Differences in "Meaningful Learning Strategies of Navigation: An Empirical Model

In this study the empirical detection of ways of generating semantic maps using navigational data and data driven approaches is addressed. It is hypothesized that the hypertextual structure of distributed environments could encourages the construction of personal semantic maps, expressed by navigational paths. Then this kind of usage is compared with the one of concepts maps in the dataset provided by the WINDS Project. It is shown that: a) the two strategies are in most cases mutually exclusive; b) the differences in usage of the two strategies are statistically significant; c) map usage is more scarce than the one of hypertextual structure; d) concepts maps usage is clustered around the same course. The potential of distributed technologies in supporting "meaningful learning" is discussed; moreover, the importance of other variables (e.g. learner-teacher interaction) in strategies construction is underlined.