Disrupting Students’ Online Reading and Research Habits: The LINKS Intervention and its Impact on Multiple Internet Text Integration Processes

This study is about eight dyads of ninth grade students conducting collaborative online research on topics related to their science curriculum. It measures the impact of a teaching intervention called LINKS (Learning to Integrate InterNet Knowledge Strategically) on four dyads’ use of ten online reading strategies hypothesized to support multiple Internet text integration processes relative to their control-group peers. Results showed that LINKS, as administered in this study, had no statistically significant impact on the frequencies, relative frequencies and relative duration of strategies used during a series of five online inquiry sessions relative to the control group. In their written persuasive arguments at posttest, however, treatment participants were found to integrate information from a more diverse set of websites than control participants. Although more research is needed, this study shows that LINKS disrupted participants’ reading and writing processes in ways that nudged them toward more integrative action.