Hypermedia Applications in Teaching and Learning Environments: Exploring the Role of Databases as Intermediaries

Abstract

Recent research supports the numerous benefits associated with integrating hypermedia applications into teaching and learning environments. However, simply adding hypermedia components to the teaching and learning environment does not ensure growth in the ability to teach or learn. Numerous issues can transform hypermedia into more of a constraint than an enabler of learning. One such problem occurs when users are inexperienced with either hypermedia environments or the topic being addressed in the hypermedia environment. In situations such as this, we argue that a web-based database can act as an intermediary to thee hypermedia application in the learning environments. In this paper, we describe the multiple reasons for using a web-based database as an intermediary for hypermedia.