Effects of Hypertext on Knowledge Construction

This paper investigates one particular contribution of hypertext to knowledge construction: the transition from declarative knowledge to structural knowledge. The proposed model hypothesizes that the navigational structure of hypertext provides a framework to the learner for integrating new information with previously acquired knowledge and should hence facilitate the acquisition of structural knowledge. The results of an empirical study designed to compare the effect of hypertext on the construction of structural knowledge, as measured by concept maps, to that of linear text (both hard and soft) support the predictions of the model. The implications of these results on the design of the hypertext navigational structure are discussed.