La Comprensión del Texto Digital Expositivo en el Aula Virtual de Aprendizaje

Relevant factors affecting comprehension of printed scientific texts are prior domain knowledge, working memory capacity, and reading strategies. For digital texts, hypertext design and structure is also important. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of these factors in understanding expository texts when presented in a virtual learning context, with participants performing the tasks in their habitual environment. One hundred university students completed an evaluation of working memory capacity and reading tasks of high and low previous knowledge expository texts, presented in two types of navigation structure, hierarchical or network. They answered comprehension questions and filled out a questionnaire about task solving strategies. These tasks were implemented in Moodle, to be self-administered in remote settings. Previously, working memory capacity of each participant was assessed in an offline session. Comprehension was better with high prior subject knowledge, high working memory capacity, and a hierarchical navigation structure. In the network interface, participants who employed active strategies for solving the task did better than those who read passively. The lowest comprehension performance was observed in participants with low working memory capacity, adpoting passive strategies, when reading texts under a network structure. These results suggest that, in online education, instructional material must present a coherent hierarchical organization, with information adjusted for prior knowledge level of students. Also, these results suggest that online digital reading needs specific and active strategies, which should be part of the digital literacy curriculum.