Paper - Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching
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1. balance You should by now have established the chemical balance Please It is recommended that you now However the way of phrasing always depends on the nature and content of the course 3 CONCLUSIONS In this paper I have tried to state the possible challenges faced by course developers in writing effective hypertext and making best use of it I have also tried to summarize from literature and experience some of the guidelines for writing readable hypertext with the hope of raising the awareness of online course developers The following table reviews the main ideas Challenges for Writing Hypertext Guidelines for Writing Readable Hypertext Smaller Screen Display Chunking Online Function reciseness of Language Table 1 Review of Main Ideas These guidelines may serve as reminders of some commonly known facts whose importance may have been overlooked However writers should always look at the nature and content of their course and write with flexibility REFERENCES Ames P 1993 Beyond Paper The Official Guide to Adobe Acrobat Adobe Press Bonime A Pohlmann K C 1998 Writing for New Media John Wiley amp Sons Effective Web Design PDF http www sunsetridge com pdf guides pdf Garrand T 1997 Writing for Multimedia Focal Press Garrand T 2001 Writing for Multimedia and the Web Focal Press Gerald Stone Readability formulas take bad raps http taa winona msus edu taa COLUMNS stone formul2. they do not need to read from the beginning to the end However also because of this flexibility writers have to be more careful when designing the text as they are no longer following the technique for writing conventional sequential text Hypertext while offering an entirely different approach to reading for the reader also creates challenges for the writer Raskin 1987 has mentioned Hypertext seems like a wonderful universally applicable powerful natural human oriented model for organizing and accessing knowledge but when asked how the ends are made to meet the designers become unspecific and waffle 1 2 Potential Challenges in Writing Hypertext Hypertext offers a degree of flexibility in reading pattern for the reader At the same time it has certain possible drawbacks While the reader can decide what and how to read the problems might be overchoice or overload of information the reader getting lost in hyperspace as there is no sequence to follow I have identified some of the causes and implications of these drawbacks as follows 1 2 1 Smaller Screen Display Online texts are displayed in a smaller area and are differently shaped from the paper page Researches show that they only display the equivalent of one third of a printed page at a time Thirlway s 1991 reminder to online text writers is that in the online environment more page turning is required as most screens hold fewer readable charact
3. The Challenges of and Guidelines for Enhancing the Readability of Online Learning Content Tam P L Barbara ctbtam ust hk Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching Hong Kong University of Science and Technology ABSTRACT Without doubt the Internet is one of the most powerful media for disseminating information as it is widely accessible cheap and quick Nowadays a lot of online courses are available on the Internet The hypertext environment seems to be offering a number of advantages to writers of online materials However many online materials fail to disseminate a clear message because the writer fails to account for the differences between writing online and in print As Raskin 1987 has pointed out Hypertext seems like a wonderful universally applicable powerful natural human oriented model for organizing and accessing knowledge But when asked how the ends are made to meet the designers become inspecific and waffle Putting material online is not just turning a traditional file into a file format supported by the computer We need to apply the basics and attend to the differences It is the skills of the writer not the capabilities of the machine that decide the readability The first section of this paper seeks to investigate some of the challenges faced by people who develop online teaching and learning materials brought about by things like smaller screen display reduced reading speed different viewing habit
4. ap The following is a course built on WebCT and it shows an example of a typical online table of contents displaying the organization It can be found in http celt ust hk ideas olt SApp index html by clicking on model 1 example in The Four OLT Models Q WeocT Hide Navigation Expand Content MYWEBCT RESUME COURSE COURSE MAP HELP ECON112 Macroeconomics Demo Home F TA A Homepage X E ECON1 12 Course Materials Assignments Current Affairs Macroeconomics Resources Syllabus Calendar Welcome to the WebCT page of ECON112 L2 amp L3 Census and Statistics 2 Course Announcements Syllabus Materials Assignments Resources Calendar You are the OJOTOWAEs visitor Figure 3 A homepage showing the organization of an online course WebCT is an online delivery platform supported by HKUST It is used for online course management learning and communication Click http vwww webct com for more information 2 2 2 Navigation In the hypertext environment readers can easily get trapped in vast hierarchies and networks of information To prevent this providing a navigation guide is important Writers should give a clear starting point One topic can be designated as the root or home topic It should tell readers how the document is organized and how to access the key topics A table of contents can be presented to give readers the entire picture of the content Links should b
