An experimental study of teaching hypertext to undergraduate students found that undergraduate beginners prefer to learn hypertext via hands-on experience. Further, such an approach appears to provide a satisfactory introductory course in hypertext. The study suggests that students can obtain a basic understanding of hypertext and its applications from a small amount of hands-on experience combined with informative hand-outs. Six hours seems to be about the minimum time needed for an elementary introduction. Students prefer to work in pairs, partners being matched in terms of their computing experience. The course is best given in the middle of an undergraduate degree, when most students have sufficient knowledge of information technology to recognize the conceptual differences between hypertext and other database interfaces, and the practical differences of the Macintosh computer from the IBM-compatible computers that are often more commonly encountered, but while they still have time to exploit further this new area of skills.
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