Freddy Mampadi

In the past decade, a number of adaptive hypermedia learning systems have been developed. However, most of the systems tailored presentation content and navigational support basing on prior knowledge or cognitive styles of students separately. There is a need to, however, explore how the two individual difference characteristics could be combined in adaptive hypermedia learning systems in order to maximize learning and comprehension of educational materials. To this end, the study presented in this paper developed two adaptive hypermedia learning systems, one tailored to students’ prior knowledge while the other to their cognitive styles, with emphasis on Pask’s Holist-Serialist dimension. The study investigates the comparative effects of using the two adaptive hypermedia learning systems using learning performance as a comparative measure. In total, 104 students participated in the study, 60 students using prior knowledge version while 44 participated on the cognitive styles version. The findings indicate that, in general, adapting to either prior knowledge or cognitive styles improves learning performance. However, the results also indicated that learning performance of participants using the prior knowledge version outperformed those using the cognitive styles version basing on post-hoc tests. The implication of these results for the design of adaptive hypermedia learning systems and recommendations are discussed.