Dynamic versus static hypermedia in museum education: an evaluation of ILEX, the intelligent labelling explorer

This paper describes an evaluation of an intelligent labelling explorer (ILEX), a system that dynamically generates text labels for exhibits in a museum jewellery gallery. In the evaluation, learning outcomes in subjects who used the dynamic ILEX system were compared to those of subjects who used a static-hypermedia version of the system (i.e. a system more typical of current hypermedia systems). The aim was to attempt to isolate learning effects specifically due to dynamic hypertext generation. Several types of data were collected user-system interaction logs of navigational and browser use, recordings of the type of information to which each subject was exposed, post-session tests of factual recall and a special ‘curator’ task in which the subjects were required to classify novel jewellery items. Results showed that performance measures (post-session tests) did not differ between subjects in the two conditions. However, the interaction-log data revealed that the two groups differed in terms of their navigational behaviour and in the type and amount of information to which they were exposed. These results are discussed in terms of the ‘learning-performance’ distinction often drawn in psychological accounts of learning. The paper concludes with an outline of further planned work.