Wording for links

A co-worker and I were having a discussion about this, so I thought I'd ask here.

In a course i'm working on, I have "click this link to see xxx" or "click here to go to", and the links go to external websites, or occasionally a file.  My co-worker comes from a web design background, and said that that verbage is bad form.  I thought it was fine in an elearning setting, but would like your feedback.

Are we just arguing semantics and style preferences here?  or is one way better than the other?

3 Replies
Bruce Graham

I normally say something like "Click here to ...." and have a supporting arrow or highlight.

Whilst I agree that web design is important, I think that eLearning is still something different, and needs to be addressed in a different way.

Remember that Web designerds often think they are the only ones who understand how humans learn and need to see things. If we needed to emulate the web conventions, most eLearning would not (by definition) work - and it does.

Do what works after testing with users. 3 years ago web designers would have said they did it right, now they are moving to "flat" design we obviously all know they didn't.