The Effectiveness of Instruction-Oriented Hypertext Systems Compared to Direct Instruction in e-learning Environments

Abstract

The use of hypertext systems for learning and teaching complex and ill-structured domain of knowledge has been attracting attention in design of instruction. In this context, an experimental research has been conducted to explore the effectiveness of instructional design oriented hypertext systems. Cognitive flexibility hypertext theory is compared to direct instruction course design without hypertext systems for teaching and learning Flash online course in e-learning environment. Researchers used an experimental approach conducted in the academic year 2010 with independent sample of students of an experimental group (73 students) compared to a control group (73 students) from a university class. The results show the effectiveness of the hypertext systems course design compared to direct online course design. Indeed, the results of cognitive performance have demonstrated that the average time to answer achievement tests is lower for flexible instruction compared to average time for direct instruction. The number of students’ accesses to learning resources in the e-learning platform is higher in case of flexible instruction compared to direct instruction. Results of the experimentation also demonstrate that there are significant differences between the experimental group and the control group, regarding the attitudes of students toward using flexible online course design based cognitive flexibility hypertext theory and direct online course design.

Keywords

• E-learning, Online teaching, Flexible online course design, Direct online course design, Cognitive flexibility, Hypertext systems

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