Monitoring, planning, and self-efficacy during learning with hypermedia: The impact of conceptual scaffolds

Self-report data and think-aloud data from 37 undergraduates were used to examine the impact of conceptual scaffolds on self-efficacy, monitoring, and planning during learning with a commercial hypermedia environment. Participants, randomly assigned to either the No Scaffolding (NS) or Conceptual Scaffolding (CS) condition, used a hypermedia environment for 30 minutes to learn about the circulatory system. Think-aloud data collected during this learning task was used to measure participants’ self-regulated learning (SRL) with hypermedia. Additionally, participants completed a self-efficacy questionnaire at three points during the learning task (immediately prior to the 30-minute hypermedia learning task, 10 minutes into the learning task, and 20 minutes into the learning task). Results indicated that participants from both conditions reported higher levels of self-efficacy immediately before the hypermedia learning task, and that they decreased their use of SRL processes related to monitoring as they progressed through the hypermedia learning task. In addition, results also indicated that participants in the CS condition used, on average, more SRL processes related to planning during the hypermedia learning task than participants in the NS condition.