5. as html Graham L 1999 The Principles of Interactive Design Delmar Publishers 10 Hints for Exhibiting Your Work Onlinehttp www thedigitalartist com hintsarticle shtml Holtz Herman 1988 The Complete Guide to Writing Readable User Manual Dow Jones amp Company Inc Horn R 1989 Mapping Hypertext Lexington Institute Horton W K 1990 Designing and Writing Online Documentation Help Files to Hypertext John Wiley amp Sons Kilian C 1999 Writing for the Web Self Counsel Press Making It in Online Mediahttp gahran com seattle 3 editorial html McKinley T 1997 From Paper to Web Adobe Press Nielsen J 1990 Hypertext amp Hypermedia Academic Press Inc Simpson H amp Casey S C 1988 Developing Effective User Documentation A Human Factors Approach McGraw Hill Book Company Style Guide for Online Teaching Materials http www une edu au online info style intro htm Thirlway M 1994 Writing Software Manual A Practical Guide Prentice Hall Writing for online readability http www ecu edu au lift pdc workshops materials onlinewrit html
6. e added in moderation However the appropriate number of links always depends on the nature and the content of the course In some cases we can provide a study guide or navigation guide to give information such as the essential requirements of the course how to study the online course and where to get help etc The following is a study and navigation guide from a course in UST built on Lotus LearningSpace This can be found in http www ust hk celt ideas olt solutions_applications solutions_applications htm by clicking on the model 3 example the Four OLT Models Lotus LearningSpace is another online delivery platform supported by HKUST The functions are similar to that of WebCT but the features are different Click http www lotus com home nsf welcome learnspace for more information Lotus f i LANG306 English for Engineering Management Il Job Seeking Module Release 4 CUE Wo Course Information lee study and Navigation Guide OJ Calendar Reporter DJ Contact Information Study Guide Navigation Guide Operation Guide Stu Guide n Gu 0 Day 1 A Closer look at n f i ie onc oe Study Guide amp Day 2 Setti als oeg PREE i The course is made up of 10 day units It consists of E Day 3 Matching your skells wij E online input E Day 4 Tell me about yourself WE discussion tasks Day 5 Putting together your r f E hands on exercises d Da
7. ers than a page of a book This is different from books because in books the reader can usually tell at a glance whether information is useful or not whereas selecting and examining that same information on the smaller online display is more arduous Landow from Horton 1990 Writers therefore have to decide what to put on a page without letting readers lose critical information They have to find an effective way to chunk the information to make it more readable 1 2 2 Different Reading Habits and Behaviors online In general people seldom read online texts from the beginning to the end They usually skim scan skip flip hop and bounce just to look for what they want In addition they prefer short passages to long ones Because of these factors writers need to better organize their text and make navigation more easy and effective Pieces of information should be linked in a clear and systematic way Navigation and mapping techniques have to be carefully applied so that readers do not get lost in hyperspace 1 2 3 Dropping Reading Speed Online According to research people s online reading speed decreases by about 39 Thirlway 1991 has denied reading on screens as the best medium for reading It is more tiring to read a screen than a page of a book Therefore writers sometimes have to use more simple and direct language to raise readability and make reading easier 1 3 Summary I have looked at the major feature of h
8. n using terminology like application button soft and hard copy drag enter window These words have different meanings in the world of the computer and we should not assume that every learner is familiar with them 2 3 2 Consistency Inconsistent language confuses readers When writing online text consistency of format wording and style should be maintained For example if we call it the screen in one place do not call it the monitor somewhere else if referring to the same thing It is important to keep it consistent because when phrasing formatting and displaying information consistently readers can quickly learn the conventions used throughout the content You can then rely on such conventions to make the content more concise and dependable Examples for course development are words like Chapter Unit Topic the VDU the screen the monitor 39 66 log on log in logon login sign in exit log out logoff quit 2 3 3 Preciseness People learning with computers expect the computer to speak directly and accurately So writers should try to keep syntax simple and edit for short clear text to raise readability Here are some examples of comparisons between simple and less simple syntax Decide Make a decision Survey Conduct a survey of Use Make use of Set the chemical
