Do Hypermedia Systems Really Enhance Learning? A Case Study on Earthquake Education

Terremoti (Earthquakes) is an educational hypermedia system developed at ITD/CNR dealing with geological models of earthquakes and methods of protection. It has been used with 36 17‐year‐old students, to obtain a general indication of the problems connected with the use of hypermedia systems in education. In particular the strategies, tactics and solutions adopted by students, and problems they encountered, while interacting with this system were investigated. This paper describes the system, the aims of the experiment, the methodology of investigation and the results obtained. The experiment has shown that although systems like Terremoti improve to some extent instructional communication, to be really effective an educational hypermedia system should include other functions for diagnosis, reinforcement, feedback and motivation.