in an hypertext environment. 
 

1. riffleability  This is the ability to leaf through a document.
2. comparability 
 		 Two pages of a book can be compared by placing them side by side.
3. bookmarkability 
Books permit various ways to indicate your location in the book, for example, folding down pages, physical bookmarks, and post-it notes.
4. annotatability 
 
Books allow annotation.  Comments can be written in the margins, and these notes do not look like the original text. 
5. highlightability 
Books can be highlighted to support learning. 
6. excerptability 
Sections of books can be photocopied for reference, storage, and transport.
7. progress visibility 
Readers can determine their progress in a book by looking at it edgewise.
8. closure 
Books are bound, thus bounded and finishable.  Learners want to know that a task is achievable and can be completed.

        Gleaves (1998) used these characteristics of printed linear text to develop the following principles of design for hypertext. 
 
 

Principle 1: Provide a visible index to the content.

Principle 2:
Provide multiple views of the content.
Principle 3:
Provide users with the ability to directly access or cross reference specific sections of the content.

Principle 4:
Provide users with the ability to annotate the text.

Principle 5:
Provide users with the ability to highlight the text.

Principle 6:       :
Provide users with the ability to create excepts of the content.

Principle 7:
Provide users with feedback on their relative progress through the content. 
Principle 8:
Provide bounded content to build user confidence and offer a sense of orientation. 

 

Learning theory and hypertext

        Designers of hypertext learning environments have used different learning theories to improve the effectiveness of these environemnts.  The theory of situated cognition (Brown, Collins,  & Duguid,  1989) can be helpful when applied to designing hypertext environments for successful learning experiemces. Situated cognition theorists regard knowledge not as just inside the person, but rather as a intertwining of the person and the environment in which the person works. Just as some types of printed texts are better for some types of learning tasks than others, Puntambekar (n.d.) has pointed out that some types of hypertext environments are better suited to some learning tasks than others. 

        Cognitive apprenticeship methods, similar to those used in craft apprenticeship, can be used to support students learning . Teachers and classmates support student learning with authentic tasks by modelling,  by providing  support with scaffolding, and gradually withdrawing support when learners have mastered skills. "Cognitive apprenticeship supports learning in a domain by enabling students to acquire,develop, and use cognitive tools in authentic domain activity" (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989) 

        Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, and Coulson (1991) use the term cognitive flexibilityto describe the types of learning that occurs in an ill-structured domains. They believe that a hypertext environment provides a flexible learning environment for advanced learning. The authors make the distinction between intoductory learning, involving the understanding of basic concepts and facts and advanced learning, which requires mastery and the transfer of knowledge.  Hypertext permits the same knowledge to be presented  and learned in a variety of different ways for a variety of different purposes.  Hypertext permits this cognitive flexibility.

 
 

 
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