How do you think of hypertext? How were you first introduced to the concept? These researchers investigate the metaphor used to introduce the concept of hypertext to students in order to understand its impact on the process of student hypertext construction. One group of students was introduced to hypertext using a book metaphor, and another group was introduced to hypertext using a space metaphor. Then, the students were asked to construct hypertext documents by setting links in prepared nodes.

The researchers provide information about students’ reports of their thoughts during the hypertext construction, and also provide quantitative results. The space metaphor group set significantly more links and constructed significantly more hypertext documents with network-like structures than did the book metaphor group. However, no significant differences were found in content knowledge acquisition between the two groups.

If you are interested in computer education, you will benefit from reading this well-written paper, perusing its extensive list of references, and considering its implications for education. If you are interested in conducting related research, you will also find both explicit and implicit research ideas in this paper.