No abstract

This study investigated macro-level navigation patterns in children's hypermedia learning, and how they related to task structure and learning outcomes. For this purpose, 5th and 6th grade learners performed a hypermedia assignment in which a high (n=57) versus a low (n=54) level of structure was provided. By means of qualitative analyses of their navigation activities, 6 macro-level navigation patterns were distinguished: linear reading, selective reading, video viewing, massed writing, late onset writing, and unpredictable reading. Results showed that the linear reading pattern was more frequent in the high structure environment, and that both the high structure environment and the linear reading pattern were associated with the highest quality of the children's written assignments. Navigation patterns and task structure did not clearly predict children's declarative knowledge gains or knowledge transfer. These findings show that there are multiple ways to navigate through a hypermedia environment, but that these are not all equally successful for learning. Moreover, the provided task structure in the environment may affect the occurrence of successful navigation patterns.

The present study investigated the extent to which 18 dyads in 5th and 6th grade, who experienced low levels of social challenge, differed from 12 dyads who experience high levels of social challenge in terms of the quality of their written assignment, as well as the frequency and sequential pattern of their cognitive, metacognitive, relational, and off-task activities during a collaborative hypermedia assignment. Sequential analyses were performed by means of process mining with a fuzzy miner algorithm. Results showed that assignment quality was higher for low social challenge dyads. In addition, these more successful dyads showed more cognitive processing activities, more high-cognition, and fewer off-task activities. In terms of their process models, low and high challenge dyads showed marked differences. More specifically, high social challenge dyads showed a vicious cycle of social challenges and off-task behaviors, whereas low social challenge dyads engaged in high-cognition. In addition, for low challenge dyads, but not high challenge dyads, the various metacognitive activities were closely connected to each other. These findings indicate that social challenges not only affect assignment quality, but also fundamentally affect the overall learning process.

In the present study, we investigated whether online learning behaviours (navigation and writing activities) mediated the relation between learner characteristics (prior knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, working memory, and motivation) and declarative knowledge. Specifically, we investigated whether the quality of participants' written assignments could further explain this relation. For this purpose, 62 fifth-grade children participated in a WebQuest hypermedia assignment on the subject of the heart. Results showed that online learning behaviours did not mediate the relations between learner characteristics and declarative knowledge when the assignment quality was not included in the model. Adding assignment quality, however, revealed two serial mediation models. Prior knowledge predicted declarative knowledge via the writing activity "copying behaviour" and assignment quality, and vocabulary knowledge predicted declarative knowledge via the navigation activity "time spent on assignment pages" and assignment quality. These results show the importance of taking into account assignment quality when investigating knowledge acquisition in hypermedia environments.

No abstract