A Comparison of Two Hypermedia Computer-based Training Design
Methodologies

Elizabeth Weise Moeller

Dissertation completed under the name Elizabeth A. Weise
for May, 1995, graduation from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

In recent years the personal computer has had a significant impact on the delivery of educational material. Today, hypermedia gives students the ability to explore concepts in innovative ways. It is being incorporated into college education, complementing a variety of courses, and also adopted by corporate America as a cost-effective training tool.

As with any new phenomenon, an accompanying body of research explains the advantages and disadvantages of that phenomenon. Unfortunately, researchers discussing hypermedia as an educational tool have provided us with two conflicting viewpoints. On one hand, some researchers do not advocate imposing any control on students using a hypermedia lesson. These researchers develop hypermedia lessons based on their perception of human thought, with no quantitative or qualitative evaluations to support their theories. On the other hand, a different group of researchers advocate imposing some level of control to achieve satisfactory educational results. These researchers develop hypermedia lessons to test their theories of learning when applied to computer-based instruction (CBI). Unfortunately, this second group of researchers failed to provide the theoretical basis needed to explain their control choices and ultimately their empirical results.

While these two research groups may appear diametrically opposed, two basic concepts used by technical communicators can bring these two groups together. An audience analysis and a system goals analysis can be used to help determine who the students are, and how those students can learn what they need to learn. In the course of reconciling these two opposing viewpoints using audience and system goals analyses, a synthesized methodology for the design of hypermedia computer-based training lessons emerged. This theory was then compared to a CBI lesson created using an industry standard method. Even though there was no significant statistical difference between the two lessons, qualitative observations showed that subjects had a more difficult time using the industry standard method lesson. While these results do not provide enough statistical support to completely embrace this new design methodology, they do not suggest it should be abandoned either. More research is needed before this synthesized design methodology can be embraced or abandoned.