Award Date

1-1-1993

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Studies

Number of Pages

69

Abstract

Users of technical procedures must be able to understand the documents to use them to perform their work. As more companies contemplate putting their procedures on-line, it is important to know whether computer systems will be as effective as traditional hard-copy presentation in communicating procedures to the employees who must use them; To determine whether there is a relationship between computer usage and the comprehension of technical procedures, an experiment was conducted among employees of a scientific and technical company in Las Vegas, Nevada. A control group read and demonstrated its comprehension of hard-copy procedures only, while an experimental group read and demonstrated its comprehension of a hard-copy and then an on-line procedure; The experimental group selected fewer correct answers on a comprehension test for the on-line than for the hard-copy procedure. This suggests that when readers accustomed to the hard-copy medium switch to the computer medium, comprehension decreases.

Keywords

Comparison; Comprehension; Computer; Copy; Hard; Information; Media; Procedural

Controlled Subject

Information science; Individualized reading instruction

File Format

pdf

File Size

2222.08 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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