High school students can access original scientific research articles on the
Internet, but may have trouble understanding them. To address this problem of online
literacy, the authors developed a computer-based prototype for guiding students’ comprehension
of scientific articles. High school students were asked to read an original
scientific research article about the effects of drug or alcohol abuse, which was presented
on a computer screen either with computer-based comprehension aids or without aids. The
aids provided background text and animations including answers given by the article
authors.