9. ontents of Section B and the expanded point 3 is displayed on the third level page In this way readers can select what to read and focus on only one subject on each page 2 1 2 Chunking Chunking is breaking long pieces of texts into smaller self contained paragraphs Writers are advised to write discrete topics not sprawling passages To help readers read more easily headings and subheads can be used to label each chunk In most cases bullets are also useful as learning content appearing in note or point form is usually more readable when compared to long paragraphs 2 2 Functions 2 2 1 Organization In the early stage of course development writers need to know the structure of their course in order to plan for expansion To do this they can plan the entire organization in advance list all topics and even create dummy topics insert links as they write even though they do not yet have the destinations Hypertext systems can be hard and tricky to operate and follow One of the misuses of Hypertext is that writers sometimes want to put a lot of information on the Web so they add a lot of links which just makes it more overwhelming and difficult to read We should instead keep it simple so that users do not have to learn too many ways of accessing the information Experience has shown that readers expect the writer to blaze a trail for them They like to be guided Therefore writers can display the organization by adding a site m
10. s online etc It leads to the second section where guidelines and some dos and don ts on improving readability are summarized from the literature and from my experience working on different online course development projects The contents of this paper are based partly on literature review and partly on my experience working with UST faculty members or instructors on developing content for online courses I have tried to conclude what some of the online documentation designers have said for writing or re creating online content The arguments have been supported by evidence from personal experience As the term online materials can refer to a number of different formats of content I will touch on textual information only in order to be more focused due to the limited scale of this paper 1 CHALLENGES FACED BY ONLINE TEXT WRITERS 1 1 Hypertext as Non sequential Writing Hypertext is widely recognized to be a powerful medium for disseminating information One of the prominent features of hypertext is that it is a type of non sequential reading from the readers point of view This contrasts with traditional text such as that in a book There is no single order that determines the sequence of which piece of text is to be read DENA Figure 1 Non sequential reading of Hypertext Figure 1 shows a pattern of reading Hypertext Readers are given the flexibility and choices of reading the text Unlike reading conventional text
11. y 6 Composing your applic Ka Day 7 Getting ready for interv 0 Ra Day 8 Getting ready for interv E video viewing a E writing assignments To complete the course you are required to E study the 10 day units E participate in the discussions amp Day 9 Non verbal communicat 0 Day 10 Group interviews E attempt the hands on exercises Cours Evaluation P E provide feedback on the videos as required E submitthe writing assignments A collection of job advertisements is provided on Day 3 In the first week of the course please select your favorite job advertisement from this collection for the purpose of assignment The same advertisement should be used in all writing tasks on line activities and your mock interview Back to top Navigation Guide The three frames in Learning Space 4 0 Log Off Update About ETA L Help z xl i 7T y B ota H Figure 4 An Example of Study and Navigation Guide By providing such a guide learners of the course can get an idea of what the course contains and what the requirements at a glance This helps them study more effectively 2 3 Use of Language 2 3 1 Clarity For writing online course content writers should try to avoid using too much jargons and too many acronyms and abbreviations Some common examples are booting FAQ frequently asked questions FYT for your information Other than these writers should also be cautious whe
12. ypertext being a type of non sequential reading and writing I have also stated some of the possible challenges of designing and writing online materials They are caused by smaller computer screen display decreasing reading speed online and tendency of people to skip scan and get tired more easily when reading online In the next section I will try to summarize the guidelines from professional online text writers and my own experience with the aim of providing our course developers with some hints on how to write effective Hypertext for learning content 2 GUIDELINES FOR WRITING ONLINE COURSE MATERIALS I will summarize the guidelines from several aspects length of text which includes using chunking techniques and linking information functions referring to the organization and navigation of texts and language which covers clarity consistency and preciseness 2 1 Length of Text 2 1 1 The Minimum of Text Research suggests that in the hypertext environment many short documents are preferable to a smaller number of long documents as people usually skip and scan and prefer shorter passages For this reason writers are advised to put the minimum of text on a page with the information covering one subject only The following figure illustrates the minimum of text Figure 2 Minimum of Text In Figure 2 the piece of text is displayed level by level On the first page only the list of sections is shown The second page shows the c
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