While I had read hypertext theory before I taught Patchwork Girl, this essay is not a theoretical article. I wanted to observe the students and their work as closely as possible to discern for myself how learning happened in the reading of hypertext, and discover ways in which my teaching might better encourage and respond to that learning.

The students' own writings on the experience of reading a literary hypertext form my primary sources: I draw comments from informal journals, the final examination essays, the end-of-term survey and my own notes on what happened in class.

The students themselves had no advance warning the class would involve any form of technology-enriched learning. No self-selection for an interest in computers or new technologies occurred. While the end-of-term surveys indicated that most students were surprised to encounter computer-mediated learning in a literature class, nearly one-third indicated that they found the experience of lasting value (either for college study or as a preparation for work).

At one extreme, R. resisted the commitment required even to pull assignments from the web: at the other, M claimed she learned more about hypertext and computers in English than she had done in her computer class. Two students, one of whom worked in the university's Media Authoring Center, formed the nucleus of a group of (male) computer 'experts.' Several students self-diagnosed as computer illiterate.

However, the distribution of final grades (five As, 4 Cs, and the remainder Bs) was similar enough to that of other classes I had taught to suggest that the students represented a fairly typical cross-section of the George Mason community registering for an English 200-level class. Thus, I hope their reactions to literary hypertext might prove a useful guide to the pleasures and potential problems of working with the new medium.