Do graphic and textual interactive content organizers have the same impact on hypertext processing and learning outcome?

Learning with hypertexts require learners to navigate in a non-linear environment and build a coherent representation of the informational content. The expansion of digital technologies and hypertext use in higher education has emphasized the need to examine how technological tools may foster quality learning. This study examined how three types of interactive content organizers (COs) used to represent the main concepts and to navigate in the content pages can impact information processing and learning outcome. The COs designed for the experiment varied in terms of conceptual and navigation support they provide and format. Ninety-three undergraduates used a list of concepts that only provided conceptual support, a summary or a concept map that provided both conceptual and navigation support either with text or graphic format. Results showed that highly coherent COs such as summaries or concept maps improved navigation coherence. However, the summary focused the attention of learners and decreased hypertext exploration (i.e. longer time on the CO and fewer content pages accessed). Longer reading times of the summary also increased text-based outcome, whereas longer processing of the concept map improved inference-based outcome. Implications for the design of interactive COs used to access, navigate and a learn with hypertexts are discussed.