Learning from web-based instructional systems 415 overview.A significant main effect was observed here for cognitive style with verbalis ers again outperforming imagers in essay performance.F(1,46) 3.61p<0.05.N interaction effects were observed between verbaliser-imager cognitive style and provi- sion of the overview. Discussion This study aimed to investigate whether segmentation of information and the provision nme中he ac mn recall questions and a short essay question. 一hna的tgms灯eand was observed for the essay scores, with analytics having inferior scores to whe sts in the short page more segment consistent with that of Riding Grimley (1999).who suggeste I that ana lytics did not learn as effectively from infor mation which was segmented,because this increased I the tendency of analytics to view the information content in discrete parts therefore debilitating their learning.Wholists on the other hand learned best from the short page,segmented condition where the information was more explicitly structured. For the verbaliser-imager cognitive style.imagers were superior to verbalisers on recall performance in the short-page condition.although there was little difference between these two styles in the long page condition.This finding is consistent with the notion that imagers are superior at keeping track of their spatial locations within the web system.which would be more critical in the short page more segmented condition. where users would have to click back and forth between pages more often.In terms of the essay scores.verbalisers outperformed imagers in both short and long page condi- tions.This highlights the difference between the two measures of learning assessed here.Verbalisers are typically superior at working with verbal information.although focus less on keeping track of their location within the system.The present result may be interpreted by the suggestion that keeping track of their location within the web might have been less crucial to users in order to perform well on the essay question.To achieve a high score on this.users would not need to effectively process the verbal content of the information.an ability more suited to verbalisers. Effects of p ovision o terms o e el an cts on ionesy s fin is consistent with that of Ford and Chen (2000 wever,analytics ac sligh cores provision of an ting ell on t A possible interpretation of this may be explained in terms of cognitive load theory C British Educational Communications and Technology Agency 2003 overview. A significant main effect was observed here for cognitive style with verbalis￾ers again outperforming imagers in essay performance. F (1,46) = 3.61 p < 0.05. No interaction effects were observed between verbaliser-imager cognitive style and provi￾sion of the overview. Discussion This study aimed to investigate whether segmentation of information and the provision of an overview of the web system differentially facilitated learning performance for individuals with different cognitive styles. Learning performance was measured with recall questions and a short essay question. Effects of web structure For wholist-analytic cognitive style and web structure a significant effect was observed for the essay scores, with analytics having inferior scores to wholists in the short page, more segmented web condition. This finding is consistent with that of Riding and Grimley (1999), who suggested that analytics did not learn as effectively from infor￾mation which was segmented, because this increased the tendency of analytics to view the information content in discrete parts therefore debilitating their learning. Wholists on the other hand learned best from the short page, segmented condition where the information was more explicitly structured. For the verbaliser-imager cognitive style, imagers were superior to verbalisers on recall performance in the short-page condition, although there was little difference between these two styles in the long page condition. This finding is consistent with the notion that imagers are superior at keeping track of their spatial locations within the web system, which would be more critical in the short page more segmented condition, where users would have to click back and forth between pages more often. In terms of the essay scores, verbalisers outperformed imagers in both short and long page condi￾tions. This highlights the difference between the two measures of learning assessed here. Verbalisers are typically superior at working with verbal information, although focus less on keeping track of their location within the system. The present result may be interpreted by the suggestion that keeping track of their location within the web might have been less crucial to users in order to perform well on the essay question. To achieve a high score on this, users would not need to effectively process the verbal content of the information, an ability more suited to verbalisers. Effects of provision of an overview In terms of the effects of the provision of an overview of the system, no significant effects on either measure of learning performance were evident for wholist-analytic cognitive style, and this finding is consistent with that of Ford and Chen (2000). However, analytics achieved slightly superior essay scores without the provision of an overview, suggesting that this may have had a debilitating effect on their performance. A possible interpretation of this may be explained in terms of cognitive load theory Learning from web-based instructional systems 415 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 2003